We are proud to announce that our Historic Oregon Newspapers website has been moved out of Beta and officially launched.

During the months when it was in Beta, the site received over 70,000 views. Many followers of this Blog were doubtlessly numbered among those visitors. While we will still be making additions and alterations to the site in the months ahead, you now may be assured that basic functionality has been thoroughly tested and debugged… in other words, the thing is working dependably! You can now expect a site viewing and searching experience free of drops, stops and hiccups. (Well, mostly… it is the Internet, after all!)

For those who are already regular visitors of the site: thanks for bearing with us throughout the development phase.

For those who are just discovering it for the first time: more than 180,000 pages of Oregon’s  newspaper heritage are at your fingertips!

Whether it’s mountain bikes on our high desert trails, hybrid commuters on our city streets, or balloon-tire beach cruisers on our public coastline… Oregonians love riding their bicycles! The Beaver State is a well-known “hub” of self-powered transportation in policy and in practice, so it is interesting to look back to the past and examine the history of this phenomenon. Historic Oregon Newspapers provides an excellent avenue for this kind of research, as the digitized papers date mostly from the late-1800’s and early 1900’s–the first Golden Era of cycling in America.

The earliest form of two-wheeled transportation dates back to a German patent of 1818. Known as the “laufmaschine,” “draisine” or “dandy horse,” this device consisted of a pair of in-line wheels with a saddle and handlebars. However, unlike a true bicycle, it lacked pedals. Rather, the “dandy horse” was propelled by the rider’s feet making contact with the ground in a regular walking or running motion. The new invention created a brief sensation, but failed really to catch on with the general public. One obstacle to its long-term popularity was the need for each unit to be made to measure for a specific rider, in order to conform to the individual’s exact height and stride. Also, being composed entirely of wood, the draisine was not particularly comfortable or durable, and its practical use was all but limited to smooth garden pathways.

The next innovation occurred in France in the 1860’s, when pedals appeared for the first time–initially they were attached directly to the front wheel. This new design was called the “velocipede,” and it proved popular enough that the Michaux company began mass production in 1867. The fact that roads in France were beginning to be paved with macadam at this time seems to have abetted the velocipede craze; though the common nickname “boneshaker” indicates that the ride was still far from smooth. Nevertheless, it did not take long for the new trend to cross the Atlantic. The December 26, 1868 issue of the Jacksonville Oregon Sentinel notes, “The New York Evening Express thinks that traveling by velocipeds, now coming into vogue in New York City and elsewhere in the East, will reduce the receipts of horse railway companies very materially.”

Eugene Meyer of France invented the metal-spoke tension wheel in 1869; ball bearings, solid rubber tires and hollow-section steel frames were innovations that followed in the 1870’s. This was the decade when the high-wheel design nicknamed the “penny-farthing” was most popular. Although they may appear somewhat awkward to us today, their over-sized front wheels made these bikes very fast: witness an article from the May 5, 1876 Salem Willamette Farmer, “Bicycle Vs. Horse.” In the English contest that was the subject of this report, Stanton, the cyclist, defeats “a fast horse named Happy Jack” on a ten-mile course, pedaling a 58-inch, 40-pound “machine” at an average speed of 18 miles per hour.

The era of the penny-farthing was the time when the term “bicycle” first began to be commonly used. In those days, cycling was still regarded as the exclusive province of sporting, aristocratic young men. Even with the continuing advancements in manufacturing technology, the high-wheeled bikes remained expensive, dangerous, and “most unladylike” according to Victorian sensibilities.

All of this would change with the development of the so-called “rover” or “safety bicycle” in the 1880’s. The revolutionary design innovations achieved in this decade included the rear-wheel chain drive, pneumatic tires, and the diamond-pattern frame. Collectively, these inventions produced a bike design that was safer and more comfortable to ride, easier to corner and steer, and much less expensive to manufacture along standardized lines. It was, in summary, the emergence of the familiar bicycle design that is still with us today!

