Kalapuya Food Sources

Kalapuya Food Resources

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Camas, courtesy BLM.

Kalapuyans feasted on a variety of plants and animals whose abundance in the Willamette valley and Calapooia Mountain foothills provided a stable source of food. White settlement in the valley greatly altered this food source.

Joel Palmer made the following comments in 1854:

Since the settlement of the country by Whites and the introduction of swine [camas] have gradually diminished in quantity and within the last two years by the inclosing and cultivating [of] the soil where the cammas grows and the increased number of hogs running at large these roots have almost entirely disappeared. the wild game which has formerly been very abundant has also very much diminished.

Food Resources
Habitat
Season
Elk Lower hills, valley floor Fall-winter
Whitetail deer Lower hills, valley floor Year round
Blacktail deer All elevations Year round
Small mammals and game birds Various Year round
Water fowl Marshes, streams, lakes Year round
Fish Rivers, streams, lakes Year round
Camas Wet prairies and swales Spring-fall
Hazelnuts Dry brushy areas July-August
Acorns Oak woods October
Tarweed seeds Dry prairies August-September
Berries Various Summer-fall
Caterpillars Bottomland woods Summer
Grasshoppers Prairie grasslands August-September

Food resources of the Upper Willamette Valley. Adapted from “Late Archaic Settlement Pattern in the Long Tom Sub-Basin, Upper Willamette Valley, Oregon,” by Richard Cheatham.

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