Program on Indigenous Peoples in Oregon

[Indigenous person singing] Long, long ago they came to this land. They were the first to call it home. They were Oregon's first people. [Jane Ferguson] It's morning at Fort Rock. [Mark Sparks] Here in the central Oregon desert, the sun brings a new day. [Jane Ferguson] But for desert animals, like the owl and the coyote, who live and hunt at night, dawn means it's time to find a safe place to sleep. [Mark Sparks] Hi, I'm Mark Sparks [Jane Ferguson] and I'm Jane Ferguson. Here on the rim of Fort Rock, you can see for miles in every direction. Much of what we can see doesn't look very different from any other desert. Rocks, sagebrush, distant hills. [Sparks] But we need to take a closer look, because this part of the Oregon desert holds many secrets and clues to the mysteries about Oregon's first people. Who were they? Where did they come from? Why did they choose to live here? [Indigenous man singing and drumming] [Ferguson] Scientists are fairly certain the first people to live here probably came from Asia.

Thousands of years ago, a land bridge existed where the Bering Strait now lies. It is believed that people coming from what is now Siberia, could have crossed this windswept, frozen stretch of land and reached Alaska. Still others might have travelled in boats over stormy Arctic waters. Once they arrived in Alaska, they gradually travelled south. Eventually, they reached what we would later call the Oregon territory. While some continued still farther south, others chose to make this area their new home. Thousands of years later, when the first explorers from Europe came to the Americas, they

would find a world of people with many different languages and customs already living here. And, like Columbus, the explorers called these Native Americans, "Indians". [Beeping] From what we've been able to discover, some of the first people to live in Oregon made their homes here, in Fort Rock Valley. Why do we think that? Because of a cave that kept a secret for more than ten thousand years. [Sparks] Not far from Fort Rock State Park is Fort Rock cave. In

1938, Dr. Luther Cressman and a team of archaeologists-- scientists who study the people of the past through their artifacts-- began to carefully explore this cave. As the scientists began to dig down into the floor of the cave, they found evidence that people had been here long ago. They found tools made of stone, wood, and bone, and still further down, they found fragments of nearly 200 samples like this one made of sagebrush bark. One sandal in particular was very well preserved. Dr. Cressman and other scientists determined that the samples had probably been left in the cave over 10,000 years ago. This discovery is one of the earliest known pieces of evidence of people living in Oregon. The sandals became important pieces in a puzzle that is still a long way from being solved. [Ferguson] Here's a riddle. When is a fort not a fort? When it's a volcano.

Fort Rock may look like a fort, that's how it got its name, but it's really the cone and crater of an ancient volcano. Its cliff sides are nearly 200 feet high in some places. One side of Fort rock is open. And the reason it's like this calls for another riddle. When is a desert not a desert? When it's a lake. Fort Rock Valley was once a giant lake. Part of the great silver lake formed in the days following the last ice age. Where we now see sagebrush, there were once great marshes and it was the force of waves of water against Fort Rock that eventually washed out one side. [Sparks] Now it makes sense why those first people would have made their homes here. If this was all lake and marsh land, there would have been plenty to eat and drink.

[Ferguson] That's right, the first Oregonians here lived in a totally different world -- a world where there was an abundance of plants and animals to provide food. [Sparks] We've even found sinkers they once used for fishing nets. Imagine them traveling out here to Fort Rock in canoes. Until the lakes began to dry up, life for those ancient tribesmen must have been pretty good. Good enough for them to have time to improve their [pause] [beep.... beep.. beep... ] Sandal and tool making skills [Ferguson] Anan Raman is an archaeologist. He's also a flintknapper. [rock breaking] A flintknapper is [rock being chipped] someone who makes stone tools using the same methods that these Indians used. To better understand what life was like for the Borg Connors, [stone sharpening stone] he's learned to make tools like the ones found in Fort Rock Cave. Hi

