Illumination: Part II - From the Assimilation Era to Termination (1860s-1950s)

Part II - From the Assimilation Era to Termination (1860s-1950s)​

This presentation provides an overview of the Indigenous history of Springfield and east Lane County.

The slides are divided into three sections:

Part 2 of this presentation explores the first 100 years following removal to reservations. During this time, Native people continued to influence and be influenced by Springfield.

This presentation gives a broad overview of this time period. There are many more records about the history and activities of local Native people from these years in museums throughout the region.

Indigenous people are still a part of the present-day Eugene-Springfield community. In the above 2024 photograph, Fish Martinez (Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians) leads a drumming circle with youth at the fountain plaza outside Springfield City Hall. Image Credit: Springfield Public Library

Part 2: From the Assimilation Era to Termination (1860s-1950s)​
​After removal to reservations, the Kalapuya people and other Oregon tribes found ways to adapt, maintaining ties to their ancestral homelands and to each other. By the 1870s, it was a common practice for people to leave the reservations seasonally to seek work on Willamette Valley farms. By the early 20th century, Native men worked in the forestry industry throughout the Pacific Northwest.​

​Some people left the reservations during this time (or managed to avoid them altogether). These individuals came to live and work in neighboring Oregon towns if the communities accepted them, although they had few rights and legal protections. ​

​In Oregon, Native people could not legally purchase alcohol until 1952. They could not legally marry a white person until 1952–though many mixed-race couples traveled across state lines to Washington or California to marry.​

​Native people were not eligible for American citizenship until the Indian Citizenship Act of 1924. They faced social pressure to abandon their languages, traditions, and values during this time period. However, some people found ways to assimilate into American society on their own terms.

In the late 19th and early-20th centuries, government administrators and programs operated under the assumption that Native people needed to “progress,” which meant severing Native people from their languages, traditions, and values so that they could better assimilate into American society. This was the era of Indian Boarding Schools, English-only education, and the allotment and sale of reservation lands.

In spite of the difficulties, many Native people in this era found ways to assimilate into society on their own terms, adapting to the changing culture around them while holding onto their traditions as much as they could.

The photograph to the right shows a Siletz mother carrying her baby in a traditional cradleboard, location unknown. Traditional weaving and basketry arts are still being carried forward in tribal communities today.

Image Credit: Lane County History Museum, GN8075

By the 1870s, it was a widespread practice for Native people to leave the reservations for seasonal agricultural work in the Willamette Valley. They worked throughout the valley in towns like Springfield, Eugene, Cottage Grove, Corvallis, Lowell, Independence, and Hillsboro.

For several decades, hundreds and sometimes thousands of Indigenous workers traveled annually for short-term seasonal work. They picked hops, beans, berries, prunes, walnuts, cherries, and other crops for local farmers.

Springfield had become a rich agricultural district by this time, and people from all the nearby reservations came here to work. The 1876 map to the right shows the Eugene-Springfield area (highlighted orange) and its proximity to the Warm Springs, Grand Ronde, Coast (Siletz), and Klamath Reservations.

Until the 1870s-1880s, it was illegal for Native people to be off the reservations without permission from an Indian agent. Hardships on the reservations were a major factor in why people sought work in the valley. There were no jobs on the reservations, and much of the lands were not suitable for farming. Food, supplies, and equipment, if promised in treaties, were often slow to arrive, underfunded, and mismanaged. ​

At the same time, Oregon’s political leaders worked to repeatedly take reservation lands and resources for Willamette Valley settlers. These efforts culminated in he General Allotment Act of 1887, which assigned tiny parcels of reservation land to tribal people and sold the bulk of the rest to white settlers, speculators, and companies as “surplus.”

The 1871 map to the right shows the original bounds of the 1855 Coast (Siletz) Reservation, which once spanned about one third of the Oregon Coast. The section around Yaquina Bay, where present-day Newport stands, was illegally “Released from Reserve” by President Andrew Johnson in 1865. This action opened a new port for Willamette Valley farmers to export their crops and new lands for white settlement.

Image Credit: General Land Office, Map Oregon 7. Record Group 49. National Archives Cartographic Section. Provided by the CTSI Cultural Collections.

Hops became a lucrative crop in the Willamette Valley in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Hop-pickers were in high demand in late summer and early fall, and Native people became a reliable and inexpensive labor source for Springfield farmers.

For many years, families traveled from all the nearby reservations to work on Springfield farms. They camped together during hop season, likely along the north bank of the Willamette River and possibly along the riverbanks in present-day Glenwood.

