Latgawa are Native American people who lived in the

Rogue Valley The Rogue Valley is a valley region in southwestern Oregon in the United States. Located along the middle Rogue River and its tributaries in Josephine and Jackson counties, the valley forms the cultural and economic heart of Southern Oregon nea ...

of interior southwest

Oregon Oregon () is a U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. The Columbia River delineates much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington (state), Washington, while the Snake River delineates much of it ...

. In their own language "Latgawa" means "those living in the uplands," though they were also known as the Walumskni by the neighboring

Klamath Klamath may refer to: Ethnic groups *Klamath people, a Native American people of California and Oregon **Klamath Tribes, a federally recognized group of tribes in Oregon *Klamath language, spoken by the Klamath people Places in the United States * ...

tribe. They are close relatives of the Takelma (Dagelma) ("(Those) Along the River"), which were also known as ''Lowland'' or ''River Takelma''. The Latgawa were often called ''Upland Takelma''.

History

The Latgawa were located in the upper Rogue River valley eastward to the former

Table Rock Indian Reservation Table Rock Reservation was a short-lived Indian reservation north of the Rogue River in Oregon, United States. It was established by treaty with the Rogue River Indians in 1853. Following the conclusion of the Rogue River Wars in 1856, the Nati ...

and Bear Creek and in the neighborhood of

Jacksonville, Oregon Jacksonville is a city in Jackson County, Oregon, United States, approximately west of Medford. It was named for Jackson Creek, which flows through the community and was the site of one of the first placer gold claims in the area. It includes J ...

. Together with other tribes along the Rogue River, they were grouped as the Rogue River Tribe, but after the

Rogue River Wars The Rogue River Wars were an armed conflict in 1855–1856 between the U.S. Army, local militias and volunteers, and the Native American tribes commonly grouped under the designation of Rogue River Indians, in the Rogue River Valley area o ...

in 1856, bands of the Rogue River were split between the

Siletz Indian Reservation The Siletz Reservation is a 5.852 sq mi (15.157 km²) Indian reservation in Lincoln County, Oregon, United States, owned by the Confederated Tribes of Siletz. The reservation is made up of numerous non-contiguous parcels of land in east-centra ...

or the

Grand Ronde Indian Reservation The Grand Ronde Community is an Indian reservation located on several non-contiguous sections of land in southwestern Yamhill County and northwestern Polk County, Oregon, United States, about east of Lincoln City, near the community of Grand Ro ...

far to the north of the tribe's traditional lands. The Latgawa were one of two peoples who spoke the

Takelma language Takelma was the language spoken by the Latgawa and Takelma people and Cow Creek band of Upper Umpqua. It was first extensively described by Edward Sapir in his graduate thesis, ''The Takelma Language of Southwestern Oregon''. The last fluent ...

. The Takelma lived mainly on the east side of the Klamath and Coast Mountains in the middle Rogue River area around

Grants Pass, Oregon Grants Pass is the county seat of Josephine County, Oregon, United States. The city is located on Interstate 5, northwest of Medford, along the Rogue River. The population was 39,189 at the 2020 census. History Early Hudson's Bay Company hunt ...

; and the Latgawa in the upper Rogue River area around Applegate,

Jacksonville Jacksonville is a city located on the Atlantic coast of northeast Florida, the most populous city proper in the state and is the List of United States cities by area, largest city by area in the contiguous United States as of 2020. It is the co ...

, Talent, Medford, Eagle Point, Butte Falls, Shady Cove,

Trail A trail, also known as a path or track, is an unpaved lane or small road usually passing through a natural area. In the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland, a path or footpath is the preferred term for a pedestrian or hiking trail. Th ...

, and extending beyond Prospect and

Union Union commonly refers to: * Trade union, an organization of workers * Union (set theory), in mathematics, a fundamental operation on sets Union may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Music * Union (band), an American rock group ** ''Un ...

up to

Crater Lake Crater Lake (Klamath language, Klamath: ''Giiwas'') is a volcanic crater lake in south-central Oregon in the western United States. It is the main feature of Crater Lake National Park and is famous for its deep blue color and water clarity. The ...

Pre-European contact days

The Latgawa relied on hunting, gathering, and fishing for their subsistence. Latgawa dwellings were small brush shelters for warm months and constructed of sugar pine boards for cold months. They adorned their garments with

Dentalium shell The word dentalium, as commonly used by Native American artists and anthropologists, refers to tooth shells or tusk shells used in indigenous jewelry, adornment, and commerce in western Canada and the United States. These tusk shells are a kind o ...