With these key improvements over the old penny-farthing, bicycles became extremely popular with the Middle Classes of Europe and North America. By the decade of the 1890’s, countries on either side of the Atlantic were caught up in the first full-blown “cycling craze.” The popularity of the trend can be tracked in the newspaper advertisements of the day. Not only are there frequent spots advertising bikes for sale, but also early examples of celebrity athlete product endorsements: from the April 1, 1897 Salem Daily Capital Journal comes “For Every Bicyclist, Champion [James] Michael Advises Use Of Paine’s Celery Compound.”

Crucially, the “safety bicycle” was now considered an appropriate–even ideal–mode of transportation for women. The bicycle became a popular symbol of the “New Woman” at the turning of the 20th century, and its impact on female liberation cannot be overstated. The eminent suffragist Susan B. Anthony praised the bicycle: “I think it has done more to emancipate women than anything else in the world. It gives women a feeling of freedom and self-reliance. I stand and rejoice every time I see a woman ride by on a wheel…the picture of free, untrammeled womanhood.”

The popularity of bicycling played a particularly vital role in the movement for “rational dress” for women. As it was next to impossible to pedal safely in restrictive corsets and voluminous, ankle-length skirts, female riders began to substitute a “shocking” new garment called bloomers (see illustration from the Salem Capital Journal above.) Other sartorial innovations soon lead to a whole new style of active wear for women: see “Smart Togs For Cycling” on the Fashion page of the May 20, 1900 Sunday Oregonian.

The popularity of cycling also began to remake the laws of the land in these years. As more and more citizens rode cycles on busy city streets, conflicts with pedestrians became inevitable. “Proposed Bicycle Ordinance” is the headline of a June 18, 1903 article from the Salem Daily Journal. “No matter what they do, they please but a few,” wrote the editors. “Judges at a Baby Show have an easier task than the Council in settling the wheel problem.”

Even the retail landscape was changing. In prior times, cycles were “novelty” items that were mostly sold by carriage shops, general stores, and gun shops. But beginning in the early decades of the 20th century, specialty establishments exclusively dedicated to selling and servicing bicycles began to appear in many Oregon towns.

As cycles became evermore popular fixtures on the American scene, they came to feature in “extreme” forms of public entertainment. Exhibitions of stunt riding began to get coverage in the early Sports Pages, and, thanks to our newspaper digitization, contemporary readers still can thrill to the wheel-borne exploits of the Astonishing Aussie and the Gravity-Defying Diavolo in the pages of the Portland Oregonian. News of long-distance bike touring also intrigued the public: on October 16, 1913 the Ontario Argus reported the arrival of circumnavigating cyclist C. J. A. Pahl in Eastern Oregon. Another novel account is seen in a 1900 item from the Portland New Age, covering an English plan to develop a military corps of cyclists.

Even while many unusual and exciting applications of the bicycle were being discovered, it made its most profound impact in the more humble field of public transportation. Once the eccentric status symbol of rich aristocrats, the bike was now viewed as a highly practical investment for the working man. Bike ownership was regarded as a key to improved health, shorter commuting times, and more wide-ranging leisure. All over America, cyclists’ clubs and societies were formed to promote bicycle use and ownership. The largest of these clubs, the League of American Wheelmen, was one of the first organizations to actively lobby for a system of paved roads throughout the United States.

Sadly, however, the “Golden Age” cycling craze was a phenomenon of the “Gay 90’s” that had mostly run its course by the advent of the “Roaring 20’s.” In the years following World War I, automobiles increasingly assumed the more prominent place on America’s roadways and in Americans’ imaginations. It was a classic incidence of our eternal fascination with that which is newer, bigger, and faster. By the 1940’s, bikes had come to be regarded by most Americans as mere toys, and the great majority of bicycles in the U.S. were now manufactured in children’s sizes. Cycling as a pastime of adults would not return to prominence in America until the early 1970’s. It was, fittingly, a revival that occurred when people began to recognize some of the more negative impacts of our automobile-dependence upon the environment and our lifeways.

