Fort Yamhill Garrison Living History

12/25/2021

"Dec. 25, 1862. Clear. Christmas passed off pleasantly. We had Roast Pig, Turkey, Chicken, and New Cider in abundance. Our Officers magnanimously contributed nothing. At Retreat some 30 Boys start for an Indian Dance. One Indian released. Got to the "Tattoo" Roll Call in time to hear a Private call the "roll." All vulgar names, not a non-com present, all on a bender."~Royal Bensell, 4th California Volunteer Infantry

10/11/2021

Indigenous Peoples are making great strides forward in bringing their voices and their stories to the national history and to the attention of people everywhere, which is a movement we support entirely, and want to lend our aid to as allies in bringing the story of Oregon and other places to light.

To that end, we have elected to not pursue living history at Fort Yamhill State Heritage Area for the foreseeable future, and are focusing our living history pursuits elsewhere that we can share the history of Oregon while focusing on all aspects and experiences, without drowning out the voices of our Indigenous Brothers and Sisters in the process.

We will definitely be presenting historical demonstrations and discussions at a variety of locations around the Pacific Northwest, and will be participating in many high quality living history events around the entire country, and we look forward to sharing those stories and experiences with you.

While we are no longer Fort Yamhill-focused, we will not stop bringing the story of Oregon in the 19th century to people who want to listen, and we are excited to pursue many new opportunities!

Stay tuned for more, and Happy Indigenous People's Day!

05/08/2021

Getting ready for an event means cranking out hardtack for everyone!

05/07/2021

On May 6 and 7, 1851, two of the seven treaties negotiated between Superintendent of Indian Affairs for Oregon Territory Anson Dart and the Kalapuya tribes in the Willamette Valley were signed at Champoeg. The Kalapuya tribes had successfully defended their right to remain on their lands, and Dart was forced to include a small reservation within the homelands of each tribe in all of their treaties. This map, drawn in 1851 by George Gibbs and Edwards Starling, depicts where the temporary reservations were to be located in the Willamette Valley, once Congress ratified the treaties.

None of the treaties Dart sent to Washington, D.C., were ratified. American settlers in the Willamette Valley lodged complaints to Congress about the treaties. They did not wish to live among people who they considered savages and thieves. By accepting the reservation proposals of the tribes, Dart had failed to remove the tribes from western Oregon, and he was forced to resign.

In 1853, Joel Palmer was appointed to replace Dart. In 1855, Palmer negotiated a new treaty, under which the tribes of the Willamette Valley would confederate and move to a single reservation. A location in the Grand Ronde Valley was chosen, and from January to March 1856, the tribes from throughout western Oregon were marched to the Grand Ronde Agency, in an event that the tribes call the “trail of tears.” The treaty promised a permanent reservation, food and money, payment for a school for twenty years, opportunities to practice agriculture, and safety from attacks by white settlers. Under this arrangement, the tribes from throughout western Oregon lived on the reservation for a hundred years.

In 1954, Congress terminated the Grand Ronde Indian Reservation under the Western Oregon Indian Termination Act (PL 588). In 1983, the Grand Ronde people successfully persuaded Congress and President Ronald Reagan to restore the Grand Ronde tribal government and its rights under the seven ratified treaties of western Oregon. In the twenty-first century, the Willamette Valley Kalapuyans, Molala, and Clackamas Chinook people remain members of the Confederated Tribes of the Grand Ronde Community.

Learn more about the Willamette Valley Treaties on the Oregon Encyclopedia : https://www.oregonencyclopedia.org/articles/willamette_valley_treaties/

Image: Sketch of the Wallamette Valley, George Gibbs and Edmund Starling, 1851, showing land purchases and reservations negotiated by Board of Commissioners. Courtesy Oregon State University Special Collections and Archives Research Center.

03/24/2021

Our friends at the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde have released their plans for the Willamette Falls property, and it is stunning!

Ceded to the United States in the Willamette Valley Treaty of 1855, this land was home to villages on both sides of the river, and was a major fishery for local tribes.

We're delighted that it is back in the hands of Native American People, and we can't wait to see the finished project!

https://www.facebook.com/125703234160742/posts/4165894043474954/?sfnsn=mo

Supporting a healthy community by facilitating dialogue, maintaining continuity, and providing protection of Tribal lifeways.

