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Document:
Kalapuya Food Resources
Camas, courtesy BLM.
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Because the Willamette
Falls on the lower Willamette River created a nearly impassable barrier
for salmon, the Indians of the Willamette Valley did not rely on fish as a food source
like so many Pacific Northwest Native groups. Instead, Kalapuyans feasted
on a variety of plants and animals whose abundance in the Willamette
valley and Calapooia Mountain foothills provided a stable source of food.
White settlement in the valley greatly altered this food source.
Joel Palmer made the following comments in 1854:
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Since the settlement of the country by Whites and the introduction of swine
[camas] have gradually diminished in quantity and within the last two years by the
inclosing and cultivating [of] the soil where the cammas grows and the increased number
of hogs running at large these roots have almost entirely disappeared. the wild game
which has formerly been very abundant has also very much diminished.
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Food
Resources
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Habitat
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Season
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| Elk |
Lower hills,
valley floor |
Fall-winter |
| Whitetail
deer |
Lower hills,
valley floor |
Year round |
| Blacktail
deer |
All elevations |
Year round |
| Small mammals
and game birds |
Various |
Year round |
| Water fowl |
Marshes, streams,
lakes |
Year round |
| Non-anadromous
fish |
Rivers, streams,
lakes |
Year round |
| Camas |
Wet prairies
and swales |
Spring-fall |
| Hazelnuts |
Dry brushy
areas |
July-August |
| Acorns |
Oak woods |
October |
| Tarweed seeds |
Dry prairies |
August-September |
| Berries |
Various |
Summer-fall |
| Caterpillars |
Bottomland
woods |
Summer |
| Grasshoppers |
Prairie grasslands |
August-September |
Food resources of
the Upper Willamette Valley. Adapted from "Late Archaic Settlement
Pattern in the Long Tom Sub-Basin, Upper Willamette Valley, Oregon,"
by Richard Cheatham.
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