Sanne Godfrey
The News-Review
Since time immemorial, the area now known as the Umpqua Valley has been inhabited by the Cow Creek Umpqua Tribe.
Throughout history they have met, shared stories and held on traditions. They continue to meet, share and educate the younger generation as their tribe has seen a rebirth in recent history.
In 2023, the Cow Creek Band of Umpqua Tribe of Indians grew to nearly 2,000 citizens, donated more than $1 million to the community, offered health care and education to the public and operated businesses throughout the county by doing things “the Cow Creek way” — with a focus on community and helping others.
History: Pre-contact
Before settlers came to America, the Cow Creek Umpqua Tribe lived in southwestern Oregon. The tribe was very mobile — using the entire Umpqua watershed for trading, hunting and gathering.
They used the elk, deer, silver salmon, steelhead, lamprey and other animals for sustenance. They also made extensive use of the huckleberry patches along the Rogue-Umpqua Divide. South Umpqua Falls and Big Rocks were important spots for fishing.
During winter months, they would gather in plank houses and tell stories. One of those is the story of the mountain with a hole in the top, now known as Crater Lake.
This story has been told for generations and in the 1930s Ellen Furlong Crispen published the legend in print.
The legend is about the rift between the man-people and animal-people who had once been friends and were able to talk to each other living near a tall mountain with year-round snow, until an evil chief grew up among the man-people. That chief would put bad thoughts in the minds of man-people and they began to kill animal-people. The animal-people asked their Great Spirit Tamanous for help. The man-people chief was given opportunities to redeem himself, but he grew more and more evil. And Tamanous told the animal-people to leave the area. “The top of that mountain vomited fire. The mountain flew high in the air. Then it sat down on the earth and a sound like thunder shook everything,” the story goes. “Man-people could not breathe that hot wind. The mountain flew high in the air. Now, the mountain had no top. There was a big hole in that top. … The man-people were all dead.” The animal-people returned, but they were lonely and wanted to talk to the man-people. Man-people returned, but the ability to talk and be friends did not.
The moral of the story is that lust for power can unravel relationships and wreck anything in its path.
Contact
Carma Mornarich, executive director of the Cow Creek Umpqua Indian Foundation, grew up in a pioneer family. She remembers hearing stories from her parents and grandparents that when people came from Grants Pass to Canyonville in their wagons, the wagons would break and horses and people would be tired and worn.
Tribal citizens not only shared their food, but also their hunting and farming methods with the newcomers to the area.
On Sept. 19, 1853, the Cow Creek Umpqua Tribe was the second tribe in Oregon to secure a treaty with the United States. According to the treaty, the tribe would give exchange it lands for 2.3 cents per acre and “twenty blankets, eighteen pairs pants, eighteen pairs shoes, eighteen hickory shirts, eighteen hats or caps, three coats, three vests, three pairs socks, three neckerhandkerchiefs, forty cotton flags, one hundred yards prints, one hundred yards domestic, one gross buttons, two lbs. thread, ten paper needles.”
CEO of Cow Creek Band of Umpqua Tribe of Indians Michael Rondeau, who also serves as the tribe’s historian, said, “it was trinkets,” but added that the Cow Creek Umpqua Indians didn’t understand land ownership, or the language, or the concept of signing official documents.
When the Rogue River Indian Wars came to a head in 1855 the treaty was largely ignored and the Cow Creek Umpqua Indians did not receive any of their money and other promises that were made.
When gold was discovered in the area, around the same time, those seeking riches set up claims in the rivers, which destroyed salmon runs, and brought diseases that decimated Indian villages, killing many tribal members including chief Miwaleta.
According to historians, pioneers constructed fences and homes in the area, and forbade field burning for fear that their homes would be destroyed. The miners would send mud down the river, which threatened the fish runs and the firearms decimated deer and elk populations — bringing Cow Creek Umpqua Indians and their new neighbors to the brink of starvation.
The Cow Creek Umpqua Indians were told to move to reservations, but a boy was sent as a scout and reported horrible conditions back to the Tribe. “His first reported sight was of an infant sucking on its dead mother’s breast,” according to the tribal story on the tribe’s website. Given this information, the Cow Creek Umpqua Indians resisted relocation, and the Bureau of Indian Affairs sent exterminators to kill the Cow Creek Umpqua Indians.
