The Chinookan peoples known as the Clackamas and Cascades are the indigenous people of the land now inhabited by the City of Wood Village and other areas of the Columbia River. The village of Nechacokee (now referred to as Nichagwli - "nee chalk lee") was located near today's Blue Lake Park. Ancestral life of these peoples included a seasonal round of resource gathering and stewardship from the Wapato fields and fishing areas of the Columbia River to the cedar and huckleberry gathering areas of the high cascades. Introduced disease from early settlers dramatically reduced the number of these people. They signed the Willamette Valley Treaty of 1855 with United States Government and were forcibly removed to the Grand Ronde Indian Reservation.
We thank the descendants of these Tribes for being the original stewards and protectors of these lands since time immemorial. We also acknowledge the systemic policies of genocide, relocation, and assimilation that still impact many Indigenous/Native American families today.
We are honored by the collective work of many Native Nations, leaders and families who are demonstrating resilience, resistance, revitalization, healing and creativity. We are honored to be guests upon these lands.