Mythology – a popular belief or assumption that has grown up around someone or something; one of the definitions of the word. Synonyms include “legend”, “tradition”, “lore”, “legend”, “knowledge”, “wisdom”, “folktale” and “anecdote” among other words. These words go a long way in describing the events at Champoeg, Oregon on 2 May 1843 and how those events lie remembered in our minds today.
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Canadian trappers were among the first non-Native Americans to spend extended periods of time in the nascent Oregon Country during the early years of the 19th century. Most were French speakers from rural Lower Quebec. Many took on Native American women as their wives. Common law marriages and the resultant children failed to receive recognition from either British law. Catholic priests ventured out slowly behind the trappers to bring a modicum of religious stability to those living beyond the pale of society. Most of the retired trappers settled on what is today the French Prairie.
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As school children, we bused out on field trips to Champoeg State Park to see where Oregon was “born”. Most of us kids had little idea of the events which transpired here. We, like our parents, also lack a fundamental knowledge of a history of the times in which the meetings and subsequent events took place. The Provisional Government of Oregon simply did not mean much then or later.
But Champoeg gave the Northwest got its first version of a Eurocentric government. The United States and England decided to agree to not agree in 1818 forming a condominium of political control over the vast region. A major problem with the agreement, no mention made of internal government. That was not much of a problem when the only Europeans in the region were busy searching for animal pelts. However, events took a big turn as the 1830’s became the 1840’s and American settlers began coming onto the scene.
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