As stated in the “about me” section of this blog, this page is meant to focus on the native, military, and pioneer history of Fort Hoskins and the neighboring Willamette Valley within the scope of Oregon in general. To this end, a “setting of the stage” is necessary to understand the importance of the history that I am trying to record.
Within the realm of American (United States) expansion and empire, the native tribes were gradually being swallowed, removed, or eliminated, thanks to a young republic that couldn’t make up its mind between a philanthropic Christianity and an extermination policy. The former viewed indian relocation and reservations as tools to “civilize” and educate native peoples so that they could assimilate into Euro-American society to prevent their ultimate demise. The latter viewed native tribes as hopeless “savages” that had to be exterminated due to their place at the bottom of the proverbial totem pole within the theory of evolution; which put races of men in a certain order, i.e. whites on top, Irish and Hispanics next, African Americans after that, and indigenous people at the very bottom, on the same level as the buffalo and beaver that were being hunted to extinction to feed Euro-American food and clothing markets.
These conflicting views will be discussed in detail in later posts, but it is important to remember the native tribes that were very much in the foreground throughout the 19th century dialogue of Oregon. The tribes had a word for Oregon, which was Illahee, a mix of Chinook words for land, soil, and home. These people had been here for hundreds if not thousands of years, and had built one of the most complex societies imaginable out of dozens of very distinct and independent nations that at times raided and at times traded with each other in an effort to improve their situation in the world. Slaves were taken and used by the tribes, body armor was worn on slave raids, and the tribes along the Columbia river and the coast were documented even by contemporary sources as cunning and skillful traders, where women played a major role in bartering with other tribes as well as European and American traders, resulting in the coastal and Columbia river nations being some of the wealthiest tribes in the western states.
Where Illahee was a home to defend for the native tribes that claimed it, Oregon was a prize to be taken-by force if necessary-by various empires who had or thought they had a stake in the Pacific Northwest of North America. The United Kingdom and its empire, the Russian empire, the Spanish, and the newly fledged American empire coming from the east coast who had only recently claimed legitimacy through the fire and blood of the war of 1812. Even that conflict, seemingly so far removed from the west coast, found a battlefield of sorts in Oregon, where an American trading post named for John Jacob Astor was “besieged”, if it can be called that, by John McTavish of the British Northwest Fur Company. McTavish arrived on April 11, 1813, with several men and orders to besiege the fort and wait for the HMS Phoebe, and the Isaac Todd and the reinforcements they would bring. The irony of this scene was that a tiny force of Canadians in British employ was besieging a very slightly larger force of Canadians in American employ. The result was in effect a mockery of contemporary warfare, wherein both sides assisted in an assault on Fort Astoria’s grog and food stores in celebration of the local holiday on April 12th. As author Gray H. Whaley put it, “Instead of fighting, most everyone got drunk for a couple days.”
This trait of imperial intrusion within Illahee would only continue for the next fifty years, until Illahee became Oregon and lost its native identity and bearing. It would be under the eye and hand of three different empires for the majority of that time, and under two for the entirety of it, until Oregon became one of the United States in 1859. Tension came in the 1840s with the Mexican war looming just to the south in California, and twice in the 1850s with the Crimean War (British and Russian holdings were mere days away by ship), and the San Juan Pig War in the San Juan islands north of Oregon. Increased tensions resulted in a increasingly militarized Oregon, with both regular army regiments and colonial (territorial) militia regiments taking part in campaigns against native tribes or demonstrating the republic’s strength in the far flung reaches of influence. Here there will be a fascinating discussion of the regular army regiments in contrast to the militia companies of Oregon, and their approach to the native tribes within the territory. Throughout their tenure at the reservation posts in Oregon such as Fort Hoskins, the regular army soldiers and their officers took more of a protective and intervening approach to the tribes they were sent to guard than their territorial militia counterparts did. Indeed, with militia companies marching about with names like “The Exterminators” or “Squaw Hunters”, it is not surprising that army officers began to feel that it was the natives that needed protection, not the settlers.
Indeed, regular army soldiers, the scum of the white, working class world, had often good relations with tribal members, extending even to those of a carnal nature. Lieutenant Phillip Sheridan, later to be famous due to the Civil War and the Indian Wars fathered at least one child with a native woman at Fort Hoskins on the Siletz reservation, and Lieutenant Gasber (or Gasbee, depending on what contemporary records you read) was severely reprimanded for inappropriate relations with native women, and soon after fell ill and died, possibly due to venerial disease. These relations also continued into the Civil War years when regular army troops were replaced by California Volunteer troops, with similar friendly or carnal relations being the norm. Whether they knew it or not, the soldiers of these forts and camps were continuing the civilization of back east onto these dispersed outposts on the frontier. In the forts at New York, Boston, Washington, Norfolk, Charleston, and others, officers and common soldiers had varied levels of interaction with the civilian population surrounding them, with the lower classes, usually immigrants of different ethnic or racial backgrounds filling the lowest of jobs, including prostitution. The same was true for native women. Being of the lowest of classes, even below that of African Americans, they endeavored to raise their financial situation by any means possible, ranging from being hired as laborers on nearby farms to selling their bodies.
Yet there are bright spots within the dark and depressing history of Oregon and Illahee, such as the case of Holmes v. Ford in 1853, where a former African slave defeated his former master in public court for the custody of his children. This case is documented in Gregory R. Nokes’ books, Breaking Chains: Slavery on trial in the Oregon territory, and will definitely be discussed in detail in a later post.
Also, there is the case of the Clatsops, Tillamooks, and Chinooks, and their original treaties with white authorities on what land they were willing to give up to white encroachment. Not only did they outmaneuver the white delegates at the negotiation table, but they even forced them to agree to remove white settlers from certain areas of their land. The only sour note was that these treaties were also ones that the territorial government would never agree to.
My endeavor with this blog is to gradually and deliberately document the antebellum history of Oregon and Illahee, with a special attention given to Fort Hoskins and the Willamette river valley. This was the land that native tribes called Illahee, and the settlers called Oregon, or ‘the land at Eden’s gate’. Regardless of ethnicity, race, nation, or creed, millions of people called Oregon home. The story of Oregon has largely been replaced by a facade of soil driven, pious farmers who were not violent in the least, lackadaisical natives who had all but disappeared by the time Euro-Americans came over the trails in the 1840s, and a geo-political area that had little to no military involvement until the advent of WWII and the Japanese attack on Fort Stevens at the mouth of the Columbia river. All of these assumptions are incorrect, and as a historian and enthusiast, I am excited to start debunking the myths and illuminating the true history of this incredible state. I look forward to sharing with you, my readers, and hearing your feedback. Send me emails about things that you want to hear about, and what I may have gotten wrong (I am human, after all!). All I ask is that you keep comments professional and respectful. Hate messages are not acceptable here and will not be tolerated.
Lets look deeper!
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