The Oregon Historical Society in Portland, in an exhibit called “Oregon My Oregon” tells the state’s history from its aboriginal inhabitants through the present day. Some of the displays tell the stories of the early Christian missionaries and the American settlers who flooded into the area from the Oregon Trail.

Missionaries:

Missionaries flooded into Oregon in an attempt to save the Indians from the pagan ways. In addition, Protestant missionaries wanted to save the Indians from the evil influence of the Catholic, mostly Jesuit, priests. The background for this missionary effort is explained in one of the museum’s displays:
“A wave of religious enthusiasm swept over America between 1800 and 1840. The Second Great Awakening persuaded tens of thousands to commit to Christianity. Denominations formed homed and foreign mission societies, published Bibles and religious literature, and dispatched workers to distant lands.”
When the first Catholic missionaries arrived in 1838, they found several hundred fur traders who had been reared as Catholics and who were eager to formalize their marriage vows and baptize their children. With regard Catholic missionaries among the Indians, one museum display states:
“Their vows of poverty, ritual use of bells, candle, and incense, remarkable skill at Indian languages, and development of the Catholic Ladder enhanced their appeal to Native Americans. The Hudson’s Bay Company supported their efforts, ensuring their success.”
The Protestant Christian missionaries often found the Indian indifferent, and at times hostile, to the alien religion that was being forced on them. The Protestants often insisted that the Indians had to adopt all aspects of European culture—clothing, hair styles, family structure, gender roles—in order to become Christian.




Missionaries, both Protestant and Catholic, used visual aids, such as the ones shown above, in attempting to explain Christianity to the Indians.

Settlers:


Following the footsteps of the first missionaries came the American settlers. The flood began in 1843 and by 1850, nearly 10,000 American emigrants had settled in Oregon.





Indian Response:

The First Nations in Oregon did not freely give up their lands, religion, languages, and cultures when the Americans invaded their territories. Indian patriots fought back in a series of wars—none of which was officially classified as a war by the American government. According to one museum display:
“The newcomers took the land and drove the Indians from their villages. The miners were the worst, for they burned the lodges, turned over the gravel bars in their search for gold, and filled the rivers with mud that killed the runs of fish. The settlers brought in hogs that ate the acorns, cattle and horses that cropped off the camas lilies, and plows the turned under the wild bulbs and roots. To protect their log cabins and split-rail fences, the prohibited Indian field-burning that facilitated the harvest of tarweed seeds.”
The United States Senate ratified 13 Oregon treaties in which the tribes gave up most of their territory. Under the terms of these treaties, the Indians were to be confined to reservations where they would be “civilized,” meaning that they would be required to become Christian, speak English, and live in an “American” style. In addition, 18 treaties were negotiated with the tribes between 1851 and 1855 but not ratified by the Senate.



Over the next century, the United States unilaterally reduced the reservations.

