74

memaloose island

BEAVER BOARD INFORMATION

REMAINS OF PRE-HISTORIC DEAD ON MEMALOOSE ISLAND, 1888Photo: John B. Horner
Until very recent times, the Indian peoples of the Columbia River did not bury their dead. Instead, bodies were wrapped in robes or tule mats and deposited in canoes that were placed in the woods, on rocky points, or in cedar vaults on islands like Memaloose. The name Memaloose is derived from the Chinook word memalust, which means "to die." The Corps of Discovery, under the command of Meriwether Lewis and William Clark, passed this island in their quest to reach the Pacific ocean on 29 October 1805 -- they called it "Sepulcher Island" (burial island). On their homeward journey, the explorers visited the island on 15 April 1806, and Lewis noted, "thirteen sepulchers on this rock which stands near the center of the river and has a surface of about 2 acres above high water mark."
Memaloose Island
Photo:
NS.Nature.Pictures

FACT BLOCK

LOCATION:
Mosier
Wasco COUNTY

GPS COORDINATES
45.69596,-121.33817

OTIC topic:
Historic Routes, Indian Tribes

beaver board text CODED AS:
NO WHITE SUPREMACY ACKNOWLEDGMENT
-
false MULTICULTURAL information

published online:
september 25, 2011
75

james w. nesmith

BEAVER BOARD INFORMATION

James W. Nesmith, born in New Brunswick, Canada on July 23, 1820, was among the first emigrants to trek the Oregon Trail in 1843. He filed a land claim near present day Monmouth in 1844, and the following year took part in the formation of Oregon’s Provisional Government.

Nesmith was elected to the Territorial Legislature in 1847, and was instrumental in the formation of Polk County. In 1853, Nesmith was appointed U.S. Marshall for the Oregon Territory and between 1857-59 he served as the region’s Superintendent of Indian Affairs. 1861-67 found Nesmith in the U.S. Senate, and the year 1873 saw him again in Washington, D.C. as Oregon’s Representative to Congress. James W. Nesmith died at his home near this site on June 17, 1885. He is buried in the family plot in Nesmith Historical Park along Rickreall Creek.

FACT BLOCK

LOCATION:
Rickreall
Polk COUNTY

GPS COORDINATES
44.9415,-123.2285

OTIC topic:
Settlers

beaver board text CODED AS:
NO WHITE SUPREMACY
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
-
false MULTICULTURAL
information

published online:
september 25, 2011
76

nez perce

BEAVER BOARD INFORMATION

Wallowa Valley, summer homeland of the Joseph Band Nez Perce, was part of the expansive Nez Perce reservation established by the treaty of 1855. Upon discovery of gold in the region, the U.S. eliminated the reservation in the Wallowas in 1863.

The Joseph Band held on until 1877 when, under pressure from increasing white settlement, they were ordered to abandon their ancestral homeland. Violent conflicts ensued as the Joseph Band joined other Nez Perce and Palouse bands on a historic 1,170 mile retreat.

After five months of elusive flight, with his people exhausted, freezing and heavily outnumbered, Joseph in dignified surrender proclaimed: ‘from where the sun now stands I will fight no more forever.’ With promises made by the generals at their surrender broken, the Nez Perce were never allowed to return home though Chief Joseph pleaded their case until his death in 1904.

FACT BLOCK

LOCATION:
Enterprise
Wallowa COUNTY

GPS COORDINATES: 45.424156,-117.293132

OTIC topic:
Indian Tribes

beaver board text CODED AS:
WHITE SUPREMACY ACKNOWLEDGMENT: under pressure from increasing white settlement, they were ordered to abandon their ancestral homeland. Violent conflicts ensued as the Joseph Band joined other Nez Perce and Palouse bands on a historic 1,170 mile retreat.
-
false MULTICULTURAL information