Facing as we do the energy and environmental challenges of the present times, we can appreciate how truly forward-thinking were the ethos and attitudes of the earlier cycling enthusiasts. Though they would for a time be entirely displaced by motor cars–on roadways of the Pacific Northwest, as everywhere in the country–bicycles were simply awaiting a renaissance in America. We are proud to note that Oregon is an acknowledged leader in this exciting new era of alternative transportation consciousness! —Jason A. Stone

Over the course of the ODNP project, I have been collecting historical quotes about newspapers and the newspaper business. I thought this would be a good time to share some of my favorites with readers of the blog… Enjoy!

“This is what really happened, reported by a free press to a free people.  It is the raw material of history; it is the story of our own times.”
Henry Steel Commager

“Newspapers cannot be defined by the second word—paper.  They’ve got to be defined by the first word—news.”
Arthur Sulzberg, Jr.

“A good newspaper is a nation talking to itself.”
Arthur Miller

“The newspaper is a greater treasure to the people than uncounted millions of gold.”
Henry Ward Beecher

“Were it left to me to decide if we should have a government without newspapers, or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter.”
Thomas Jefferson

“Most of us probably feel we couldn’t be free without newspapers, and that is the real reason we want newspapers to be free.”
Edward R. Murrow

“People don’t actually read newspapers.  They step into them every morning like a hot bath.”
Marshall McLuhan

“Every time a newspaper dies, even a bad one, the country moves a little closer to authoritarianism…”
Richard Kluger

“I’d love to rise from the grave every ten years or so and go buy a few newspapers.”
Luis Bunuel

“All I know is what I read in the papers.”
Will Rogers

Though their presence in the historical record has often been overlooked, Native Hawaiians actually began coming to Oregon during the earliest periods of Territorial settlement.

In 1811, there were 24 “Sandwich Islanders” among the crew of men sent by John Jacob Astor to establish his trading post at the mouth of the Columbia River. One of these men was Naukane, known to the Euro-Americans of the Northwest as ‘John Cox’ (sometimes ‘Coxe’). Cox would later be remembered as “a bold and trustworthy fellow… a prodigy of wit and humor” (Alexander Ross, Adventures of the First Settlers on the Oregon or Columbia River, 1810-1813, p.115). He was the first Polynesian person to travel into the Northwest interior, accompanying David Thompson on a voyage up the Columbia and helping to establish the Pacific Fur Company’s first inland post, Spokane House. Later, his travels on behalf of the company would take him to Montana, across the continent to Montreal, over the Atlantic to England, and eventually all the way around the globe, back to the Pacific.

Throughout the subsequent decades, Hawaiians continued to work in significant numbers for the northwestern fur trapping companies. At Fort Vancouver and other posts, Polynesians were valued for their skills as swimmers, navigators, boat builders, fishers, and strong manual laborers. They generally signed two- or three-year employment contracts. Most returned to the Islands after completing their term of service, but a not insignificant number settled permanently on the mainland. These people have left a legacy in Oregon place names, such as Kanaka Flats in Jacksonville (Kanaka means ‘person’ in Hawaiian language) and the Owyhee River in southeastern Oregon (Owyhee is an archaic spelling of Hawaii). According to research of the National Park Service, Native Hawaiians also played a significant role in helping to establish the Whitman Mission in 1836.

It is important to keep in  mind that, even though Oregon was a mainland territory settled by Euro-American pioneers, for much of the nineteenth century it was much further “off the beaten track” of world commerce and international communication than was Hawaii. This is evident in issue #12 of Oregon’s first newspaper, the Oregon Spectator, where the editors acknowledge that the international news printed on page one was culled from “Sandwich Island papers.” Items on page 2 of the same issue point to the sometimes competitive nature of the relationship between Oregon Territory and the Hawaiian Islands, as both locales were vying for favored position in the lucrative trans-Pacific shipping trade. The Spectator diffidently notes that the editor of one Hawaii paper, the Polynesian, “…thinks the Americans have attached to Oregon an importance it never did possess.”