Anan. [Anan Raman] Hi Jane. [Ferguson] What are you making? [Raman] Well, I'm using this hammer stone to shape this chunk of obsidian into a spear point. [sound of stone scraping] Then, I'll use this club or billet of elk antler to also shape it into a point. [club lightly hitting rock] When this gets smaller, I'll use this tip of a deer antler to take-- to shape it into a small point. Over here this is the Indian's tool kit. With these chunks of obsidian and deer antler and hammer stones, the Indians had everything they need to make tools for cutting, chopping, and scraping. [Ferguson] Are the tools left behind by the first Fort Rock people different from those left by the Indians who were living here when explorers first arrived 200 years ago? [Raman] Absolutely. While they lived in the same place, their lives were completely different. The first people made spearheads like these to hunt the large game that lived around here,

But 200 years ago, when this area had become a desert, they used small arrow heads to hunt things like rabbits and other small desert animals. [Sparks] What were the first Fort Rock people like? We can only guess. When they disappeared they left nothing behind but some of their tools and a few sandals.

And where did they go? Some believe they stayed in this area and just moved to places where they could find more food and water. Others have guessed that they packed up and moved much farther south, but the answer to that question is still a mystery. Perhaps this ancient desert knows the answer, but it also knows how to keep a secret. [Ferguson] That's beautiful Anand. [Raman] Thanks, Jane. It's also very sharp. You know in so many cases, when we think of stone tools, we think of crude rock clubs. Whereas many of the stone tools the Indians used were every bit as sharp and dangerous as some of the best metal knives that we use today. Jane, try this stone tool and cut this piece of heavy elk hide. [blade of stone tool cutting elk hide]

[Ferguson] That is very sharp! [Raman] You know, in so many cases, stone tools are the only evidence we have of what life was like long ago. That's why it's important that we protect and preserve this evidence. [Ferguson] I think it's fascinating that the first Oregon people were able to take a common rock and make tools that were so beautiful and yet worked so well and that you were able to show us how this was done. Thanks a lot, Anand. [Raman] You're welcome. [Ferguson] The Indians who lived here kept no written records of their lives. [Indigenous person singing] Tribal legends and stories were passed down from parents to children and told around fires on long winter nights. [Drum beating, singing gets louder, more indigenous voices join in] [repeated] Thanks a lot, Anand. [Raman] You're welcome. [Ferguson] The Indians who lived here kept no written

records of their lives. [Indigenous person singing] Tribal legends and stories were passed down from parents to children and told around fires on long winter nights. [Drum beating, singing gets louder, more indigenous voices join in] [beeping] [Sparks] So much of what we know about the Indians living here 200 years ago is based on what the first explorers found and on what the Indians could tell them. One thing we know for certain: The Indians living here by then were only distantly related to the first Fort Rock hunters. By the late seventeen hundreds, the lakes had turned to desert and this was part of Oregon's Great

Basin. There were many separate bands of Indians living here and most of them were members of the larger tribe known as the Northern Paiute. The Paiute were able to survive by understanding the life of the desert. They depended on seeds, roots, and berries for most of their food. Antelope and small game were also hunted, but a Paiute family could only survive if everyone understood where and when food could be found. Because food was scarce, the tribes of the Great Basin moved often, mostly traveling on foot, and they really built permanent homes. To the north were the plateau tribes. Of these, perhaps the best known are the Nez Perce. [guitar music] [Ferguson] After the introduction of horses to this area in the early 1700s, the

plateau Indians, including the Nez Perce, ranged far and wide in search of food and trade. Hunting parties would travel to the Great Plains in search of Buffalo or head west to trade for salmon. South and west of the great basin where the Klamath Lakes. Tribes in this area like the Klamath and Modocs live near marshes and lakes, travelled mostly by canoes, and built earth covered lodges for their winter homes. The plants and birds that lived on or near the water were their main sources of food. [guitar twanging with harmonic notes] Tribes living along the rivers of the inland valleys built plank and brush houses and gather nuts and roots. They hunted for game and did some fishing. But here, as in the Great Basin, the year- long search for plants that could be eaten was most important. [Guitar changes to new song] More Indians lived along the banks of the Columbia River and the lower Willamette River than any place else in Oregon. Many different tribes spoke a common language. They built strong independent villages near the water. Fishing for salmon was the center of their lives,

and traveling by canoes up and down the Columbia, they traded with many other tribes. Fishing was also the major source of food for the tribes along the coast. Their villages of plank houses could be found along the banks of nearly every coastal stream. By the early 1800s, Indians in Oregon numbered in the tens of thousands. They were divided into nearly a hundred different bands and tribes. [Sparks] Every tribe was as different as the area they called home. Some tribes were no larger than families and roamed the land just trying to find enough food to get by. Others joined together in large villages and traded with their neighbors. [Ferguson] Tribes were special families and whether they lived by a river, an ocean, a lake, or a desert, Indians looked to their families, their tribes, for the lessons they needed