These encampments were located outside the boundaries of white settlements, which accepted Native people as temporary workers but did not want them staying in their towns.  

The 1913 photograph above shows Indigenous workers at the Seavey hopyards in north Springfield. The Seaveys owned the most successful hopyards in the area (they also had fields at Corvallis and Hillsboro). They needed several hundred pickers each year to bring in the harvest and were some of the largest employers of Indigenous people in Lane County. Image Credit: Springfield History Museum, 1979.006.010

The seasonal harvests were big events involving the whole family–everyone helped. The photograph to the right shows Native children at the Seavey hopyards in north Springfield in 1913.

Picking hops fit into the seasonal gathering patterns of previous generations. It became common for many families to spend the winters in their homes on the reservations and travel during the summers for different harvests in the valley.

Warm Springs people picked berries in the mountains on their way to Springfield hopyards. After hop season was finished, they fished for salmon along local rivers and hunted for deer in the mountains on their way back to the Warm Springs Reservation.

Native people returned to the same areas year after year and camped together along the rivers. The trips gave people a way to stay connected with family and friends who had been separated onto different reservations. People exchanged songs, dances, and stories while camping together, building friendships that lasted for multiple generations. By the 1930s, hop-picking declined as an industry in Springfield, but some families continued to perform seasonal farm work elsewhere into the 1970s.

Image Credit: Springfield History Museum, 1992.035.009

Until the 1930s, many people from the Warm Springs Reservation would come over the Cascade Mountains to pick hops. In the late summer and early fall, they crossed the mountains with their families in wagons, following the McKenzie River into Springfield. Both men and women also rode horseback. Many worked for the Seaveys, whose hopyards lined the McKenzie in north Springfield.

Warm Springs people were a familiar site to residents in Lane County, and they were known for their expert horsemanship. Local newspapers sometimes reported on their arrival and departure from town. The undated photograph to the left shows Warm Springs men riding down Springfield’s Main Street in front of the Springfield Hotel. To the right, Warm Springs men rope a steer in front of onlookers, likely at the Seavey Ranch.

Image Credit: Springfield History Museum, 2017.003.622 and Lane County History Museum, SM300

Seasonal travel from the reservations gave people a way to visit family and friends, as well as to maintain ties to their ancestral homelands. Below are some examples of annual events that Native people held in the southern Willamette Valley into the early 20th century:

*Annual hop-picking in towns like Springfield, Lowell, Eugene, and Cottage Grove

*Participation in rodeos, horse races, dance performances, and parades in local towns

*Warm Springs people fished for salmon along the McKenzie River and hunted in the Cascade foothills

*Kalapuya and Molalla people held camp meetings together on the hilltops in Pleasant Hill

*Many Native people gathered together at camp meetings at the Cottage Grove fairgrounds and surrounding areas

*Molalla people visited the Oakridge area from the Klamath Reservation

The photograph above shows a mother and baby in Lane County hopyards, circa 1915.

As is the case with many photographs of Indigenous people from this time period, the woman’s name and tribal affiliation are missing from the archival records.

Image Credit: Lane County History Museum, GN8076

“[...] up here at Hendricks Bridge, there was no bridge then, of course, but they’d camp there. Every fall they’d come over [...] A lot of those Indians came from here originally and they’d come back and ride their horses out in the river and sit there with spears and you’d see them riding into shore with a big salmon and the women would take care of it and they’d go back and wait for more salmon. [...] They always, before they left they’d come down here [to Thurston] and see if we had any deerhides. We would usually give them some.”

-Thurston resident Hubert Gray, speaking in 1979 of his family’s interactions with Warm Springs people in the early 20th century. The people used the deer hides to make gloves, moccasins, and other goods to sell to white settlers as a source of income.

The 1909 Eugene Weekly Guard clipping to the right shares that Warm Springs people also hunted for deer on their way to and from the valley. This article describes the county’s attempts to regulate hunting among Native people, including that some people were jailed if they hunted without obtaining a license.

Image Credit: Eugene Weekly Guard, Sept 30, 1909.

“[...] up here at Hendricks Bridge, there was no bridge then, of course, but they’d camp there. Every fall they’d come over [...] A lot of those Indians came from here originally and they’d come back and ride their horses out in the river and sit there with spears and you’d see them riding into shore with a big salmon and the women would take care of it and they’d go back and wait for more salmon. [...] They always, before they left they’d come down here [to Thurston] and see if we had any deerhides. We would usually give them some.”