Throughout the territorial and early statehood periods, there was but scant journalistic treatment of the Hawaiian people living on the mainland. Almost always referred to as “Kanakas” in Oregon papers, they generally received press coverage only when they were involved in crimes.  Reports of brawls between members of different minority groups were a journalistic mainstay of this period–see one violent example from the May 19, 1860 Jacksonville Oregon Sentinel. In times of Indian unrest, settlers of Southern Oregon sometimes viewed the Native Hawaiians in their midst with outright suspicion. “There were several Kanakas with the Modocs who were advising the Indians to kill the whites and prevent them from surveying and settling their land,” reported the Sentinel on June 26, 1858.

Occasionally, certain aptitudes and attributes of Hawaiians would be praised in print. For example, in the Daily Morning Astorian of March 7, 1884 was published an exposé on ‘Sailors Who Cannot Swim.’ In this piece, a retired whaler captain observes: “The Kanakas are the best swimmers in the world. They all swim at the Sandwich Islands, men, women, babies…”

By the early 1900’s, with Hawaii now firmly ensconced within the United States’ sphere of influence, we find evidence in the Oregon papers of increasing interest with regards the Islands and their people.  In May of 1905, for example, the Portland Oregonian dispatched a correspondent to Honolulu. This reporter, Frederic J. Haskin, filed a number of weekly reports from the Islands before moving on to Asia. In terms of approaching the indigenous culture, probably the most valuable story was the June 11 piece, ‘Folk-Lore and Legends of Old Hawaii.’ Fascination with Island Lore was not limited to adults: on September 24 of the same year, the Oregonian also published in its Sunday children’s pages an adventure story titled ‘Okame, the Hawaiian Shark Hunter.’

The rise of the American middle class in the early decades of the 20th century further fueled this burgeoning interest. More people than ever had sufficient income and leisure time for travel, and it was at this time that Hawaii began to develop its reputation as a “tropical paradise” tourist destination. From Oregon ports, the Islands were particularly accessible, even in the days before commercial airline travel. An item in the May 27, 1914 Klamath Falls Evening Herald announced ‘Ladies To Give Hawaiian Tea’. “Hawaiian melodies, Hawaiian costumes, and Hawaiian refreshments” were to be featured at the event; some of the society ladies who had visited the Islands were also scheduled to read papers they had prepared about their vacations. Another item of interest from this period is ‘Hawaiian Play “Bird Of Paradise” At Page Friday’, from the Medford Mail Tribune of November 12, 1913. The reviewer reports that this drama offers an authentic and unsentimental view of life in the Islands–though his description of the plot strongly suggests otherwise.

While much of this popular-cultural interest in Hawaii and Polynesia was no doubt sincere, we cannot escape the impression that it often proceeded from rather condescending attitudes of romanticized exoticism. In fact, these stories demonstrate the turn-of-the-century roots of a “South Pacific chic” that would culminate in the kitschy “Tiki Bar” fad of the 1940’s and 50’s. These retro lounges are now enjoying a contemporary revival in Portland, as elsewhere.

