Kalapuya Food Resources
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.