While there was discord in the area, many of the Cow Creek Umpqua Indians got along well with settlers in the area and they ended up marrying fur traders, miners and pioneers — many of French-Canadian descent. Dumont, LaChance, Rainville, Pariseau, Rondeau and Thomason are common names in South County — many with ties to the Tribe.
Through marriage, many tribal citizens became literate in English, French and their native Takelma. They used this knowledge to take meeting notes and record important milestones, such as births, deaths and marriages.
And while the Cow Creek Umpqua Indians experienced racism, they also wanted to contribute and be a part of their community. Starting in the 1910s, the Tribe hosted an Indian Rodeo.
“Things work out for a reason,” Rondeau said. “We were forced to integrate.”
Native Americans born on reservations were not considered Americans until 1924. Due to the integration of the Cow Creek Umpqua Indians into the community, some would go unrecognized — although many would experience racism.
Rondeau said when he found his father’s birth certificate in 2004, he realized someone had scratched out the “i” for indian in the race column, and written in a “w” for white. When asked why, he was told it was done by his parents because he could pass for white and they wanted to shield him.
Recognition
Ellen Furlong Crispen advocated for recognition in the 1930s and a bill passed through the House and Senate, but then-President Hoover vetoed the bill saying the U.S. could not afford claims litigation during the Great Depression.
When the Western Oregon Indian Termination Act of 1954 was passed, more than 60 tribes ceased to exist according to the federal government.
“We were terminated for a second time,” Rondeau said.
Tribal members, however, continues to meet several times a year and kept meticulous notes and minutes of those meetings.
Crispen’s daughter, Sue Shaffer, picked up her mother’s effort in the 1970s with the help of other tribal members to restore the tribe and seek legal validation.
Because there had been no prior notification of the termination in 1954, the Cow Creek Umpqua Indians took a land claims court to the U.S. Court of Claims in 1980 where they negotiated a settlement of $1.5 million. That money was vested in an endowment and the earned interest was used to help tribal members through economic development, education and housing.
Mornarich said her family grew up across the river from Shaffer and “Sue was like nobody I’ve ever met, especially of her generation. She was a homemaker, a business woman, an entrepreneur, progressive thinker and community minded.”
Shaffer was able to get the support from community members and politicians alike. And when it came time many people made the trip to Washington, D.C., to testify on behalf of the Cow Creek Umpqua Indians — including Mornarich’s great uncle.
On Dec. 28, 1982, the Cow Creek Band of Umpqua Tribe of Indians was once again recognized as a sovereign tribal government.
Shaffer became the tribal chair in 1983 and held that position until 2010.
“She was a woman of intense determination, and had the ability to work with others to achieve goals,” wrote Stephen Dow Beckham, professor of history at Lewis & Clark. “She was a woman with a lot of vision, she could imagine things that could happen and then set out to accomplish them.”
Shaffer became incredibly well known, not just within the tribe and the community, but on the national stage. She was instrumental in securing funding for a bingo parlor in Canyonville, which would ultimately transform into Seven Feathers Casino Resort.
Rondeau said Shaffer was incredibly strong-willed and was the kind of person who made an impression on anyone who met her.
Mornarich said she once needed money for an FFA event, and the next day Shaffer had a check ready for her.
Susan Ferris, spokesperson for the Cow Creek Band of Umpqua Tribe of Indians, recalled that a group of women from Canyonville wanted to go shopping and have drinks in Roseburg, so they wanted to borrow the Cow Creek shuttle bus. “Sue came through,” Ferris said.
It was under Shaffer’s leadership that the Cow Creek Umpqua Indian Foundation was established in 1997, to redistribute the revenues from Nevada-style gaming into the community.
Shaffer died in Roseburg in 2017 at the age of 94.
FUTURE: Vision
In 2001, Shaffer called Mornarich to ask if she wanted to be a part of the Cow Creek Umpqua Indian Foundation. “When Sue calls and asks for help, you answer the call,” Mornarich said.
The foundation is an arm of the tribe, but Mornarich said they move together. “I’m a representative of the Tribe and I have a ton of respect for what they’ve done and how they’ve continued the traditions, especially around community,” Mornarich said.
