"Now we have to face a new version of an old question: What’s the proper spelling of the name of the people who lived in the Willamette Valley before the settlement by descendants of Europeans?

Is it Kalapuya, or is it Calapooia? Or something else? Or does it matter?

It matters only for the sake of consistency. And soon it will matter more because there is to be an interpretive center once the East Thornton Lake Natural Area is developed.

This center may be accompanied by a longhouse of the type the indigenous people of this area built and used.

That’s according to Mark Azevedo, the tireless advocate of getting the natural area established.

He spoke about the plans last Sunday when people were touring the former farm field the city of Albany has acquired south of East Thornton Lake in North Albany.

The Confederated Tribes of the Grand Ronde have a great interest in this project because one of their constituent population groups were the Kalapuya, who most likely lived in that very area long before white settlement."

Get the Story:
Editorial: How to spell valley’s tribe (The Albany Democrat Herald 7/2)