Eugene, Oregon History: Kalapuya Territory

Approximate Area Native Americans Lived

Long before Eugene became a city, before explorers and settlers traveled to the area that is now known as Oregon, Native Americans had already made it their home. The Kalapuya Native Americans were the main tribe living in the Willamette Valley. They called this area Walama which means “to spill or pour water.” Water is sacred to the Kalapuya natives. It is important to them, and they celebrate it.

The Kalapuya peoples were semi-nomadic. This means everyone lived in a village in the winter, but small groups of people left the village for a period of time to search for food during the warmer months. The rich soil created by the floods allowed plants to grow, which provided food for the Kalapuyans and also to the animals they hunted.

Camas Flowers

Kalapuyans traveled to catch salmon, trout, and eels. They hunted birds, deer, bear, elk, and also ate grasshoppers and caterpillars. They gathered berries, hazelnuts, and tarweed seeds. A very important food for the Kalapuya Native Americans was the roasted root of the camas flower. The Kalapuyans also carefully burned grassland in certain areas. This is called a controlled burn. The controlled burns helped camas bulbs grow larger and protected other food sources from insects. Camas, shown in the picture, still grows wild in Eugene and other areas of the Willamette Valley. No one has to plant it.

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