By Gary Randall, For The Mountain Times
As an avid photographer and a history enthusiast there are times when the two collide. I collect vintage photographs from the Mount Hood area and enjoy learning more about the subjects of the old photos that I find.
It’s very rare to find a photograph of the native people who were here around Mount Hood long ago, but I came across an amazing photo of a native woman and two children that was taken at the old McIntyre Brightwood Store in the early part of the 20th Century. Because I have had an interest in the native people that lived here before us, it made me dive a little deeper.
It’s not commonly known, but our little home on the slopes of Mount Hood is a very culturally important place. For generations the native people would come each season from all directions between spring and autumn to stay and live their cyclical lives.
Where we live was once a confluence of three important ancient trails. One came from the Columbia River Gorge via what is now called Lolo Pass. Another came over from Central Oregon via the south side of Mount Hood – it was followed in places by the old Barlow Trail. The third was the trail that came from the west from the Willamette Valley.
The people from the different tribes all around Mount Hood would gather each season to occupy ancestral camps between Government Camp and the confluence of the Sandy and the Salmon Rivers, including the Salmon River Valley.
The reason for this convergence was to
gather important supplies and to trade with the other peoples who would also migrate to the area. While the men would hunt and fish, the women would harvest food and medicinal roots, herbs, and huckleberries from the plentiful wetlands in the area. They then prepared the bounty for transportation back to their winter homes at the end of the season.
These cycles took place here for thousands of years. It wasn’t until the end of the 19th century, when the native population was dwindling from disease and was being relocated to reservations, that these traditions started to fade.
Samuel and Billy Welch would coexist with the Indigenous People until the influx of non-native people started coming to recreate and to live. By that time the native people
were largely gone from the area. Though the traditions had faded, the natives would still come across the Barlow Trail to travel to the Willamette Valley. Many times, they were bringing herds of horse or sheep to be sold and would spend the night in Welches, their herds in corrals supplied by Billy Welch.
In this modern age it’s hard to imagine the place we call home being occupied by the native people, who for millennia built their migratory lives around our mountains and valleys. It seems like ancient history, but it really wasn’t so long ago. The history of The Mountain includes the history of its native people.