Land of Salmon and Totems 2.0

Reader mode

Malta

So I have decided that I want and need to come at a Willamette River Civilization for the Pacific Northwest once again and from a different, more realistic beginning POD. I'll keep elements of the previous TL but I want to diverge and see where this one can be taken, so I present to you:

Land of Salmon and Totems 2.0
-----------------------


Identification of the “River Potato”
In truth this plant does not have any relation to the Solanum Tuberosum or the Common Potato that originated in the Andes, it is called the Aquaflmen Tuberosum based off its origin in the Oregon Country Rivers and its nature of spring from the river. The only relation is probably based in the roughly similar size of the nutritional portion of the plant and that it is a tuber.

The plant itself starts with light green seeds the size of a dime which are noted for having a resilient inner shell while a buoyant outer shell which allows for perseverance in cold winters and to spread along river banks as drift seeds. Once rooted into riverbank soil the seed grows roots that keep it planted in the soil while absorbing passing oxygen and nutrients from the river water. This is key as it does poorly in stagnant water which does not allow for a moving filter motion except for a few lake cases and human created irrigation systems. The River Potato grows up as a dark green stalk in different lengths with the tallest being six feet, the tip being a flower with six blue-white, oval shaped flowers one to five inches in length. The River Potato also has the nickname of the "Totem Flower" because of its upstraight structure and earlier ownership of crops extended to the entire kinship group. The storage organ where the carbohydrate energy is stored is what is known as the ‘potato’ sprouts from the flower and over the course of its development it grows to the size of a fist, drooping the stalk of the plant as it grows. The complexion is orange-brownish complexion which in dryer climates becomes redder in hue.

The origin of the name could be traced to the personal journal of Sir Francis Drake who arguably was the first European to see the plant from its source when he visited the trade port of Clatsop before his fateful journey down the Columbia River. Californian variants of the River Potato were possibly encountered by Spanish explorers but no records have been found of any realizing the difference. From its origin on the Columbia River before European contact it would be spread by native sources down to the Willamette River and into California then following European contact becoming widespread from Europe to Asia existing in Continental climate zones to Subtropical climate zones.

Without this crop it is highly unlikely that the Oregon Civilization could not have arose from the banks of the Columbia and Willamette river to create a bronze age civilization existing in the Pacific Northwest which would outlast its East North American, Mesoamerican, and Andean counterparts as centers of native civilization.
 

Malta

Willamette Civilization Part 1: The Valley and Agriculture

The development of civilization is a controversial issue in modern academia, the arguments mainly focusing on what a culture needs to become a civilization. Agriculture is disputably said to be the most important founding basis for a civilization, but opponents to this argue that nomadic people such as the Mongols or Arabs got along just fine without extensive agricultural systems. While this is true, in either case these nomadic peoples while having their own cultural traditions in many cases adopted the culture (a series of patterned goals, values, and practices characterizing a organization or group) and sedentary practices of the people they conquered-being absorbed into the host civilization or influenced by it. In the history of the Willamette Valley this would happen more then once, just as it would happen much further to the south when the Mexica arrived into the Valley of Mexico, but all while adding their own cultural traits into the uniqueness of the Willamette Valley civilization would build up on a base culture and civilization.
-
The requirements that many scholars put forth for a civilized culture are complex agriculture, urban development, complex social hierarchy, division of labor, complex economics, writing, and other characteristics which may not be present. Civilization comes from the Latin word of Civis which means city or city-state which is more or less a large gathering of people in a complex social structure located in a specific geographic area. How the development itself begins is a complex issue which may or may not be related to the cognitive abilities shown in humans, but it may have to do more or just as much with what happens when humans gather together. If one wants to stretch the above definition for civilization then the early period for the inhabitants of the Willamette Valley could not be called civilization but perhaps culture or maybe civilization would be better defined by “Basic” or “Primitive” and “High” or “Complex” civilization.
-
Human habitation of the Willamette Valley began some 15,000 years ago as in the archaic period of North American history the last ice age was ending which is unsurprising as human migrations patterns most likely went through the Oregon country area to spread throughout the entire Americas. During the Archaic Period which lasted from this estimated time of 15,000 BC to 1500 BC the inhabitants of the Willamette Valley, which extends to any number of peoples who may have moved into the area but who would overtime make up the historic Kalapuya people, practiced hunter gathering for self sustaining lifestyles. Given the richness of the Pacific Northwest it is not surprising that many people did just that and continued to do so up to European contact and beyond as the ecoregion itself is rich with natural edible plants and fauna food sources such as the most well known salmon. It was only around 2000BC-1500BC with a certain development in the region’s famous “River Potato” or Totem Flower plant that would lead towards the development of Complex Civilization for the inhabitants of the Willamette Valley.
-
Though before going into this development, the ecoregion of the Willamette Valley must be described so one can understand why and how the River Potato changed the lifestyle of the Kalapuya people. It was the Missoula Floods that occurred 15,000 years ago that created the fertile and sediment diverse region that allowed for the growth of the Willamette Valley civilization as the breadth of the valley was enriched with fertile soil. The ecoregion of the Willamette Valley is divided into four sets, a Portland-Vancouver Basin area (3a), the Willamette River and tributaries (3b), Plain Terraces (3c), and Valley Foothills (3d).
Level_IV_ecoregions%2C_Willamette_Valley.png



