Description
They are a Kalapuyan tribe, whose traditional homelands were on the banks of the Santiam River, which feeds into the Willamette River. Today, they are enrolled in the Confederated Tribes of the Grand Ronde Community and the Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians. The Kalapuya are a Native American people, which had eight independent groups speaking three mutually intelligible dialects. The Kalapuya tribes' traditional homelands were the Willamette Valley of present-day western Oregon in the United States, an area bounded by the Cascade Range to the east, the Oregon Coast Range at the west, the Columbia River at the north, to the Calapooya Mountains of the Umpqua River at the south.
Language
Central Kalapuyan dialect
Culture
They typically consisted of extended families of related men, their wives, and children. They had a patrilineal kinship system. These bands would occupy a year-round village: during the winter they lived there full-time. During the spring and summer, some members split off into smaller groups and traveled to other areas to gather seasonal food and raw materials for basketry. Bands frequently had a single leader or chief who would resolve arguments, settle collective debts of the community such as those incurred through gambling, and would provide food for feasts. Slaves were considered a form of wealth; they were traded to obtain desired commodities, including beads, blankets, and canoes. Women and children were preferred as slaves, owing to their comparative ease of control.