Last week at our BOGS meeting, Bill Burwell, a Naturalist and author spoke on the history and ethnology of the McKenzie River watershed. He also shared stories of the Kalapuyan Tribe and the early settlers entering the valley.
The tribe lived in winter villages here close to the river and used rock faces for additional shelters while using gill nets to catch salmon as they were skilled fishermen. Women gathered berries and made unique baskets from cedar bark to not only carry them back to the village but to store them. Bill brought a replica for us to see....and it was not only functional but artistic and we were able to "try them on" as they had a fiber rope to hang around the neck . This was enjoyed by everyone as usually these objects are behind glass in a museum or "you can't touch".
The women also used a digging tool to harvest camas which was the source of their starch in the diet. Camas has a root bulb and they learned to cook it on heated rocks. Men hunted using obsidian tools which came from the Obsidian cliffs nearby. They were also used as trade goods and were quite beautiful pieces. We also learned that due to being out in the elements caused dry skin as did their cedar bark "clothes" rubbing on them so from the lamprey eel they were able to obtain an oil they called oolachon pronounced oooolaajohn. Some settlers called them the P.U. tribe which probably meant the oil did not smell all that great.
Burwell also had a book called "Kalapuyan Texts" stories about the tribe colled by a man studying native tribes in the valley in the 1930's...and he told us one about Coyote, the trickster which had a message we could all relate to in 2012.
This was a lecture day at BOGS aka Birds of Oregon and General Science and is a birding group that meets every week . Every other week is a field trip somewhere different to walk and observe birds. We are really enjoying this group and finding new friends.
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