The breadth of the valley is kept in a savannah state with frequent burnings of young trees throughout much of the lowlands (3a-c) of the Willamette Valley to prevent forest overgrowth which would prevent building and farmland expansion.
-
The Basin ecoregion was characterized by Oregon white oak groves and Douglas-fir forests on the uplands; black cottonwood groves on riverbanks and islands; Oregon ash, red alder, and western redcedar in riparian areas; and prairie openings maintained by burning, with camas, sedges, tufted hairgrass, fescue, and California oatgrass.
-
Along the Willamette River ecoregion riparian gallery forests containing ash, black cottonwood, alder, and bigleaf maple grow on fertile, alluvial soils.
-
The Prairie Terraces ecoregion includes all terraces of the Willamette River upstream of the Portland/Vancouver Basin. It is dissected by low-gradient, meandering streams and rivers. Elevation varies from 160 to 500 feet (50 to 150 m). The region's broad fluvial terraces support oak savanna and prairies, featuring Oregon white oak, camas, sedges, tufted hairgrass, fescue, and California oatgrass. Wetter areas supported Oregon ash, Douglas-fir, bigleaf maple, black cottonwood, and an understory of poison-oak, hazel, and Indian plum, with some Ponderosa pine to the south.
-
The Valley Foothills ecoregion is a transitional zone between the agricultural Willamette Valley and the more heavily forested Cascade and Coast ranges. It contains rolling foothills with medium gradient, sinuous streams, and a few buttes and low mountains, rising to an elevation of approximately 1,500 feet (457 m). The region receives less rainfall than its more mountainous neighbors, and consequently the potential natural vegetation is distinct. The eastern foothills are wetter than those that lie on the western side of the valley in the lee of the Coast Range. The drier areas supported Oregon white oak and madrone woodlands and prairies, with California oatgrass, fescue, blue wildrye, brodiaea, and other prairie forbs; while the moister areas supported Douglas-fir forests, with sword fern, oceanspray, hazel, baldhip rose, poison oak.
Fish in the Willamette basin include 31 native species, among them cutthroat, bull, and rainbow trout, several species of salmon, sucker, minnow, sculpin, and lamprey, as well as sturgeon, stickleback, and others. Among the 29 non-native species in the basin, there are brook, brown, and lake trout, largemouth and smallmouth bass, walleye, carp, bluegill, and others. Species diversity is greatest along the lower river and its tributaries. Threatened, endangered, or sensitive species include spring Chinook salmon, winter steelhead, Oregon chub, chum salmon, and Coho salmon.[23]
In addition to fish, the basin supports 18 species of amphibians, such as the Pacific giant salamander. Beaver and river otter are among 69 mammal species living in the watershed, also frequented by 154 bird species, such as the American Dipper, Osprey, and Harlequin Duck. Garter snakes are among the 15 species of reptiles found in the basin.
-
It is in this environment that the River Potato could naturally thrive. The River Potato though has been traced to not be original to the Willamette River, its origin being on the upper banks of the Columbia river the seeds of the River Potato were either or both brought by the river flow or by humans who encouraged the growth of the plant around 5,000 BC. At first the plant was a normal and not critically harvested part of the diet of the inhabitants of the Columbia and Willamette River where on riverbanks on rivers and streams the plant would be picked and eaten entirely its storage organ the potato being the size of a large human thumb.
-
If one takes agriculture and irrigation as a major basis for civilization then the change in the River Potato around 2000BC -1500 BC is what began the creation and rise of the Willamette Valley civilization. This change was the enlargement of the ‘potato’ of the Totem Flower which was done through one encouraged development by natives through spreading of seeds of larger bulbed River Potato plants. This would lead to the increasing planting of the River Potato as family groups living along riverbanks and stream banks turned to intensive plantation of the River Potato. The development started as simply planting long rows of River Potato along sections of the Willamette river, harvesting and replanting the seeds but eventually as use of stone tools increased the plantations became more and more complex in nature as soon the riverbanks were dug out and expanded in sections to create larger and calmer river pools for planting. Eventually as populations along the river expanded and the need for food increased the arrangement would evolve not unlike the rice paddies of Asia with channels carved alongside and even around villages even reaching the Prairie Terraces where upward or downward flowing waterways could be diverted to bring down running water to create elaborate ‘Potato Paddies”. Of this was not the sole diet of the natives but in its way reached the level of maize of the Three Sisters food complex of East American and Mesoamerican cultures, as the always popular camas root could be the equated with the beans but in the end the River Potato was raised to a religious symbol….
 
