Molala

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This article is about the Native American people. For their extinct language, see Molala language. For other uses, see Molalla (disambiguation).

The Molala are a Native American people of Oregon that originally resided in the Western Cascades. Descendants of the Molala reside on the Confederated Tribes of the Grand Ronde Community of Oregon, Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians, and the Klamath Tribes.[1] In the 1950s 141 of the 882 Grand Ronde Reservation members claimed Molala descent.

As of 2008, Molala produced beaded moccasins and woven baskets were on display at the British Museum, the Burke and Whatcom Museums of Washington, and the Museum of the Oregon Territory of Oregon City, Oregon.[2]

Name

The designation Molala is considered to have originated from the Clackamas muláliš.[3][4] Variants in written literature include Molalla,[5][6] Molallie,[7] Mólale,[8] Molále,[8] Molele,[9] Moolalle.[10] Related terms used by neighboring indigenous included mólališ by the Wasco and Tenino,[11] and mulé•lis by the Kalapuyans.[12] The Tenino additionally referred to the Molalas as łytilpam and táytilpam,[11] likely borrowed by the Cayuse as tlĭ-tŭn-pŭm.[13] The Molalas were called kúikni by the Klamath.[14]

Mythology

Only a few Molala myths remain extant, recorded by ethnographers in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.[15]

Boas recounts a story told by the Molala of the world once being entirely covered in water. As the world ocean receded, Mount Hood became exposed first and latter the Willamette Valley.[3]

A prominent story is the creation of the Molala people, told by Stephen Powers to Gatschet in 1877.[16] One day near Mount Hood, Coyote encountered Grizzly Bear, who challenged them to a duel. Rather than combat, Coyotes suggests on seeing who could eat the most hot stones. However, instead of ingesting rocks, Coyote ate wild strawberries. After eating five hot stones Grizzly Bear died and Coyote studied the corpse:

He skinned Grizzly, then began cutting him up; he scattered his body in little pieces all over. Then to the Molala country he threw the heart. He said, "Now the Molala will be good hunters: they will all be good men, thinking and studying about hunting deer. They will think all the time they are on a hunt."[17][6][16]

Language

Main article: Molala language

The Molala language is extinct. Currently it is included among the Plateau Penutian language family, with Klamath and Sahaptin being considered the closest related.[18][19]

The first written vocabulary of the Molala language was published by Horatio Hale in 1846. As a member of the United States Exploring Expedition, he had visited the Pacific Northwest in 1841. Missionary Marcus Whitman was credited for providing "much valuable information" about the Cayuse people and other natives nearby Waiilatpu.[20] Hale also recorded a Cayuse language vocabulary with Whitman's assistance. In his Waiilatpuan language family, Hale put Cayuse and Molala as the sole members.[21]

Bruce Rigsby reexamined the Cayuse-Molala lexical pairs provided by Hale and found only a tenth to be related terms. Whitman was credited as the origin of the Waiilatpuan linguistic family. Upon his review of extant Molala and Cayuse linguistic data, Rigsby concluded "I do not see how the two languages could have possibly been mutually intelligible."[22]

Subdivisions

The Molala are usually separated into two groups, although scholars have presented evidence of a third existing. However, little is recorded of the linguistic and cultural diversity among the Molala peoples.[23] The three reported groupings are the Southern Molala, the Upper Santiam Molala, and the Northern Molala.[24]

The Southern Molala inhabited the headwaters of the Rogue and Umpqua Rivers along the bases of Crater Lake and Mount McLoughlin. They were called tulǽyaŋsi, far-off people, by the Northern Molala,[25] while the Klamath referred to them as čakġe•nkni•, "Serviceberry-Area-People"[26][24] or "People of the Serviceberry Tract."[6]

Molala of the Santiam River are called the "Upper Santiam Molala" by ethnologists to differentiate them from the neighboring Santiam Kalapuyans. Franz Boas recorded čimbú•ihe as a native settlement outside Albany,[3] which was later reported by Albert S. Gatschet as a Molala village located on the Santiam headwaters.[27][24]

The Northern Molala principally were concentrated along the Molalla River, but also maintained winter settlements in the Pudding River watershed. The only recorded Northern Molala autonym is lá•ti•wi, used to mean both "Molala person" and "Molala people".[24]

Culture

Roosevelt Elk
Columbian Black-Deer

Throughout the summer and autumn, the Molalas dug for the tubers of camas and wapato and collected regional berries.[28]

