Native Portland Series, 6: Place Names

Realizing the place names I have become so familiar with represented real people and real cultures was one of my first "aha" moments when I began to become aware of the indigenous host peoples here.

Around Portland, you encounter many names that are of local tribes, some from Pacific Northwest tribes, and some that appear randomly chosen from a list of North American tribes (Tualatin, I'm talking to you).  There is no exhaustive list of Native American place names in the area that I could find.  Maybe this is a good project for a school's Native American studies curriculum!!

It was beyond my resources to organize these or categorize them, but I supply my list, at the bottom, and have chosen just one to explore, because it is near to my house.  If you encounter these streets, rivers, counties, cities, and the like, I challenge you to do a simple Bing or Google search and find out what is behind the name.  From my own neighborhood, I submit:

Taken from the Appaloosa breed site:  The Appaloosa is a breed of horse that was developed by the Nez Perce from stock introduced when the Spanish first brought horses to the continent in the 16th century. Prior to the introduction of the horse, the Nez Perce were fishing people. They became adept horse breeders, and became storied among Native Americans for their hunting skills, craftsmanship and very fine horses. Meriwether Lewis commented on the breed in his diaries from the expedition in 1806:

"The horses appear to be of an excellent race; they are lofty, eligantly (sic) formed, active and durable...some of these horses are pided (sic) with large spots of white irregularly scattered and intermixed with black, brown, bey (sic) or some other dark color."

There is a beautiful story that connects to the Appaloosa, about restoration.  It concerns C.E.S. Woods (1852-1944), a noted Portland attorney, advocate, and artist, a friend of radicals Emma Goldman, Margaret Sanger and John Steinbeck.  As a young man he fought as an infantry officer in the Nez Perce war in 1877, which resulted in the Nez Perce being exiled from their lands. Woods  came to befriend Chief Joseph, and his ancestors have been involved in restoring breeding stock to the Nez Perce. You can read a little about it here.

Photo: 
Apaloosa Museum 






Other Place Names encountered in the Greater Portland area:

Siskiyou St

Klickitat St

Multnomah St

Tillamook St

Siletz Ct.

Chinook St

Umpqua Lane

Umatilla St

Molalla Ave

Kalapuya Dr (Silverton)

Yamhill Dr

Santiam Dr                                     

Shasta Trail

Clatsop St

Camas Lane

Nez Perce Ct

Cayuse Ct

Appaloosa Way

Alsea Ct

Chetco Ct (Keizer)

Klamath Ct

Modoc Ct

Siuslaw Lane

Takelma Ct (Keizer)

Coquille Dr

Wasco St

Wishram Ct

Cowlitz Dr

Yaquina Ct

Modoc Ct

Chehalis St

The Tualatin collection (some of these are regional, most aren't!)

Seminole Trail

Shoshone Dr

Nisqually Ct

Apache Dr

Cree Circle

Arapaho Rd

Mohawk St

Warm Springs St

Tonka St

Iroquois Dr

Ochoco Dr

Chelan St

Makah Dr

Winema Dr 

Dakota Dr

Moratoc Dr  

Mandan Dr

Choctaw St

Iowa Dr

Oneida St

Seneca St

Places:

Clackamas:     River, County

Multnomah:    County, Suburb

Tualatin:         City, River

Willamette:     River