Aozhouhuaren

Aozhouhuaren

Banned
I like the looks of this timeline, it seems you have put in a significant amount of research and detail in your writing. I look forward to future installments, keep up the great work!:)
 

Oba

Very interesting, you have certainly put a lot of work and research into this TL. It will be interesting to see how far the Willamette Valley Civilization spreads.
 

Malta

Willamette Valley Civilization: Part 2 The Gods and Spirits
sacredbundle.264112903_std.jpg

The native religion to the Willamette Valley has overtime gone under changes as forces outside of the area have helped change the religious nature but the root and core beliefs that have so affected the social order in the region remain the same since the Formative period. This phase of early belief is what early scholars would dismiss as Shamanism and examples of the barbaric pagan beliefs of the Indians but in reality they never really scratched deeper into the beliefs of the Willamette peoples and miss out on the true nature of their spiritual beliefs.

Like all early people scratching for an explanation of the world around them the belief system of the Willamette mirrors what the early people saw. Living in the river valley they lived off of the bounty of the Willamette river from the planting of River Potatoes to the fishing of the salmon that would choke the river on a yearly basis. They also saw the harshness of the Cascade Range volcanoes to the east, as even in the last four thousand years the mountains of the Three Sisters, Mount Jefferson, and Mount Hood have erupted six times. It is lucky for the Willamette people that the mountains of the southern Cascades are much calmer then those of the northern Cascades as those people of prehistory and ancient history have noted the eruptions of such mountains of Rainer, St. Helens, and Glacier Peak a combined seventeen times in the last four thousand years-with St. Helens being the most violent. They also appeared to draw a connection between the life giving river and the unstoppable volcanic mountains as being akin to one another as they saw the river’s source from the Cascade range and how the mountains were full of animals and trees and the fury of the Willamette when it overcomes its banks.

The view of the Willamette people could be described as being Dualastic as they see the natural order of the world dominated by the two greatest geographic features in their area and equated the fruitful nature of the Willamette to women and the imposing strength of the Cascades to men. Though they also saw that all of these things had an outer and inner nature for while the Willamette could be calm it could be furious, and vice versa with the Cascade mountains and people as they saw men could be timid and women just as furious on their worst days.