Wild Strawberries
Blue Elderberries
Thimbleberries
Pacific Serviceberry

Located nearby Crater Lake, Huckleberry Mountain was the "single-most important berry-gathering area" for the Southern Molala and Klamath.[29] Edible berries in the vicinity include the Pacific Serviceberry, Manzanita Berry, Wild Strawberry, Black Twinberry, Evergreen Blackberry, Blackcap Raspberry, Thimbleberry, Blue Elderberry, Red Elderberry, Wax Currant, and Rose hips from the local Wild Rose.[30][31]

History

Conflict with slave raiders

Groups of armed Nez Perce and Cayuse occasionally attacked Molala settlements for slaves.[32] Gatschet reported the last known Cayuse raid occurred in the late 1820s.[16] A Molala man of social prominence was killed in the attack. A Clackamas man served as an intermediary between the Molala and the Cayuse raiders to arrange for a battle. In the ensuing two day skirmish the Molalas considered themselves victorious.[33][34]

Tensions with settlers

In late March 1848, settlers burnt down a Molala headman's household who was out hunting. William T'Vault admonished the violence for creating tension with the natives of the Willamette Valley. The violence was in retaliation for a visiting Klamath having stolen "some article of trifling value..."[35]

During the Spring 1848, eighty Klamath people arrived in contemporary Clackamas county. This occurred during the ongoing Cayuse War, which provoked settler paranoia of indigenous violence. The Klamath were asked to leave, but they refused. Local Molala headman Crooked Finger protected the right for Klamath to reside among their Molala relatives. After a series of thefts, an armed group of settlers killed several Klamath and forced them to flee eastwards into the Cascade Mountains.[36]

During June 1848 a group of Molala or Klamath were suspected of stealing clothing and a horse. A militia was formed and pursued the group of natives, who abandoned the settler's horse and two horses of their own.[37]

Treaty negotiations

In 1850 Anson Dart was appointed Oregon Superintendent of Indian Affairs. Federal orders were for the various native peoples residing west of Cascades to be forcibly relocated to reservations established to the east of the mountains. Dart started negotiations with the various Willamette Valley natives in Spring 1851 at Champoeg. He was unable to get anyone to agree to removal into Eastern Oregon. The general lack of knowledge of available food resources in the unfamiliar region caused much of the protest.[38]

Going against his initial orders, Dart eventually acquiesced to establishing reservations in the Willamette Valley.[39] Among the Treaties drafted by Dart were two for the Molala. In exchange for yielding much of their territory, on 6 May, the Northern Molala agreed to payments of goods, cash, and a reservation centered on the Molalla River eastwards to the Cascades. On the following day the Upper Santiam Molala agreed to similar terms, with a reservation going from Mt. Jefferson westward to the Santiam River.[40][10] There were 121[15] or 123[41] Molalas total between the two groups.

Because these agreements allowed for the Kalapuyans and Molala to retain portions of the Willamette Valley, settlers protested the Dart Treaties. Their complaints reached the US Congress, which subsequently refused to approve the Treaties.[42][39] Dart resigned in consequence, leaving the issue of Molala sovereignty unresolved.[40]

Joel Palmer was the next Superintendent who negotiated a series of Treaties with Oregon Natives that were largely approved by the Federal Government. At Dayton in January 1855 he oversaw a series of negotiations that resulted in the Willamette Valley Treaty. Among others, the Northern and Upper Santiam Molala agreed to abandon the Willamette Valley in favor of a location selected by Palmer.[43] The agreement was ratified by Congress in March 1855.

Reservation

During the winter of 1855-1856 the Northern Molala and Upper Santiam Molala were forced to relocate to the newly established Grand Ronde Reservation.[44] In 1889 there were reportedly 31 Molalas residing on the Grand Ronde Reservation.[7]

In 1857, settlers located around Molalla complained about the nearby Grand Ronde Reservation:

"[Natives are] constantly annoying the settlers by passing to and fro over our premises, leaving fences down, and occasionally committing petit larcenies...The fact is, these Indians are a nuisance..."[45]

Reportedly in November 1870 an outbreak of smallpox spread among the Molala residing in Clackamas County.[46]

To avoid the settler violence, some Southern Molala moved onto the Klamath Reservation during the mid-19th century.[47][48] In April 1870, a Molala resident of the Klamath Reservation named Spike attempted to kill three people, succeeding in murdering one Klamath. He was captured and presented to Agency officials. After a short trial Spike was executed by hanging.[49] In 1881 there 55 Molalas living among the Klamath.[15]

