The Daily Courier Growing up with celebrates 125 years by holding up a mirror to the people Josephine County and their times March 11, 2010 Section E The times: 1848-1900 A four-week look at who we were, 1848 to present elcome to the Daily publishing stories about and photos special sections that will appear on as the sacred rock of local Indians, and from the histories of both Josephine Thursdays from March 11 through wrote about interesting happenings, Courier’s 125th County and the Daily Courier, since April 1. The sections will appear such as the county’s most sensational Wanniversary edition. they’ve been so intertwined over the chronologically, with the earliest events murders. The first edition came out many years. The newspaper has been in the first one. Reporters were split We hope readers enjoy the sections “Growing up with Josephine County” into two-person teams to cover four dif- and savor the tidbits on this stroll April 3, 1885. for most of the county’s existence. ferent eras and turned loose. They were through history. ■ AUG. 14, 1848: Con- To celebrate, the Daily Courier is Their stories are being told in four excited as they uncovered tidbits, such — Dennis Roler, editor gress creates the Oregon Terri- tory. At the time, the region was occupied by British and French-Canadian fur traders and a handful of settlers who traveled via the Oregon and ‘Holocaust’ led to Indian massacre Applegate trails. ■ SEPT. 27, 1850: The Donation Land Claim Act is enacted by Congress to pro- mote homestead settlement in On a Monday in 1855, the Indians decided they could take no more the Oregon Territory. The act granted 160 acres to every By Stacy D. Stumbo who descended on a village on unmarried white male citizen of the Daily Courier Little Butte Creek near what is who was 18 years or older, now Eagle Point. They killed and 320 acres to every mar- or thousands of years the between 40 and 80 villagers, ried couple. inhabitants of Josephine mainly old men, women and ■ SPRING 1851: Gold is FCounty believed in a children. The survivors strag- discovered on Josephine supreme being called the Chil- gled into Fort Lane and the Creek in the Illinois Valley, lur- dren Maker. Table Rock Reservation to ing thousands of miners to the This creator oversaw the inform their brethren about American Indians who called what happened. While some area. the Rogue River Valley home. refused to break the terms of a The Takelma, Latgawa, Shasta treaty they had signed two years Costa, and Tututni were among earlier, others sought retribu- them. Although the Children tion. Maker’s people shared the Atha- “My people fought back paskan language, as with many because they believed the cre- families, they had their own bat- ator made this land for them,” tles. But, the arrival of white Pilgrim said. “To them, the settlers and a gold rush would water was sacred. Their table give them the fight of their was set with salmon and they lives. could enjoy berries and camas ■ SEPT. 10, 1853: The From first contact, the habits bulbs. The miners came and all Rogue River Tribe of Indians and beliefs of the native popula- they cared about was digging signs a treaty with the United tions were at odds with the for gold.” States ceding their lands in whites. French-Canadian fur According to “History of the Southern Oregon in exchange traders called them “coquin,” Pacific Northwest Oregon and for a reservation and $60,000. meaning “rogue.” The name Washington 1889,” early the next ■ 1855-56: Ongoing hostili- stuck. morning a war party killed a ties between the Rogue River Many natives succumbed to teamster near the reservation. tribes, miners and settlers disease brought by the newcom- They then proceeded down the ers. Women were frequently Oregon and California road and escalate into war. Many people stolen and enslaved by miners. attacked a pack train near Jew- are killed. ■ Children were murdered without ett’s Ferry, killing one man and JAN. 22, 1856: remorse. TIMOTHY BULLARD/Daily Courier seriously wounding another. Josephine County is recog- Historian Nathan Douthit From there, they moved to nized by the Territorial Legisla- estimates the native population Agnes Baker-Pilgrim, 85, stands in front of a monument at the burial site of a Evans Ferry, where they killed ture. It takes its name from in southwest Oregon in 1850 to Takelma Indian woman that was discovered during construction of Taprock North- two more men. Josephine Rollins, the first be about 3,800, though there may west Grill in 2009. Baker-Pilgrim is the oldest living Takelma Indian. Baker-Pilgrim In a letter to Congress, C.S. white