Heritage: Introduction

Introduction

The Heritage Program is charged with protecting archaeological, historic, and traditional Native American sites located on the Malheur National Forest. Twenty years of study and field surveys have led to the identification of over 3,000 archaeological and historic sites. These sites were identified and evaluated using an inventory strategy approved by the Oregon State Historic Preservation Officer (SHPO). Sites discovered to date include American Indian encampments, obsidian quarries and workshops, 19th century mining camps and homesteads, logging railroads and camps, and Forest Service lookout towers and guard stations. They range in age from a 7,500+ year old obsidian tool workshop to 50 year old lookout towers. The sites are generally protected by keeping ground disturbing activities outside of the site's boundaries. The lands of the Malheur Forest were used, and continue to be used, by members of the modern Burns Paiute Tribe, the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation, and the Confederated Tribes of the Warm Springs Indian Reservation and their ancestors. These Tribes are consulted during project planning to help insure that traditional sites and resources used by Tribal members are not damaged. An important aspect of overall site protection is public education and interpretation. This has been achieved through presentations at local schools and community centers, interpretive displays, newspaper articles, papers presented at professional conferences, and the Passport In Time (PIT) volunteer program. The PIT program has provided the opportunity for over 200 individuals to work with the Heritage Team to repair historic structures, excavate archaeological sites, analyze artifacts, and conduct historic research. For additional information on PIT and any other aspect of the Heritage Program please contact the Malheur National Forest and ask for the Forest Archaeologist.

Environmental and Cultural History

The following is a brief history of the environment and people of the Malheur National Forest. It was developed as part of the Bear Valley Cultural History Project in conjunction with the Forest Service’s Passport In Time (PIT) archaeological volunteer program. Information collected by PIT volunteers and existing Forest records were used to develop the time line. This version of the time line is intended as an aide in interpreting the complex history of the Forest for the general public. The time line will be updated as new information is uncovered which clarifies our view of history.

• Geological History: 250,000,000 to 25,000 years ago
• Late Pleistocene Environment: 25,000 to 10,000 years ago
• The First People: 13,000 to 10,500 years ago
• Early Holocene Environment: 10,000 to 7,500 years ago and People of the Lowland Lakes: 10,500 to 7,500 years ago
• Middle Holocene Environment: 7,500 to 4,500 years ago
• Refuge in the Mountains: 7,500 to 4,500 years ago
• Late Holocene Environment: 4,500 to 500 years ago and Rendezvous in the Mountains: 4,500 to 500 years ago
• Modern Environment: 500 years ago until today
• Conquest and Settlement: 500 years ago until today

More Information

Aikens, C. Melvin 1993

Archaeology of Oregon. Salem: USDI Bureau of Land Management, Oregon State Office.

Baun, Carolyn M. and Richard Lewis, Eds. 1991

The First Oregonians. Portland: The Oregon Council for the Humanities.

Grayson, Donald K. 1993

The Desert's Past. A Natural History of the Great Basin. Washington DC: Smithsonian Institution Press.

Hann, Don 1998

Heritage Program Abstract: Annotated Bibliography of Site Testing Reports and Related Papers from the Malheur National Forest, Oregon. Malheur National Forest Heritage Program Occasional Papers Number 1. USDA, Forest Service, Region 6, Malheur National Forest.

Keyser, James D. 1992

Indian Rock Art of the Columbia Plateau. Seattle: University of Washington Press.

McArthur, Lewis A. 1992

Oregon Geographic Names. 6th edition. Portland: Oregon Historical Society Press.

Mosgrove, Jerry L. 1980

The Malheur National Forest: An Ethnographic History. USDA, Forest Service, Region 6, Malheur National Forest.

Orr, William, Elizabeth Orr and Ewart M. Baldwin 1992

Geology of Oregon. Kendall/Hunt Publishing Company.

Ramsey, Jarold Ed. 1977

Coyote was Going There: Indian Literature of the Oregon Country. Seattle: University of Washington Press.

Reid, Kenneth C., John A. Draper and Peter E. Wigand. 1989

Prehistory and Paleoenvironments of Silvies Plateau, Harney Basin, Southeastern Oregon. Pullman, WA: Center for Northwest Anthropology/ Washington State University.

Thayer, Thomas P. ND

The Geologic Setting of the John Day Country, Grant County, Oregon . Pacific Northwest National Parks and Forests Association. Available through the John Day Fossil Beds National Monument