03/17/2021

03/10/2021

The history of Fort Yamhill is inherently linked to Colonial conflict with Native Americans, and is in particular tied to the Rogue River War of 1855-1856.

During the same time, the Puget Sound Treaty War was creating violence and loss across all of Washington State, with far reaching consequences for Native Americans in the region.

If you would like to learn more about the Puget Sound Treaty War, please consider purchasing tickets for this edition of "Fort from Home", presented by our friends at Fort Nisqually Living History Museum in Tacoma, WA.

Join us for a panel discussion with Fort Nisqually and Tribal historians to discuss the legacy of the Puget Sound Treaty Wars.

02/18/2021

With the constant movement of individuals of the 19th century military, as well as all the fixtures of Fort Yamhill being removed or sold off after the post was closed in 1866, having rock solid confirmation of an artifacts relationship to Fort Yamhill is very difficult.

This is one of the few items known for certain to have been at Fort Yamhill, and to have had a relationship with the Yamhill Valley after its military service.

https://www.facebook.com/41693004628/posts/10159219069189629/?sfnsn=mo

This striking-looking safe has been recently reunited with its donation information, and it has a long and interesting history in Oregon. The original Oregon Historical Society accession register entry notes:

“This is probably one of the oldest safes in the West. It came from the East around the Horn [Cape Horn] in the hold of a sailing vessel in 1856 and was hauled to Fort Yamhill, Oregon, and placed in the hands of Lt. Sheridan who later became the famous general. The safe was used at the army post at Ft. Yamhill to safeguard government funds against raids of hostile Indians or marauding whites….The exact date of the making of this safe is not known, but it was about 1822. The maker’s name is on a paper label pasted on the inside of the right-hand door, but is nearly obliterated by time. After Sheridan’s troops left Oregon, the safe passed to the storekeeper at the Fort. When the Fort was dismantled the safe became the property of a pioneer merchant….In its day the safe stood as the last word in money lockers. Handmade, of fairly thick wrought iron plate reinforced with imposing looking rivets. Its secret keyhole was known only to chosen, and was one of the main protections against robbery.”

An article in the Sunday "Oregonian" in 1926 provides more information about the chain of ownership after it was used at Ft. Yamhill. Ben Simpson, the person in charge of the sutler’s store at the fort, used the safe. It then came into merchant Gilbert C. Litchfield’s possession, where it was a show-piece in his store for a time. After this, it passed to Mr. Paul Fundman, who taught school on the Grand Ronde Reservation in the 1880s, and then to J. H. Klosterman. Portland Trust and Savings Bank donated it to OHS on June 13, 1946. A 1950 letter to OHS revealed that the bank thought they owned the safe when they donated it, but in fact the bank had sold the safe back to the Klosterman family 1931. Thomas Klosterman kept the safe on loan to OHS for many decades, and subsequently donated it to OHS in 1990. ​

Image credit: OHS Museum, 90-184.

02/10/2021

This is a magnificent development, and will serve to reconnect members of local tribes with their culture and history!

Connections like this are important, and we hope that there will be more places in the future!

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Southern Oregon University in partnership with the Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians of Oregon, Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde, Vesper Meadow Education Program, and other regional partners have received funding from the Oregon Cultural Trust to initiate the Indigenous

01/26/2021

Dear friends, we hope that all of you are doing well, almost a month into our new year!

We're sorry for being so quiet, but it won't last long!

Looking into 2021, it promises to be an interesting year, and hopefully a better one than the last! We hope that many bright moments will occur throughout it, for all of us!

On a sad note, after discussion with the Oregon Parks and Recreation Department, and with advice from the Oregon Health Authority, we have agreed to postpone our planned 2021 Living History event to May of 2022. While we are disheartened by this development, it is for the best, as we love you all too much to put your health at risk in this still uncertain time.

BUT! That does not mean we will be inactive through this year. We were gifted some excellent research material which our members are pouring over even now, and that will make our hopeful event in 2022 even better!

And should world circumstances be in a better place soon, we will absolutely take the field and gather to take part in the hobby we love so much. We will continue to share our research, history, and passion with all of you, and are working to bring more content to the page, so keep following, and share the page with your friends!

Forward!