To learn more about the fascinating history of Hawaiians in Oregon and the Northwest, a couple of excellent resources available online are  Salt Spring Archive’s “Kanaka Timeline-Hawaii to the Pacific Northwest”, and Robert Carlton Clark’s article from Oregon Historical Quarterly, “Hawaiians In Early Oregon.”  —Jason A. Stone

• We are pleased to announce that we have now filled the vacancies on our Advisory Board! Welcome to new members Martha Wells and William Lang. Martha is the former publisher (recently retired) of the Albany Democrat Herald in Albany, Oregon. Bill is Professor of History at Portland State University and Executive Editor of the Oregon Encyclopedia. We are thrilled to have recruited such well-qualified Advisers, and confident that they will provide well-informed perspectives and much valuable input as we continue to move forward with our project.
• In other good news, last week ODNP was gifted with $250 from a private donor who wishes to remain anonymous. This is sufficient to fund the digitization of about 250 pages of historic newspaper content (i.e. $1 = 1 page; the math is pretty simple!) In order for ODNP to continue adding historic content to the web resource, we will need to rely on a number of funding resources. The contributions of individual donors will be a vital part of the puzzle as we cope with the current budgetary challenges in Salem and Washington, DC. Thank you, private donor!

From the sailors of yesteryear to the hipsters of today, there have always been Oregonians who are inclined to “get inked.” The Oregon-centric IFC sketch comedy series Portlandia has gone so far as to declare this the place where “the tattoo ink never runs dry”–and even a brief stroll around Stumptown would probably convince any visitor that tattooing has never enjoyed greater popularity in the Beaver State than it does today. That impression is most likely correct, but Historic Oregon Newspapers confirms that our interest in tattoos goes back much further.

According to textual and archaeological sources, tattooing is an art form that has been practiced for thousands of years in practically every region of the globe. It had even been widely utilized by European peoples in bygone times–ancient Greeks, Gauls, Saxons, Scythians, Thracians and Britons all adorned their bodies in this fashion–but, by the early Middle Ages, the art form had been all but forgotten in the West. It would not be rediscovered until the Age of Exploration, when Europeans first came into contact with Polynesians, Inuit and American Indians. In fact, the word ‘tatau’ (meaning ‘to mark’) comes to us from the Tahitian language; it was first recorded in the journals of Captain Cook during his Pacific voyage of 1769. (Many of Cook’s journal observations on indigenous tattooing cultures of the Pacific Rim can be found online here.)

One hundred years after Cook’s voyage, the South Seas Islanders’ traditional practice of tattooing remained an ethnographic curiosity, often remarked upon by observers from the West–as in ‘The Singular Samoans,’ a Salem Evening Capital Journal article dated March 11, 1889. However, even as the mainstream of Euro-American society continued to view tattoos as primitive, mysterious and even a little dangerous, certain Western subcultures were already beginning to adopt the practice by the latter half of the 1800’s. Primary among these were sailors and soldiers. Naturally, these professions were the ones that brought European men into contact with non-European cultures in those distant parts of the world–Africa, East Asia, Polynesia, etc.–where the tattooist’s art was still a living tradition. The first Western people to be tattooed in more than six centuries were inked by indigenous artists. Eventually, some of the soldiers and sailors learned the craft and brought it back to the ports of Europe and America. Tattoos are truly an antique commodity of global cultural exchange.

The earliest story about tattoo art in a digitized Oregon newspaper is ‘An Admirer of Washington in Trouble,’ from the Jacksonville Oregon Sentinel of December 10, 1870. The story tells how a notorious Portland criminal named Shultz could most easily be identified by “the effigy of [George] Washington on horseback, tattooed upon his breast, in India ink… Doubtless Shultz now regrets this indiscretion into which he was lead in his youth.” Here we have probably the first Oregonian ever to rue an impulsive tattoo decision–a sentiment to which many contemporary Oregonians still can relate!

A couple decades later, an influential sermon by Reverend Thomas DeWitt Talmage was reprinted in the Capital Journal on November 13, 1893. The text of this oration provides good evidence that tattooed Americans were already becoming a familiar sight by this time. For Talmage preached: “You have seen a sailor roll up his sleeve and show you his arm tattooed with the figure of a favorite ship… You have seen a soldier roll up his sleeve and show you his arm tattooed with the picture of a fortress where he was garrisoned… You have seen many a hand tattooed with the face of a loved one either before or after marriage… Now, God says that he has tattooed us upon his hands.”

