The Tribal Crossroads of Oregon
The western plateau of the Warm Springs Reservation was an important crossroad for thousands of years
I took this photo of Mount Jefferson this past Memorial Day weekend as I was heading to Portland to fly home after a duty period on the Warm Springs Reservation. It was impressive to see just how much snow and ice was still on the volcano despite the warm temperatures.
This was from the remote western part of the Reservation just before you hit the forests on the eastern slope of the High Cascades. This area has a number of open rangeland areas called "flats" for obvious reasons. This area in the foreground is called Mill Creek Flat, the smaller mountains in front of Mount Jefferson are the Sidwalter Buttes. Each of the named flats is separated from the others by shallow canyons cut by creeks. So there's Sidwalter Flat, Schoolie Flat, and so on.
For thousands of years, this part of the Warm Springs Reservation was criss-crossed with ancient Indian trails as it was one of the few areas that was relatively easy to cross the rugged terrain between the Deschutes River Canyon system to the east and the crest of the High Cascades to the west. If you were to look at a map of Oregon, central Oregon has three barriers to reaching the west and the fertile Willamette River Valley- not just the High Cascades and the Western Cascades, but also the Deschutes River which runs south to north parallel to the High Cascades before joining the Columbia River. Unlike the Willamette River in western Oregon, the Deschutes and its tributaries have cut deep canyons that act as a barrier before you can reach the Cascade passes.
This area of the Warm Springs Reservation has a number of broad flats used now for ranching that were one of the few places that it was easy to cross the rugged lands between the Deschutes and the High Cascades. For thousands of years this area was the main trade route by which the tribes of Western Oregon like the Molalla, Grand Ronde, Multnomah or Siletz would trade goods with the tribes of the central Oregon plateau like the Wasco, Tenino, Umatilla or Paiute.
The the tribes of Warm Springs, Mount Jefferson was called "Seekseequa" and was an important landmark that demarcated this vital trade link that ran from just north of Mount Jefferson to the mountain passes just south of Mount Hood which today parallels the route of US-26.
The climate and biodiversity on the eastern slope of the High Cascades is a favorite of mine. Above 3500 feet elevation, ponderosa forests extend all the way to the alpine tree line. Below 3500 feet elevation, juniper forests dominate and as you move onto the flats, the juniper forests give way to arid scrubland.
The main reservation community of the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs (the town of Warm Springs) is in the Deschutes River Canyon and those heading east to Madras, Redmond or Bend refer to it as "going up the grade" as you make the ascent up to the east rim of the canyon.
Many on the Rez also go to Portland, some even work in Portland and drive 2 hours each way. But because the grade of the canyon is not as sharp going west towards Portland, some of the Rez community refer to going west as "going to the trees", referencing where the scrubland of the flats gives way to the juniper forests.
So when a tribal member says they're "Going up the grade" or "Going down the grade", they're referring to the east side and the connections to Madras, Redmond and Bend. But if they are referring to the west side and the connection to Portland, they'll say "Going to the trees" or "Coming out of the trees."