This portion of southwest Oregon is the homeland of the Cow Creek Band of Umpqua Indians, who thrived here for thousands of years before contact with Euro-Americans. Living in plank-house villages, they followed a seasonal round of resource use, moving from summer camas meadows and salmon fisheries along the rivers to the high country, where they picked huckleberries and hunted deer in the fall, then returning to the valleys in late fall to collect acorns and prepare for winter. A rapid influx of miners and settlers after the discovery of gold in 1851 forever changed their world as critical food sources declined and newcomers brought infectious diseases, among them the one that killed Chief Miwaleta. Within a few years the tribe was reduced to starvation, and the loss of land and resources led to violent confrontations throughout the region. Despite a treaty with the U.S. Government, one of Oregon’s first, that clearly defined the boundaries of their homelands, a federal program of Indian removal attempted to force the Cow Creeks onto reservations in northwest Oregon. Many members eluded capture by hiding in remote parts of the region, and seven core families maintained a continuous presence there until the U.S. Government ceased pursuing them by the 1870s and tribal families gradually emerged from hiding.