The Latgawa were located in the upper
Rogue River valley eastward to the former
Table Rock Indian Reservation and
Bear Creek and in the neighborhood of
Jacksonville, Oregon. Together with other tribes along the Rogue River, they were grouped as the
Rogue River Tribe, but after the
Rogue River Wars in 1856, bands of the Rogue River were split between the
Siletz Indian Reservation or the
Grand Ronde Indian Reservation far to the north of the tribe's traditional lands. The Latgawa were one of two peoples who spoke the
Takelma language. The Takelma lived mainly on the east side of the Klamath and Coast Mountains in the middle Rogue River area around
Grants Pass, Oregon; and the Latgawa in the upper Rogue River area around
Applegate,
Jacksonville,
Talent,
Medford,
Eagle Point,
Butte Falls,
Shady Cove,
Trail, and extending beyond
Prospect and
Union up to
Crater Lake.
Pre-European contact days The Latgawa relied on hunting, gathering, and fishing for their subsistence. Latgawa dwellings were small brush shelters for warm months and constructed of sugar pine boards for cold months. They adorned their garments with
Dentalium shell, and
skin art was practiced regularly. They also bore cultural traits from California, and valued
obsidian and
Shasta basket hats. During the winters, extended family bands resided in semi-permanent villages at lower elevations often situated at the meeting of major streams, where the spring
steelhead runs would provide a welcome supply of fish. From late spring through early fall, they typically spent much time in the nearby uplands and mountains, following game and harvesting plant foods as the snow melted from higher elevations. By autumn, hunters and gatherers regrouped with village elders and others along the lower-elevation streams to intercept the fall
salmon run and prepare for another winter.
Contact with European settlers With the arrival of the European settlers in the 1850s, the Latgawa and Takelma began to have their homeland stolen. Like their neighbors, the Latgawa resisted encroachment on their lands and became embroiled in the bloody
Rogue River Wars of the 1850s. Rogue Valley Indians were killed or captured, but some escaped. The U.S. Army exiled the remaining Takelma and Latgawa to the Grand Ronde Reservation many miles to the north, where they arrived both overland and by sea. An 1853 treaty established the Table Rock Reservation in order to throw open the entire Bear Creek and Rogue Valley to white settlement. In the end, from 1855 to 1856, a final Indian War raged from one end of the Rogue Valley to the other. The natives were again forced to move from Table Rock to the Grande Ronde and Siletz reservations. ==Bibliography==