, and skin art was practiced regularly. They also bore cultural traits from California, and valued

obsidian Obsidian () is a naturally occurring volcanic glass formed when lava extrusive rock, extruded from a volcano cools rapidly with minimal crystal growth. It is an igneous rock. Obsidian is produced from felsic lava, rich in the lighter elements s ...

and Shasta basket hats. During the winters, extended family bands resided in semi-permanent villages at lower elevations often situated at the meeting of major streams, where the spring

steelhead Steelhead, or occasionally steelhead trout, is the common name of the anadromous form of the coastal rainbow trout or redband trout (O. m. gairdneri). Steelhead are native to cold-water tributaries of the Pacific basin in Northeast Asia and N ...

runs would provide a welcome supply of fish. From late spring through early fall, they typically spent much time in the nearby uplands and mountains, following game and harvesting plant foods as the snow melted from higher elevations. By autumn, hunters and gatherers regrouped with village elders and others along the lower-elevation streams to intercept the fall

salmon Salmon () is the common name for several list of commercially important fish species, commercially important species of euryhaline ray-finned fish from the family (biology), family Salmonidae, which are native to tributary, tributaries of the ...

run and prepare for another winter.

Contact with European settlers

With the arrival of the European settlers in the 1850s, the Latgawa and Takelma began to have their homeland stolen. Like their neighbors, the Latgawa resisted encroachment on their lands and became embroiled in the bloody

of the 1850s. Rogue Valley Indians were killed or captured, but some escaped. The U.S. Army exiled the remaining Takelma and Latgawa to the Grand Ronde Reservation many miles to the north, where they arrived both overland and by sea. An 1853 treaty established the Table Rock Reservation in order to throw open the entire Bear Creek and Rogue Valley to white settlement. In the end, from 1855 to 1856, a final Indian War raged from one end of the Rogue Valley to the other. The natives were again forced to move from Table Rock to the Grande Ronde and Siletz reservations.

Bibliography

* Beckham, Stephen Dow. (1996). ''Requiem for a People: The Rogue Indians and the Frontiersmen''. Corvallis, Oregon: Oregon State University Press. . * Campbell, Lyle. (1997). ''American Indian languages: The historical linguistics of Native America''. New York: Oxford University Press. . * Douthit, Nathan. (2002). ''Uncertain Encounters: Indians and Whites at Peace and War in Southern Oregon 1820s-1860s.'' Corvallis, Oregon: Oregon State University Press. . * Hannon, Nan. (1990). ''An Underview of Southwest Oregon'' in "Living with the Land: the Indians of Southwest Oregon''. Nan Hannon and Richard K. Olmo (eds.). Medford, Oregon: Southern Oregon Historical Society. * Goddard, Ives (Ed.). (1996). ''Languages''. Handbook of North American Indians (W. C. Sturtevant, General Ed.) (Vol. 17). Washington, D. C.: Smithsonian Institution. . * Gray, Dennis J. (1987). ''The Takelmas and Their Athapascan Neighbors: A New Ethnographic Synthesis for the Upper Rogue River Area of Southwestern Oregon'', University of Oregon Anthropological Papers, No. 37. Eugene: Department of Anthropology, University of Oregon. * LaLande, Jeff. (1987). ''First Over the Siskiyous: Peter Skene Ogden's 1826-1827 Journey through the Oregon-California Borderlands''. Portland: Oregon Historical Society Press. * LaLande, Jeff. (1990) ''The Indians of Southwest Oregon: An Ethnohistorical Review.'' in ''Living with the Land: The Indians of Southwest Oregon'' Nan Hannon and Richard K. Olmo (eds.). Medford, Oregon: Southern Oregon Historical Society. . * Mithun, Marianne. (1999). ''The languages of Native North America''. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. (hbk); . * Sapir, Edward. (1922). "The Takelma Language of Southwest Oregon," in Franz Boas (ed.)
''Handbook of American Indian Languages: Part 2.''
Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1922; pp. 1–296. * Sapir, Edward. (1909). ''Takelma Texts.'' ''Anthropological Publications of the University Museum'', Pennsylvania: University

f Pennsylvania F, or f, is the sixth letter in the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''ef'' (pronounced ), and the plural is ''efs''. His ...

Publications of the University Museum. 2(1)pp. 34–42. * Sturtevant, William C. (Ed.). (1978–present). ''Handbook of North American Indians'' (Vol. 1-20). Washington, D. C.: Smithsonian Institution. (Vols. 1-3, 16, 18-20 not yet published). {{authority control Native American tribes in Oregon Takelma Rogue River (Oregon)