The most well known folk story and mythic example of this would be a central Willamette Valley tale telling that once upon a time when a village of warrior men made war against its neighboring villages and captured many women as slaves, so many women that they outnumbered the men in the village. One day one of the women caught refused to follow the orders of the village chief and killed him with a stone knife and immediately jumped into the river to escape punishment. The village warriors followed her into the water where she continued to slay and kill any man that near hear before disappearing beneath the water (some versions say that the Willamette river drowned the men helping the escaped woman). By the end half of the men were dead and upon seeing this the women revolted and beat down the remaining men and thereupon installed the first woman chief in the Willamette Valley whose daughter also fought and raided until one day she was killed by a male slave and so on and so forth. The story ending with after a generational cycle of uprising and violence, a male and female chief both ruled and brought peace to the village and its neighbors.

To simplify the principal deities of the Willamette people was the river itself which they called “Onallan”, the Great Mother Goddess of all the land and the “Onailuco” or the Great Father Cheifs, the volcanic mountains of the Cascade Range. They believed that each were equal in power, with the Onallan having the power to nurture the valley they lived and their daily life while the Onailuco protected their people against enemies. Though both could be opposite of what they seemed to be, and be furious and calm in vice versa.

This represents the dualistic view the Willamette people viewed the world as they believed that all things had a double nature, an outer nature which dominated their lives and a inner nature which could be brought out. Men were Masculine and Women were Feminine, but both could display qualities of the other. This is not unlike the Two-Spirit belief of many Great Plains tribes where certain individuals who dressed as men and women; were homosexual; and were seen as having great spiritual connections to the spiritual world as healers and fortune tellers but in the Willamette Valley this view was seen to apply to everyone and not just a few people.

The common festivals practiced focused on seasonal changes in the river between during the summer and spring when the river was low and planting and harvesting of crops and gathering of food followed by the winter period when the river expanded and people moved to winter villages. When populations became more fixed festival processions could fill the river with boats and fixed platforms over looking the river dispensed the ritual sacrifices made in name to the river. In contrast the worship of the mountains was more focused on actions rather then offerings but in cases when offerings were made they would be left at the famous Bone Shrines along the mountain sides.

Onto the belief of the afterlife, spiritually the Willamette people believed the soul split into its ‘outer’ and ‘inner’ halves, the feminine spirit going into the river to serve Onallan in her cold embrace and help spirits nurture the river such as helping plants grow, the salmon get born, flowers bloom, and so on and so forth. The masculine halves would go into the mountains to serve the Onailuco as warriors and to keep the fire chiefs happy and prevent them from blowing their tops.

Funerary rites included the careful flaying of the human skin and hair which would be worn by close family members as coats or caps depending on the family size for a mourning period that lasted until the end of the season. The body itself would be burnt right away, taken to funerary fire stands on the slopes of the Cascade mountains where the remains including the skin would be reunited in Bone Shrines carved into niches in the mountainside (but would become increasingly intricate over time) with offerings such as food or votive representations of great deeds of their life. These shrines overtime would be worn away by the elements or animals or even volcanic eruptions when it was considered the spirits prevented the flowing lava from destroying all life.

Human sacrifice for much of the Formative Period was socially accepted and practiced throughout the Willamette Valley via ritual burnings and drowning. These were community events where a particular man or woman who were chosen in a lot, where in the afterlife they would be free of the burdens of service to the gods and spirits. Eventually this practice was phased out of common practice in the social and cultural developments that changed the society of the Willamette Valley.
 
Cuāuhtemōc

Cuāuhtemōc

Banned
That was an extremely informative update, Malta. I did enjoy you going deeper into the religion of the Williamette Valley civilization. The story that you created involving the woman jumping to the river and escaping punishment for the men would make its own interesting little spin-off if you ever consider going further in detail with that. The belief that the human soul has parts of it reminds me a lot of how Egyptians viewed the soul, just a wee bit.
 

Malta

Cuāuhtemōc said:
That was an extremely informative update, Malta. I did enjoy you going deeper into the religion of the Williamette Valley civilization. The story that you created involving the woman jumping to the river and escaping punishment for the men would make its own interesting little spin-off if you ever consider going further in detail with that. The belief that the human soul has parts of it reminds me a lot of how Egyptians viewed the soul, just a wee bit.
Click to expand...

What kind of spinoff?

You would not be wrong in similarity...
 
Reader mode
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top
Top