-Thurston resident Hubert Gray, speaking in 1979 of his family’s interactions with Warm Springs people in the early 20th century. The people used the deer hides to make gloves, moccasins, and other goods to sell to white settlers as a source of income.

The 1909 Eugene Weekly Guard clipping to the right shares that Warm Springs people also hunted for deer on their way to and from the valley. This article describes the county’s attempts to regulate hunting among Native people, including that some people were jailed if they hunted without obtaining a license.

Image Credit: Eugene Weekly Guard, Sept 30, 1909.

Some Indigenous people participated in events hosted by the larger community such as rodeos, parades, 4th of July celebrations, dance performances, and horse races.

The newspaper clippings to the right describe the 1909 Eugene Fair, when a large group of Warm Springs men, women, and children traveled to the Lane County Fairgrounds. They surprised audiences with a parade procession followed by horse racing.

“They brought over a lot of horses every year and sold them here. The Warm Springs Indians had pretty nice horses [...] they were always having horse races, that was another thing that has completely died out now.” - Hubert Gray oral history interview, 1979.

Some Indigenous people left the reservations, or they managed to avoid them altogether. They found ways to survive within white communities, often working on the farms or in the households of settler families.

People who managed to establish homesteads in the valley maintained relationships with family and friends on nearby reservations.

Prior to the 1940s, many Oregon towns, including Springfield and Eugene, operated as “sundown towns.” It was a common practice for white residents and business owners to tolerate non-whites as long as they were just passing through, but they were not welcome as neighbors or co-workers. Outside of seasonal farm work, there aren’t many records from these years of Native people who made their homes in Springfield. However, there are several accounts of individuals who found places to live in neighboring towns like Cottage Grove, Oakridge, and Brownsville.

Image Credit: 1922 Oregon State Highway Map, Oregon Maps, University of Oregon. "Oregon" Oregon Digital. Accessed 2024-10-02. https://www.oregondigital.org/concern/images/df674x579

Eliza Young (circa 1830s-1922) was born in the Mohawk Valley into a village near the Mohawk and McKenzie Rivers. After her parents died in a disease epidemic, she lived and worked in the household of the Spores family for several years.

It was common during this time for settler families to take Indian children and raise them as part of the family, although the children often held the role of a servant in the home.

In her elder years, Eliza lived in Brownsville (a town initially called “Calapooia”). As a source of income, Eliza did domestic tasks such as laundry and cooking around town for white settler families. Eliza was a skilled weaver who sold many baskets and purses to local townspeople. She had Kalapuya ancestry, likely from the Tekopa and Pe-u bands.

Image Credit: Lane County History Museum, GN8079

Charlie Tufti (Mountain Molalla) was raised by Fred and Elizabeth Stewart Warner of Fall Creek. He spent much of his life in Oakridge (formerly called Hazel Dell), Cottage Grove, and eventually on the Warm Springs Reservation where he raised his children, Jasper and Jessie Tufti.

He is pictured in the photo to the right with Fred and Elizabeth’s son, Frank Warner.

Image Credit: Eugene City Guard, Sept 30, 1899 and Lane County History Museum, GN5320

Charlie is the namesake of Tufti Creek and Tufti Mountain along the Highway 58 corridor. He is also the namesake of Tufti Park, a day-use area and trail system at Fall Creek Reservoir.

Chief Chemafeena Halo and his Yoncalla Kalapuya (also known as Komemma Kalapuya) family became a part of the settler communities in Cottage Grove and Yoncalla. He and his family built a close friendship with the Applegates, a white settler family in Yoncalla, Oregon.

In 2023, a mountain in the Umpqua National Forest was renamed Mount Halo in his honor.

The 1910 clipping to the left discusses Chief Halo’s fishing ventures on the Row River (east of Cottage Grove) with a white settler named Mr. Walker. Chief Halo’s son and grandson, Jake Fearn and Sam Fearn, are pictured in the 1915 newspaper clipping to the right which discusses a trip to visit Portland. Image Credit: Cottage Grove Sentinel, Jan 27, 1910 and Oregon Daily Journal, June 21, 1915

Fisherman Bristow lived in the Pleasant Hill area in the early white settlement period. He was related to the Fishermans, Fearns, and Tuftis, who held ties to the Grand Ronde and Warm Springs Reservations, as well as the Cottage Grove and Yoncalla areas. Enoch Spores, one of his grandsons, is pictured to the right.

Polk Scott was a Yoncalla Kalapuya spiritual leader who visited the valley regularly from the Grand Ronde Reservation. He organized many camp meetings with Native people on the hillsides in Pleasant Hill and at the Cottage Grove fairgrounds.