to learn to survive. [singing] These Indians looked at the world in a different way. Most believe that all things -- the sun, the rocks, the trees, the mountains, the animals, everything -- had a special spirit. Everything was alive and worthy of respect. There was a harmony in this living world and it was a goal of the Indian to be a part of that harmony. [singing continues, grows louder with drumming] One Indian story told to children around a winter fire ended with this lesson.

You must never cook any more than you can eat. If you cook three salmon when you are able to eat only half of one, then the salmon will be ashamed and will refuse to answer your river. [Ferguson] Another important part of life for the Indians of Oregon was a belief in guardian spirits or spirit powers. Boys and girls of nearly every tribe, when they were old enough, would be sent out on a private quest in search of their own guardian spirit. [Flute playing music] Imagine you were a member of the Paiute tribe and it is your time to seek a guardian spirit. Your family has been preparing you for many years. You must go out into the desert

alone to find a place to wait. Fort Rock was almost certainly a place of special power. When you find your chosen spot, you wait. It may take from three to five days. During that time you must not eat and you drink only a little water. You listen to the animals. To the wind. You feel weak, but if you are lucky a guardian will reveal itself to you, perhaps in a dream. It might be an eagle or a rattlesnake or a star. [Flute ends playing] When you return to your family you bring signs of your spirit guardian, and when it is time, you tell of your quest in a song or a dance that will always be part of your personal secret power. [Sparks] Another day in the Oregon desert is nearly over. [sound of campfire] [Ferguson] You can be so quiet out here when the wind dies down. For hundreds, maybe thousands of years, Indian sat huddled around campfires telling stories to their children,

passing on lessons told to them by their parents. [Sparks] It truly was a different world. And yet, out here at Fort Rock, where the fire and night coming on, it doesn't seem all that hard to understand. They respected the land. They knew it's seasons and its dangers. And they were grateful for the life it gave to them. [Ferguson] Maybe it was their guardian spirits at work. But all that would have to change with the coming of the Explorers and then the settlers. [Sparks] That's true. I think a member of the Kalapuya tribe might have been speaking for all the Indian tribes when he said, [Flute plays somber song] "There are no more spirit powers. Long ago there were many when only Indians still lived here, but now there is nothing any longer in the water like long ago. It is the very same way in the mountains. Everything the Indians made to be there spirit powers, they are gone now. They all went back to the ocean." [Flute song continues and ends. Beeping]

[Ferguson] It's cliff sides are nearly 200 feet high in some places. One side of Fort

Rock is open. And the reason it's like this calls for another riddle. When is a desert not a desert? When it's a lake. Fort Rock Valley was once a giant lake. Part of the Great Silver Lake formed in the days following the last ice age. Where we now see sagebrush, there were once great marshes and it was the force of waves of water against Fort Rock that eventually washed out one side. It's morning at Fort Rock. [Sparks] Here, in the Central Oregon desert,

the sun brings a new day. [Ferguson] But for desert animals like the owl and the coyote, who live and hunt at night, dawn means it's time to find a safe place to sleep. Here on the river of Fort Rock you can see for miles in every direction. Much of what we can see doesn't look very different from any other desert: rocks, sagebrush, distant hills... [Sparks] But we need to take a closer look because this part of the Oregon desert holds many secrets and clues to the mysteries about Oregon's first people. Who were they? Where did they come from? And why did they choose to live here? [repeated] [Ferguson] It's morning at Fort Rock. [Sparks] Here in the Central Oregon desert, the sun brings a new day. [Ferguson] But for desert animals like the owl and the coyote who live in hunt at night, dawn means it's time to find a safe place to sleep. Here on the river of Fort Rock you can see for miles in every direction. Much of what we can see doesn't look very

different from any other desert: rocks, sagebrush, distant hills... [Sparks] But we need to take a closer look because this part of the Oregon desert holds many secrets and clues to the mysteries about Oregon's first people. Who were there? Where did they come from? Why did they choose to live here?