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j ~ location near the south end of the valley, seems to attract birds traveling northward 'E .j.r~, in the spring to stop, rest and forage before r continuing their journey. Many of the larger, deciduous trees on the south, southwest ~ ~ and west summit area, and along the entire - ~ northern crest of the summit, are especially favored by migrating birds and the birders ' ~ i seeking them out (see Chapter 5, Habitat ' Management Plan for further discussion p~ and recommendations). The park is also ~ , home to many uncommon and interesting ~ ~ ,~-gip" ~ ~ resident bird species such as osprey and ,t ~ti - great horned owl. - ~ The Kala u a ~~F p Y ~ ~ The story of the Kalapuya, the native ~ ` r~ inhabitants of the southern Willamette ~ ~r ~ , ~ ~~~"h~~ ~ This 1841 sketch by A. T. Agate Valley, is both sad and compelling, and has ~ r'-~ p. of the us Exploring E~edition f been widely misunderstood for most of ~i' ~ .:"''""r~>~„ ~yy ~ " ~ shows the artist's interpretation ; _ ~ o..~,:.> ~ - e,-. ° _ „ ofa Kalapuya man. contemporary history. It is a story that has been pieced together over decades through scattered bits of information and memory. As anthropologists broaden their The result of this devastation, wrought so understanding, the official story that is quickly and so thoroughly,was "a complete unfolding begins to sound more like the breakdown in social structures, story told by the modern descendants of communities, and traditional modes of the Kalapuya themselves:ofagreatculture behavior, and the imposition of a in a land of abundance. demoralizing hopelessness on the survivors" (Connolly 1999). Through the ~ A Vanished Civilization desertion of settlements and the re- It is estimated that there were somewhere grouping of survivors in other places, there between 15,000 and 20,000 Kalapuya living was little left of the once great network of Disease had claimed in and around the Willamette Valley in the Kalapuya tribes and clans that shared the about 95°~o of fhe valley. Not only were there very few left who Kalapuya people by year 1770 (Boyd 1990). By the time Eugene could remember or recount the life of the the time Euro- j and Mary Skinner arrived in 1846, less than Kalapuya before 1770, but during this American settlers ' - 70 years later, there were estimated to be period of catastrophic decline, there is no arrived in the area fewer than 600 Kalapuya remaining. This represents over 95% mortality of a once written record of the Kalapuya people. 7. ' thriving culture in a very short time Later historical accounts from early settlers (Connolly 1999). These numbers do not often describe the native inhabitants of the valley as sickly and wretched. The begin to describe the devastating ~ epidemics of disease, including small pox, Willamette Valley had also been perennially ~ , dubbed The Valley of Sickness. But this alaria and measles t a e t m h t sw pt hrough was not the way things had been over the the northwest, and lingered tenaciously in revious millennia. This does not describe the Willamette Valley, between 1770 and p ~ the real Kalapuya culture, What the first 1840. Testimonials and a few scattered records from trapping expeditions and Euro-Amencan settlers saw, therefore, was missionaries in the early 1800s describe the only the aftermath. loss of entire villages in one season. They recount incredible suffering, and the flight of survivors from village sites to escape the infection. I i 24 Chapter 2: Natural History and Cultural Context