Greg Archuleta: They Tried to Deter Us, but We “Continued Going to the Falls.”

Greg Archuleta (Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde) talks about unsuccessful attempts by Indian agents to keep members of the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde from fishing in the falls. 1:20.

Bio: Greg Archuleta is Clackamas Chinook, Santiam Kalapuya, and Shasta, and a member of the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde. As an artist and educator, he teaches about the culture and history of the Tribes of Western Oregon, including ethnobotany, carving, cedar hat making, Native art design, and basketry.

Transcription:
“And there was actually efforts by the Indian agents to try to deter us from going to the falls. And what they did is they established fisheries on the Salmon River, which flows on the Oregon coast towards the Lincoln City area, it goes into the ocean right north of Lincoln City. And so they put fisheries there in order to try to deter us from going to the falls, but we still continued going to the falls. But in the Indian agent reports they had they were kinda gloating that they’d established that fishery and hoping that we wouldn’t leave the reservation and wouldn’t go as far to the falls again. So there were federal efforts to try and deter us but our families still continued to go to the falls. And then in depression time, the fisheries, including the salmon and steelhead and eel, lamprey, were still important subsistence for our tribal people during that time. And so, as a regular effort they went to the falls area there to get fish and the eel and stuff. And then bring them back to Grand Ronde.”

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