In the eyes of the American settler communities and in local newspapers, many of the people mentioned on these slides were described as “the last of their tribes.” However, descendants of these families still live in this area and are enrolled in local tribes today.  Image Credit: Bohemia Nugget, July 10, 1903.

Florence Evans, who performed under the stage name “Princess Tsianina Redfeather,” was a Creek and Cherokee opera singer and activist from the Muscogee Nation in Oklahoma. Florence toured the country with the pianist Charles Wakefield Cadman, performing in Eugene and several other Oregon towns in the 1910s and 1920s. She traveled overseas to perform for American troops during World War I.

The 1916 circus ad on the bottom right includes Buffalo Bill’s Wild West show, a western-themed variety show that employed Native actors (along with white actors playing Indians) for historic reenactments and displays of skill.

Although these performances relied on racial stereotypes, they provided a way for some people to leave the reservations, travel the country, and sometimes to advocate on behalf of their people to the non-Native public.

Image Credit: Records of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, National Archives and Springfield News, May 03, 1934.

During the Assimilation Era, the U.S. government separated thousands of Native children across the United States from their families and sent them to boarding schools. The photograph to the left shows a baseball team of Indigenous students from Chemawa Indian School in Salem, taken in the early 20th century.

Chemawa’s sports teams traveled to play games against other regional teams, including Springfield High, Eugene High, and the University of Oregon.

Chemawa students competed in sports such as track and field events, baseball, football, boxing, and basketball.

Many Chemawa students came from Oregon tribes. These students contributed to the growth of regional and professional sports in the region. The below photograph shows a Chemawa football team, taken between 1938 and 1956. They also had a girls’ basketball team in a time when it was uncommon. Indian boarding schools have left a complicated legacy among Native people as sources of assimilation and abuse, but also friendships and athletic opportunities.

By the early 20th century, Oregon became the lead producer of lumber in the United States. Many Native men joined logging outfits, working in western Oregon and throughout the Pacific Northwest. They became some of the most respected loggers in the region.

Men would travel where the work was and might be away from the reservation for months or years at a time. They would send money home to their families, or in some cases their families would join them in temporary logging camps.

For many years, logging was the only good-paying job available to Indigenous men. It was a rare industry in Oregon that would hire any man, regardless of his race and social status, who was willing to work hard. Image Credit: Springfield History Museum, 1996.013.009

In 1954, U.S. Congress passed the Western Oregon Indian Termination Act. This legislative act “terminated” the federal status of 60+ Oregon tribes, nullifying the historic Indian treaties and closing several reservations. It was an attempt to dissolve tribes and fully assimilate Native people into the non-Native public.

Termination was an extreme form of the assimilation-focused federal Indian policies that had begun in the nineteenth century.

After World War II and during the Termination Era, many Native families moved from the reservations to nearby cities in the Willamette Valley in search of new homes and jobs.

Many Native men found logging work in the Eugene-Springfield area. The aerial photograph above shows the Weyerhauser plant, which had opened in 1948 and brought many new jobs in the lumber industry to Springfield. Some Native families established their own logging operations and have logged for several generations. The Jeffers family (enrolled in the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde) is one multigenerational logging family with ties to the Eugene-Springfield area.

Image Credit: Springfield History Museum, 1995.010.022

Many people from the Grand Ronde, Siletz, and Klamath Reservations came to Eugene and Springfield during the Termination Era. The forestry industry and access to education and vocational training at the University of Oregon and Lane Community College were two large factors that brought Native people to this area.

“Termination came at a time when our timber was almost logged off. Many of our men worked in the wood and mills, they were once proud, industrious people. But with no jobs there many of us had to leave, for termination did nothing but harm our people [...] it broke up our tribes. We began to make our exit out of Siletz, seeking a new home.” -Siletz tribal council member Pauline Ricks, speaking in 1976 about the impact of termination for the Siletz Tribe.

Pauline moved with her family to Springfield, living there for 35 years and serving as an Indian Education teacher in the Springfield Public Schools.

This 1973 clipping to the right shows a group called the Urban Indians of Lane County participating in the Springfield Christmas Parade. The next presentation will explore how Native people in the Eugene-Springfield community found ways to connect together, organizing community gatherings, culture classes, and participating in advocacy for Oregon tribes from the 1960s on.

Image Credit: Eugene Register Guard, Dec 9, 1973

Today, there are nine federally recognized tribes in Oregon.

People from all of these tribes live, work, and attend school in Springfield today. People with ancestry from many other tribes from across the Pacific Northwest and nation also call Springfield home.