ABSTRACT
The Umpqua/Eden site (35D083) is located on the southeast bank of the Umpqua River estuary approximately 3,2 km upstream from the river mouth (Figure 5.1). Ethnographically the area was occupied by the Lower Umpqua, or Kalawatset, a Penutian-speaking group (Beckham 1977). Gustavus Hines visited the river mouth in August of 1840. He wrote “on arriving at the coast [having traveled down the Umpqua River] we found the Indians living in three small villages, the larger being on the north side of the river. The whole number, as near as we could ascertain, amounted to about two hundred men, women, and children, about one-third of whom were absent in the mountains, for the purpose of picking berries” (Hines 1851:103-104). He visited a village near what may be the mouth of Winchester Creek (Figure 5.1). Davidson (1889:404) later reported “the Indian name of the [Umpqua] river below the rapids [some 35 km upstream of the river mouth] is said to be Kah-la-wat-set.”
