Grand Ronde Community

Absolutely.

I'm here on the original territory of the Multnomah, Wasco, Cowlitz, Siletz, Cathlamet, Clackamas, Bands of Chinook, Tualatin, Kalapuya, Malala, Grand Ronde, and many others, also known as Portland, Oregon.

Wow.

So many groups in one space.

He says many are familiar with the Oregon Trail and how settlers came here, but there is so much more to know about those who lived and traveled on these lands long before colonization.

David is a member of the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde and a descendant of the Tekelma, Chinook, and Santiam peoples of western Oregon.

He's an assistant professor of anthropology and indigenous studies at Oregon State University.

David, welcome to Unreserved.

Wawa means to talk.

And so it became a true language, like what we call a first language, in the reservation period here because lots of peoples that were removed to reservations, that's the only common language between many of the tribes.

So at Grand Ronde, we got 32 tribes moved there from all throughout Oregon and the Columbia.

And there's five or six languages that came there that were not mutually touchable.