As per Oregon law, 6 percent of profits from Nevada-style gaming is dedicated to philanthropy, which the Tribe does through the foundation. In June 2023, the foundation gave nearly $1 million to 85 nonprofits in southwestern Oregon. The top priorities of the foundation are: basic needs, child abuse prevention, education, health and wellness, and community support. “We didn’t want to write ourselves into a corner,” Mornarich said.
While the foundation some times has to turn people away, Mornarich said they make sure to visit the nonprofits and learns about the hiccups, bumps and bruises, so they can help in other ways too.
A 2018 economic benefit analysis by ECONorthwest showed that the “Douglas County economic output was $161 million greater due to the jobs and activities provided by Tribal Government.” Small businesses and self-employed people earned an additional $30.7 million due to tribal contributions.
And while Seven Feathers Casino Resort is the tribe’s flagship business, there are many others such as: Anvil Northwest, Rogue River Ranch, Takelma Roasting Company, Seven Feathers RV Resort, Seven Feathers Truck and Travel, Canyonville Cubbyholes, K-Bar Ranch, Umpqua Indian Utility Cooperative and Umpqua Indian Development Corporation.
Growth
Rondeau likes to quote John F. Kennedy by saying, “A high tide raises all ships.”
He credits the community for backing the tribe in the 1980s when they fought for recognition and wants to help all who support the Tribe, but also focus on the tribal members.
“Sue always said, ‘Without vision the people perish,’” Rondeau said, adding that Shaffer took him under her wing and her wisdoms continue to guide him.
Mornarich said the tribe is always focused on bringing more value to its members, by expanding health care and education and other ventures.
“We grew smart, and in a thoughtful way that would benefit the members,” Mornarich said.
In 1984 the Tribe purchased 29 acres next to Interstate 5 in Canyonville, in 1990 they bought 16 more acres. They used this to build the bingo establishment, which grew into the popular Seven Feathers Casino Resort. By 2003, the Tribe owned 4,000 acres within a 20-mile radius.
Rondeau said when the tribe started operating the bingo parlor in Canyonville, it was a town with 11 churches, six miles from where the Cow Creek Umpqua Indians signed the treaty.
“It’s in our cultural makeup to be helpful and peaceful,” Rondeau said. “With our success in business and leveraging our sovereign existence, we’ve been able to take care of our own people in ways that otherwise would fall on public services.”
Cow Creek provides low cost health insurance to members, as well as housing benefits, elder benefits and educational programs.
“Our values have sustained, but we’re going through a rebirth of tribal historical culture,” Rondeau said. “We just want to do what’s right.”
Looking ahead
The tribe has grown from seven families in the 1980s to nearly 2,000 members in September 2023.
Just like centuries ago, the Cow Creek Umpqua Tribe still gathers in the winter for cultural arts and storytelling, passing along traditions and tales — such as the story of the mountain with a hole in the top — to the youngest citizens.
They’re also working to revive their language, Takelma. Through this language restoration it has also renewed the meaning to certain customs and traditions.
“Growing up every time people would go to leave, my dad said ‘Go to the freezer and grab a salmon or elk backstrap’ and I never knew why,” Rondeau said. When he asked his father he just said, “it’s just what we do.” Through historical research he learned that this was done for centuries by Cow Creek Umpqua Indians people as a tradition to help weary travelers.
Rondeau said the Tribe continues to embrace those traditions of helping the community. And while traditions are important, the Tribe is open to change and embrace new ideas.
“Nothing is laughed at,” Ferris said. “All ideas are embraced and heard.”
Rondeau said he learned that you need to “bring about change at a rate people can accept.”
“Change is hard, but we understand it is a part of life” he continued. “We want to make our ancestor proud, but embrace change.”
When it comes to making decisions about what’s best for the future of the Tribe, Rondeau said they try to look seven generations ahead and make tough decisions.
“You can do anything you want, but you can’t do everything,” Rondeau said.
The Tribe opened Yimisa Preschool in Myrtle Creek to help provide educational opportunities to its members, as well as community members, and work toward a brighter future.
At the same time the tribe is hoping to add more jobs in Douglas County that require an education, giving those who leave the area for education a reason to come back to their ancestral lands and lead the Tribe into the future.
This story was shared via AP Storyshare.