woman to live in the have been more than 9,000 prior said the river was significant to her people in life and in death. She bears three Drew, who led a regiment of the area. to the arrival of miners, trap- vertical striped tattoos on their chin — a puberty rite practiced by Takelma girls Oregon Mounted Volunteers, ■ FEB. 14, 1859: Oregon pers and settlers. By the end of said the tribes divided their becomes the 33rd state. in 1856, only 590 remained. before reservation life ended the practice. force into several parties, and ■ 1861: The Civil War “It was a holocaust,” said made their attacks at different begins after 11 southern slave Agnes Baker-Pilgrim, the oldest violence became an almost daily would be killed unless they Several invalids, women and points throughout the area states declare their secession living member of the Takelma occurrence. returned with the head of Tipsu children who were Takelma almost simultaneously. from the United States and tribe. “There is no other word to Circuit Court Judge Matthew Bill, the leader of another band. speakers were massacred on When they reached the Jones form the Confederate States of describe it. So many people Deady happened on a massacre They performed the ugly task, Cow Creek. Three tribesmen house near present-day Grants America. Led by Jefferson were killed needlessly.” of a group of Grave Creek Deady said, and were rewarded were lynched at Fort Vannoy. Pass, J.K. Jones was fatally Davis, they fought against the After some Rogue Valley Takelma at the Bates House upon their return by being exe- On Monday, Oct. 8, 1855, the shot and his wife was wounded. United States (the Union), tribes signed a treaty on Sept. near present-day Sunny Valley cuted and dumped into a mass Indians of the Rogue decided Seeing her husband dying, and after they agreed to a supple- grave. they could take no more. which was supported by all the 10, 1853, ceding their claim to the Indians cutting him to Southern Oregon, instead of the mental armistice in 1853. Within the year, according to J.A. Lupton, a settler who pieces, she fled toward some free states and the five border situation improving, things got He recalled the group was pioneer George Riddle, a young had been elected to the Territor- brush, Drew said. slave states. Oregon was a free worse. A volunteer militia called given a feast before being Indian boy was lynched at the ial Legislature, put together a state. the “Exterminators” formed and locked in a cabin and told they Six Bit House in Wolf Creek. group of about 40 volunteers Turn to MASSACRE, Page 2E Treaty held no sway with Indian chief Tecumtum By Stacy D. Stumbo heart is sick with fighting, but I Siletz Reservation. Two years of the Daily Courier want to live in my country. If later, he and his son Adam were the white men are willing, I will sentenced to imprisonment at s their numbers dwindled go back to Deer Creek, but I will the Presidio, the federal prison due to disease and war- not lay down my arms and go to in San Francisco, for plotting an Afare, many members of the reservation; I will fight.” uprising. While being transport- the Rogue River tribes resigned Tecumtum’s people fled to ed by the steamer Columbia, the themselves to the fact that their the mountains, and hostilities pair attacked their guard and lives would never be as they escalated. In the fall of 1855, one blew the lights out in steerage. ■ were before European contact. of Tecumtum’s sons and another The captain, two ship’s officers MAY 20, 1862: Presi- In 1853, they entered into a member of his band were and five passengers subdued dent Abraham Lincoln signs treaty with the U.S. government lynched by a mob of whites in them. Tecumtum was stabbed in the Homestead Act, giving that established the Table Rock Eureka, Calif. Not long after- the hand and shot through the would-be settlers title to up to Reservation and ceded their ward, a company of volunteers nose. Adam was shot through 160 acres of surveyed govern- claim to lands in Southern Ore- from Jacksonville attacked a the leg. The limb had to be ment land. gon in exchange for $60,000. peaceful Takelma village just amputated before they reached ■ NOVEMBER 1874: Not all tribal members outside the reservation, mas- San Francisco. Hunter Eli- agreed to the terms. sacring dozens of old men, After his daughters begged jah David- Tecumtum (“Elk Killer”), women, and children. for his return, Tecumtum was son dis- also known as Chief John, head- For more than a year, released to the Grand Ronde covers the ed the Etch-ka-taw-wah band of Tecumtum’s band resisted sub- Reservation in 1862.