Malaria by itself caused a 95% population decline, and so the remaining Kalapuya were then subject to the whims of the settlers. The settlement of the land by newcomers from the East caused broad starvation and poverty among the tribes. Decimated by disease in the 1830s, only a remnant of these people were here to meet the Euro-American settlers 10 years later. The Native American people of the southern Willamette Valley were various Kalapuya bands, whose ancestors arrived here thousands of years ago and managed this land responsibly for hundreds of generations. We feel, given the injustices we recognize in our history, replacing the county name is necessary and appropriate. This is true even though Lane was not very different from many of his contemporaries. Many people here feel the county namesake, Joseph Lane, is not an appropriate person to memorialize, as his history largely is inconsistent with our vision of ourselves. Without a doubt, other ideas along these lines will emerge.

Other project-related actions envisioned include review of the legal landscape, which would require electoral approval of the name change exploring ramifications, such as prospective name changes for Lane Community College and others compiling Kalapuya place names to put on our map making use of some Kalapuya vocabulary in our communications inclusion of Kalapuya history and culture in school curricula providing more accessible information for the public about Kalapuya history, culture, lifeways and prehistory and commissioning a statue in Eugene to honor our Kalapuya forebears. Our name is a constant reminder of how we see ourselves. Changing the county name is an important step toward cultivating mutual respect and a supporting environment for all minorities as part of our community. We seek to reconnect our place and our people with the human past that predates Euro-American settlers and to welcome Native people firmly back into today’s society, along with their cultures and traditions. This is about reshaping the public view of this place to include an Indigenous dimension. The Establishing Kalapuya County project has the goal of rebranding our county, a broader concept than just a name change. Grant opportunity: Oregon nonprofits raising matching funds to earn A Community Thrives grant Now, however, spurred by a new grant opportunity through the Gannett Foundation's A Community Thrives andThe Register-Guard, we are back on track. The COVID-19 pandemic delayed further action. David Lewis, both Kalapuya descendants, to the Lane County Board of Commissioners on June 25, 2020, requesting the name change. This project was inspired by a petition from Esther Stutzman and Dr. Our connection to that story in the Willamette Valley is the Kalapuya people, whose descendants are still among us. The local human story is just as old and did not begin just two centuries ago. The story of human existence in this hemisphere began at least 15 millennia ago, not in 1492.

Native Americans only five centuries ago numbered 50 million or more and populated the Western Hemisphere from the Arctic Ocean to the tip of Tierra del Fuego. Delayed for two years by the pandemic, this campaign involves much more than just changing our name. Following up on my opinion piece published in The Register-Guard on June 30, 2020, our nonprofit, Archaeological Legacy Institute, has launched a campaign to change our county name to Kalapuya County.

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