Tygh Valley hypothesis

In 1928 James Teit presented the idea that the Molala once resided in Tygh Valley. He claimed pressure from the Northern Paiute forced the Molala to relocate to the Western Cascades.[50] Joel V. Berreman accepted Teit's hypothesis and in 1937 expanded upon it.[51]

The three informants used by Teit were appraised as being invalid by other scholars. None were descendants or related to the Molala, Northern Paiute, or the Tenino. According to George Murdock this didn't "constitute an adequate basis for a definitive reconstruction of the history" of these native societies.[52]

In the 1930s Tenino informants of the Warm Springs Reservation told Murdock that Molalas once had a winter village in Tygh Valley. Large quantities of Sockeye salmon and Columbia River redband trout were gathered every spring along the Deschutes River at Sherars Falls. According to Murdock, sometime in the early 19th century, coveting this bountiful resource, Tenino warriors forced the Molala to flee to the western Cascades.[28]

During the 1960s, Rigsby interviewed several informants at the Warm Springs Reservation to match Murdock's narrative. No one recalled stories of conflict with the Molala, or of their supposed eviction from Tygh Valley. One informant stated that after the fish runs ended in the Willamette Valley, certain Molala would travel to Sherars Falls to continue fishing.[53]

After a decade of work among the Wascos and Sahaptins of Warm Springs, David H. French determined that Sahaptin inhabitation of Tygh Valley and utilization of the Deschutes Watershed predated the 19th century. Both French and Rigsby concluded the regional resources were jointly used by Sahaptin speakers, Wasco-Wishram peoples, and the Northern Paiute. The Molala perhaps visited but didn't permanently inhabit the area during the 19th century.[54]

Notable Molala

Bibliography

Articles

Books

Manuscripts

Maps

Newspapers

Theses

Websites

References

  1. ^ Zenk & Rigsby 1998, pp. 444–445.
  2. ^ Chapman & Ray 2008, p. 11.
  3. ^ a b c Boas 1890.
  4. ^ Jacobs 1959, p. 551.
  5. ^ Berreman 1937, p. 44.
  6. ^ a b c Johnson 1999.
  7. ^ a b McClane 1889.
  8. ^ a b Gatschet 1877a.
  9. ^ Hale 1846, p. 214.
  10. ^ a b Gibbs & Starling 1851.
  11. ^ a b Rigsby 1969, pp. 80–81.
  12. ^ Jacobs 1936.
  13. ^ Rigsby 1969, p. 134.
  14. ^ Gatschet 1890, p. 157.
  15. ^ a b c Zenk & Rigsby 1998, p. 444.
  16. ^ a b c Gatschet 1877b.
  17. ^ Ramsey 1977, p. 118.
  18. ^ Pharris 2006, pp. 358–359.
  19. ^ NLA 2005.
  20. ^ Hale 1846, p. 542.
  21. ^ Hale 1846, p. 561.
  22. ^ Rigsby 1969, pp. 82–83.
  23. ^ Minor & Pecor 1977, p. 80.
  24. ^ a b c d Zenk & Rigsby 1998, p. 445.
  25. ^ Rigsby 1969, p. 78.
  26. ^ Gatschet 1890, pp. 157, 426.
  27. ^ Gatschet 1877, p. 363.
  28. ^ a b Murdock 1938, pp. 396–398.
  29. ^ Deur 2002a, p. 30, 32.
  30. ^ Deur 2002b, p. 20-21.
  31. ^ Turner 2017.
  32. ^ Rigsby 1965, p. 240.
  33. ^ MacKey 1972, pp. 64–65.
  34. ^ Minto 1903, p. 241.
  35. ^ T'Vault 1848.
  36. ^ Lewis 2017.
  37. ^ Curry 1848.
  38. ^ CTSI 2024.
  39. ^ a b Coan 1921, p. 56.
  40. ^ a b Lewis 2014.
  41. ^ Schnebly 1851.
  42. ^ Spores 1993, p. 178.
  43. ^ Spores 1993, pp. 181–183.
  44. ^ Jette 2014.
  45. ^ Adams 1857.
  46. ^ Brown 1870.
  47. ^ Deur 2002a, p. 33.
  48. ^ Deur 2002b, p. 12.
  49. ^ Clarke 1870.
  50. ^ Teit 1928, p. 100-101.
  51. ^ Berreman 1937, p. 44-46.
  52. ^ Murdock 1938, p. 400.
  53. ^ Rigsby 1969, p. 80.
  54. ^ Rigsby 1969, p. 81-82.
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