Willamina in Yamhill County, Oregon — The American West (Northwest)
We Greet Settlement … … With Reservations
Photographed By Barry Swackhamer, September 22, 2017
1. We Greet Settlement ... ... With Reservations Marker
Inscription.
We Greet Settlement … … With Reservations. .
Good-bye to Our Homelands . For thousands of years we lived on this land, thankful for its bounty. We lived for generations until white men came in strange clothes brining goods to trade, and wanting more, always wanting more. A westward invasion in the mid-18oos showed us that the white men wanted our land and resources for themselves. Wagon trains brought settlers into our homelands. They were squatters. It was a dangerous, difficult time for us. , In treaty negotiations in early 1850s, we attempted to reserve land within our traditional homelands. Facing more land-taking by the settlers, we ceded most of our lands and were moved to the Grand Ronde Reservation. Over the years, the reservation dwindled from 64,000-plus acres to 5 acres (a tribal cemetery) in 1954. We began to slow process of reacquiring some of our original lands in 1983. , Before we came to the reservation, myself and my people were promised cattle, horses, and clothing. We were to have each a piece of land to cultivate. … The government has not complied with these promises… - Chief Sam ,
Accepting a New Life . We agreed to treaties that extinguished aboriginal title to our homeland and brought various tribes and bands together on the Grand Ronde Reservation. The government intended this reservation to ease tensions between the settlers and our people. In 1856, we became a group of camps at Grand Ronde beginning a struggle to scratch out an existence. We attempted to survive as farmers, gatherers, and laborers while trying to maintain our tribal identities. Moving to the reservation forced our different tribes, with vastly different life way, to live side by side while speaking different languages and living under foreign rule.
Good-bye to Our Homelands
For thousands of years we lived on this land, thankful for its bounty. We lived for generations until white men came in strange clothes brining goods to trade, and wanting more, always wanting more. A westward invasion in the mid-18oos showed us that the white men wanted our land and resources for themselves. Wagon trains brought settlers into our homelands. They were squatters. It was a dangerous, difficult time for us.
In treaty negotiations in early 1850s, we attempted to reserve land within our traditional homelands. Facing more land-taking by the settlers, we ceded most of our lands and were moved to the Grand Ronde Reservation. Over the years, the reservation dwindled from 64,000-plus acres to 5 acres (a tribal cemetery) in 1954. We began to slow process of reacquiring some of our original lands in 1983.
Before we came to the reservation, myself and my people were promised cattle, horses, and clothing. We were to have each a piece of land to cultivate. … The government has not complied with these promises… - Chief Sam
Accepting a New Life
We agreed to treaties that extinguished aboriginal title to our homeland and brought various tribes and bands together on the Grand Ronde Reservation. The government intended
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this reservation to ease tensions between the settlers and our people. In 1856, we became a group of camps at Grand Ronde beginning a struggle to scratch out an existence. We attempted to survive as farmers, gatherers, and laborers while trying to maintain our tribal identities. Moving to the reservation forced our different tribes, with vastly different life way, to live side by side while speaking different languages and living under foreign rule.
Erected by Oregon State Parks and Confederated Tribes of the Grand Ronde.
Location. 45° 4.173′ N, 123° 34.226′ W. Marker is in Willamina, Oregon, in Yamhill County. Marker is on Hebo Road near Three Rivers Highway (Oregon Route 22), on the left. Touch for map. Marker is in this post office area: Willamina OR 97396, United States of America. Touch for directions.
More about this marker. The marker is near the parking lot at Fort
Photographed By Barry Swackhamer, September 22, 2017
2. We Greet Settlement ... ... With Reservations Marker
The marker is on the right.
Yamhill State Heritage Area.
Credits. This page was last revised on March 3, 2024. It was originally submitted on January 19, 2018, by Barry Swackhamer of Brentwood, California. This page has been viewed 191 times since then and 20 times this year. Last updated on January 29, 2024, by Mark St. Martin of Kalamazoo, Michigan. Photos:1, 2. submitted on January 19, 2018, by Barry Swackhamer of Brentwood, California. • Devry Becker Jones was the editor who published this page.