By the turn of the 20th century, the Portland Oregonian is reporting on “the tattooing craze which has overspread all England.” The issue of January 7th, 1900 recounts that the fad began among aristocratic young men serving in the Boer War, but now “[it] is growing and spreading among civilians.” The article specifically alludes to one tattooed guardsman “who bears a title known the world over.” This seems to be a coy way for the editors to demonstrate that the trend indeed has reached the highest levels of society, but without going so far as to name names of the participating rich and powerful. (They are quite possibly referring to Edward, Prince of Wales. See below.) Tattooing was, after all, still regarded by most readers as exotic and fairly scandalous business. Another Oregonian piece from later in the same year puts forth the then-novel notion that tattoos, at their best, might rise to the level of fine art.

Twenty years later, we find evidence that tattoos have become still more commonplace and more widely accepted by society at large. By 1920, the Klamath Falls Evening Herald felt quite comfortable printing a story about tattooed European royalty: King Edward VII of England, Charles XIV of Sweden, and “the late Czar of Russia” are all named among the “decorated.”

As the Evening Herald item pictured above indicates, tattoo art would continue to go in and out of style at various times throughout the 20th century. In 1922, even the ladies were getting in on the act, and more conservative-minded commentators were once again concerned that “it threatens to spread to America.” So the pattern was set: in the decades to follow, the tattoo “fad” would continue to wax and wane in popularity with the general public, right up to the latest revival that is still going strong today.

All those who are interested in the history of tattoo art should try to visit Astoria, Oregon in the upcoming months. The Columbia River Maritime Museum is featuring an exhibit titled ‘Tattoo: The Art of the Sailor’ through September 30, 2011.  —Jason A. Stone

ODNP had an eventful week to kick off the month of April! Both the Oregon Heritage Conference and the Oregon Library Association’s annual conference were scheduled at this time, and (with a little creative itinerary-juggling) ODNP staff were in attendance at both events.

Our Quality Control Specialist, John Taylor, started things off on Thursday morning, April 7th, with a ‘Showcase’ table session at OLA in Salem. The next day, John returned to Salem with Karen Estlund, ODNP Project Coordinator, and the two collaborated to present a talk and slide show. Geared to a specialist audience of librarians from throughout the state, Karen and John’s presentation concentrated on process and technical matters–METS, ALTO, OCR–the “nuts and bolts” of running a major digitization project in an academic library.

While they were busy in Salem, Project Manager Jason Stone was in attendance April 7-9 at the Oregon Parks and Recreation Department’s annual Heritage Conference. The conference was held this year in Astoria, as that historic Oregon community is celebrating its bicentennial in 2011. Jason represented ODNP in the Premier Plenary Session of “leading players on the Oregon heritage stage,” and he was also a panelist for a featured discussion, ‘Heritage Collaborations the Statewide Way.’ Even more than talking about ODNP, Jason enjoyed attending various conference sessions and listening to heritage stars from throughout the State of Oregon and beyond.

Karen, John and Jason came away with some new insights and fresh ideas for moving ODNP forward. Best of all, it was another great opportunity to share the news about Historic Oregon Newspapers with the professional communities of librarians and historical preservationists. We found that many were already regular visitors of our Beta site. Word is definitely getting out!

Thanks to the Oregon Library Association and Oregon Heritage Commission for inviting us to participate in these events.

Click here to read about Oregon’s feline high society of 1904.

Can’t cite a peer-reviewed study for this… But I once heard an Old Librarians’ Tale that the three most common subject searches by library patrons worldwide were ‘Cats,’ ‘Golf’ and ‘Hitler’ (in that order.) Therefore, please regard this latest post as ODNP’s experiment in internet search engine optimization.

