The Beginnings of the Kalapuya People
My name is Esther Stutzman and I am Kalapuya and Coos. I would like to talk about the beginnings of the Kalapuya people. One of the stories that I heard from my relatives was about the beginning and how it all came to be.
You see, the world was made of stone. There were stone mountains and stone valleys. At the very top of the stone mountain, something came to life, and that life became known as Le-lu, First Woman, who walked down from that stone mountain with two babies clutched to her breast. As she walked, with every step she took the grass began to grow. And as she sat and as she touched the ground, the rivers began to flow.
And she walked until she came to the valley, the valley of the stone. And there she met Quartux, Mother Wolf, who looked at her and said, “Who are you?” And she said, “I am Le-lu, First Woman.” And Quartux said, “And where did the babies come from?” And Le-lu, First Woman said, “I dreamed of them and they came to me, but I need someone to watch them while I go out and look around in the world.”
Quartux looked at her and smiled and her teeth flashed in the sun. Mother Wolf said, “I will watch them.”
Le-lu was a bit afraid, but something inside of her made her trust Mother Wolf. So she wove a pack basket of wild iris, kliskwis. And put the babies in the pack basket and strapped them to the back of Mother Wolf and just to make sure the babies would be safe and would not fall out, Le-lu also wove a wide strap and strapped those babies around their head in that basket, to make sure they were safe and she went away to look around in the world.
She was gone a long time, but when she came back the babies were safe. Le-lu, Mother Wolf, had taken good care of them. As Le-lu lifted those babies out of that basket she saw that something was different. As she unstrapped them from that basket, took the straps from their head, she noticed that their forehead was flattened. She said, “This is good. From now on our people will flatten the foreheads of the babies in honor of Mother Wolf, who took such very good care of the babies.” Indeed, that’s how life came to this earth.
The people of the Kalapuya did flatten the foreheads of babies to honor the Mother Wolf, who also has a forehead that is flattened. This was a practice that was kept until about a hundred years ago when it was considered to be cruel and it was outlawed by the government. So our people did come to earth and we honor the Mother Wolf. We honor Quartux and we believe that she is the protector of the babies.
Esther Stutzman
Esther Stutzman is Coos and Komemma Kalapuya and is an enrolled member of the Confederated Tribes of Siletz. She lives in Yoncalla, Oregon. The Kalapuya people lived in the Willamette Valley from the Clackamas River area near Oregon City down the valley to the Umpqua River near Roseburg, a span of about 150 miles from the coast range inland to the Cascades. The valley was an oak savannah and the Kalapuya burned the valley to keep the underbrush away. There were about 15,000 tribal people at the time of European contact. There were three distinct dialects among the twelve to thirteen specific groups living in the Willamette Valley, each with its own government and villages
Esther is a storyteller and history keeper. She tells only Coos and Kalapuya stories. Her grandmother told her that it was bad luck to tell other people or other tribes’ stories. Stories are regarded as private property, as are songs. She has thirteen stories she shares with the public. Some of her creation stories tell of the time when animals and people could talk together.
There’s an oral history told of her great-great-grandfather, Camafeema , the headman of the Komemma people who lived in the village, Splachta Alla, near present-day Yoncalla. Locally he was known as Halo. When Halo was confronted by soldiers after the 1855 Willamette Valley Treaty, he refused to move to the reservation. The soldiers didn’t know what to do. The prominent and politically influential Applegate family stepped in. They were extremely good friends with the Komemma people. The soldiers left and Halo and his family of 70-80 people were allowed to stay and were not moved to the reservation.
Very little is known about the dances and music of Kalapuya. Ancestors who went to the reservations quickly adopted the European ways and quit singing and dancing. The Oregon Historical Society has a few tapes of some songs and Esther knows four Komemma family songs. Esther is the chair of a non-profit Kalapuya organization, Komemma Cultural Protection Association, dedicated to researching the Kalapuya and they are doing a lot of research about the dances.
Esther has recreated a Kalapuya basket hat that is made out of spruce root and bear grass. She finds the spruce root on the coast and the bear grass in the valley. She worked with a traditional weaver, went to museums, and talked to a lot of people about exactly how the hats looked. Basketry is being recreated along with a Kalapuya long canoe. A master boat builder, John McCallum, works with many northwest tribes in re-creating their traditional canoes. He is helping with the Kalapuya long canoe.
When Esther does presentations she tries to give an overview of the culture, sometimes taking some items such as a cradleboard or family heirlooms as illustrations. Esther’s audiences include all ages from little children to adults. The settings are in classrooms, in churches, or in community buildings. She also works with summer camp programs for Indian children, works with environmental agencies, and is an advisor for the elders. She takes a hand drum and a big drum to do music with the children. She loves to speak to non-Indian groups. It’s a way, to tell the truth about the tribal culture and also to get the true story to the public rather than rely on stereotypes. Other topics she may consider using involve contemporary issues, treaties, environment and how the Indians took care of the land, and health and wellness. She tries to present a balanced overview to give a good background of what the Indian people were really all about.
Esther published a book of traditional Coos stories in 1997. It was printed on an old historic press in Bandon, Oregon. She was a curriculum developer for K-12 in Coos Bay, Oregon, and works with Indian education programs. She has also worked with the Oregon Folklife Council at the Oregon Historical Society, the Applegate House Heritage Arts and Education in Yoncalla, Oregon, and as a board member of the McKenzie River Gathering Foundation.
Esther Stutzman
PO Box 180
Yoncalla, OR 97499
(541) 580-3810
kalapuya71@live.com