Researching Traditional Environments of the Kalapuyans

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Future Directions for Archaeology and Heritage Research in the Willamette Valley, Oregon" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Tribal scholars have worked to restore and revive tribal cultural knowledge, language, and history of the Kalapuyan peoples. Much has been restored and the tribe is working to instill tribal culture in the next generations. But the tribe’s influence has not reached the traditional lands of the Kalapuyans and has been primarily reserved for the reservation. Tribal scholars are now working to relearn the traditional environments of the Kalapuya people, their foodways, annual cultural practices, and philosophies. Recent work has gone toward recovering the history of changes made to the traditional lands of the tribe by settler agriculturalists. Researching and reconstructing what changes were made to water systems and how these interact with cultural fire systems is key toward restoring Kalapuya culture. The Kalapuyans and their environment interacted for more than 10,000 years and to truly restore the culture we will need to restore the environment as well. Current research into these subjects will be presented as well as case studies of reconstructing how and why the valley was changed by settlers.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Future Directions for Archaeology and Heritage Research in the Willamette Valley, Oregon   •
• Society for American Archaeology 88th Annual Meeting, Portland, OR (2023)

Keywords

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 35562.0