Researchers seeking information on first peoples of the Northwest will discover a wealth of relevant material in Historic Oregon Newspapers. Entering the word ‘Indian’ in our web site’s search engine currently turns up 2,852 page hits–and there will be still more material coming as further titles are digitized and added to the site. While these stories provide a wealth of valuable knowledge, they must always be regarded and weighed in light of historical context.

The relationship between indigenous Oregonians and the Euro-American settlers who began arriving in 1811 evolved along much the same pattern as we find in other regions of the country. Beginning in early editions of the state’s first newspapers, Oregon journalists have devoted not inconsiderable column space to stories about American Indian people, events and issues. No one could reasonably say that Indians were ‘invisible’ to the historic press in Oregon. However, serious questions concerning accuracy, integrity and inclusiveness begin to arise when we consider the tone and coverage of much of this material. Most newspaper writing from the period covered by our digitization(1846-1923) comes larded with the common and unfortunate prejudices of the day, and practically all of it is told from the point of view of Euro-Americans.

The very first issue of Oregon’s first newspaper–the February 5, 1846 Oregon City Oregon Spectator–includes an item concerning native people: it reports that Doctor White, recently appointed Indian Agent for Oregon Territory, has been waylaid by Sioux on his journey west.  As Oregon Trail pioneers continued to set out from the east in ever-growing numbers, the April 29, 1847 Spectator offered advice to prospective newcomers: “Treat the Indians kindly along the road, but trust them not.”

Press coverage often turned overtly hostile during the various Indian Wars of the territorial and early statehood periods. For example, on April 26, 1873, the Jacksonville Oregon Sentinel editorializes in favor of forcefully disarming all Indians on reservations and aggressively waging the Lava Beds War with the Modocs  in Southern Oregon. The author writes: “The milk-eyed, sentimental, blubber-hearted fellows of the East who never saw an Indian are besieging the President with letters, imploring him to be merciful with the Indians, and not exterminate them on account of the treachery of the Modocs.”

A few decades later, with the wars resolved in the newcomers’ favor and all Oregon’s first peoples now pacified under a system of treaties and reservations, we can observe a dramatic shift in the tone of journalistic coverage. An idealized, romanticized view of the American Indian begins to be promulgated in the dominant society–‘Indians’ as cherished and colorful role-players in the emerging mythology of the ‘Old West.’ Former enemies who were once scorned now appear as revered elder statesmen of a bygone era: see ‘Joseph in Wallowa’ from the June 24, 1900 Portland Sunday Oregonian. Also popular in the newspapers of this period are nostalgic and rose-tinted reminiscences of White-Native relations during earlier times. Witness another item from the Sunday Oregonian (1905), ‘John Davenport, An Oregonian Whom The Indians Loved Because He Never Told Them A Lie.’

Thankfully, another point of view begins to emerge in the early decades of the 20th century–just in time to fall within the scope of our digitization project. For lack of a better or more all-encompassing term, this frame of mind may be labeled ‘proto-Anthropological.’ Although still fraught with their own biases and blind spots, stories written from this point of view provide some of the earliest examples of a less ethnocentric, more rigorous approach to documenting the heritage, history and life-ways of indigenous peoples. Two more samples from the pages of the Portland Oregonian: a story from 1900 entitled ‘Festivities of The Buck Moon on Umatilla Reservation’, and a 1905 photographic feature, ‘Stone Implements Used By The Oregon Indians.’

Another type of story that is common throughout the digitized run of papers is the more dry and news-like reportage of legal issues and government affairs relating to the administration of Indian treaties, reservations and schools. From the Daily Astorian in 1884 comes ‘Northwestern Indians: What the Indians require and what the government must pay.’ In 1905, the Oregonian covered a Portland-area conference on the reform of Indian Schools. In a stroke of irony that was no doubt unintended–but nonetheless may be savored by those who are familiar with the checkered early history of Bureau of Indian Affairs education policy–this story ran beneath a large photograph of the crowd at Barnum & Bailey’s circus, coincidentally doing business in town that very same week.  —Jason A. Stone