Land Rights and Cultural Differences in Pacific Northwest History

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     The lumber industry has been affected over the years with fires with the public’s cry to fix our beautiful resource. Robins (2001) discusses the infamous Tillamook fires. “Its trees-Douglas fir, hemlock, and cedar-were immense, 3- 7 feet thick…Then one day there came a big fire. It burned the trees down to ashes and gray, dead sticks. A few years later came another fire, and then another, and another” (p. 17). The people were devastated. They saw that this fire destroyed many lively hoods. The fires destroy the wood that built homes and provided a stable income. It was more than a natural disaster. It was an economic disaster of huge portions. The community affected by the Tillamook fires came up with a collective effort to restore it by clearing the land and replanting. This reshaping of land created a common bond among Oregonians and labeled them as tough people. The essential created a commodity of future forestry/lumber production and scenic beauty for generations to come.

      According to Schwantes (1996); “Two things above all else lay at the root of Indian-white violence between 1847 and 1879; land and precious metals. Whites were greedy for both and too often that meant their crossing, digging up, or appropriating Indian lands.” Valuable mineral deposits such as gold was discovered  into the eastern portion of Washington later to become Idaho…Not long after the illicit prospectors found some promising diggings on Oro Fino Creek, word of discovery leaked out and the Clearwater Rush was on. This was not the first major gold discovery in the Pacific Northwest History- prospectors had discovered gold in Southern Oregon in the early 1850’s and in north-central Washington in the later decade (p. 128).

     According to Schwantes (1996) “The first, a time of generally peaceable contacts between equals, dated from early maritime exploration until the Whitman tragedy of 1847. For the fur traders and trappers, Indians often provided a labor force and served as sources of supply in a complex economic system. Petty misunderstandings occasionally erupted, and led to violence.” Indian Lands Concessions were most high in 1870-1879. Private companies moved in and expanded trappings and trading. “Roving brigades of trappers based at the fort brought back reports of their explorations and discoveries. For two decades the Company’s Chief Factor at Fort Vancouver, Dr. John McLoughlin, not only directed trade activities but also welcomed those bent on permanent settlement” (p. 16). Christian missionaries were a big part of developments in the region between 1834 and 1847. It was around this time that the fur trade industry moved eastward.

The Pacific Northwest was integrated into the fur trade centering on Montreal and the Saint Lawrence Valley and later the Hudson’s Bay region well before it developed close economic and social ties with the United States. Reorientation of the region did not occur until after American missionaries arrived in the late 1830’s, and a substantial number of settlers from the Ohio and Missouri valleys came the following decade (p.15).

     Treaty misunderstandings and increased white settlers also created tensions among the Indians and white settlers. Settlers began to move in before Indian rights were extinguished. The Donation Land Act of 1850 allowed settlers to take 320 acres of any choice of land. This is contradictory of what was promised to the Indians. No treaties were made yet extinguishing Indian rights to lands.

A Piece of Local Military History http://socyberty.com/history/a-piece-of-local-military-history/