Portland (Oregon Museum of History)

While the rain itself let up mid-morning, the day was still damp, dreary and chilly. The Oregon State History Museum did not open until 12 noon. I thought about going for a hike in Forest Park, an urban forest that is reputed to be quite lovely. But at this point in the trip, it is becoming more and more difficult to go out just for the sake of going out. The forest would almost surely have been muddy and dim. And with so little time left, I have become rather protective of opportunities to indulge in the guilty pleasure of sitting in a nice warm room with a good book. Once I get home, I will hit the ground running and those opportunities will vanish.

The museum is just a couple of blocks from my hotel, so it was an easy walk. I like how this museum was organized. They had a timeline running across a low slanted shelf, with additional information posted on the walls above, and also central exhibits. It made it easy for my linear brain to absorb the information.

Because Oregon and Washington were both part of Oregon Country , subsequently Oregon territory, their history is very much intertwined. To recap, Oregon Country, created by the Treaty of 1818, consisted of the land north of 42° N latitude, south of 54°40′ N latitude, and west of the Rocky Mountains down to the Pacific Ocean and east to the Continental Divide. It conveniently ignored the Nootka Convention of 1794, which gave Spain joint rights in the region, as well as Russian settlements in the region, and of course failed to recognize indigenous claims to the area. Oregon Country comprised the present-day U.S. states of Oregon, Washington, and Idaho, parts of Montana and Wyoming, and a portion of what is now the Canadian province of British Columbia. The 1818 treaty gave joint control of the region to the U.S. and Britain for ten years, however both countries continued to dispute the terms of the international treaty. In 1819, the United States and Spain signed the Adams-Onis Treaty , which set the boundary between Spanish California and the Oregon Country at the 42nd parallel. In 1924, Russia recognized the United States government's claim to the Oregon Country under the Russo-American Treaty in exchange for certification of Russia's claim to Alaska.

In 1846, the Oregon Country boundary dispute between the U.S. and Britain was settled with the signing of the Oregon Treaty which set the border between the U.S. and British North America at the 49th parallel with the exception of Vancouver Island, which was retained in its entirety by the British. The U.S. portion of the region was organized as Oregon Territory in 1848; Washington Territory was split off in 1853. The State of Oregon was admitted to the Union in 1859 ; it was another 30 years until the State of Washington would be admitted in 1889.

I’ve always thought of Oregon as West Coast liberal and so was surprised at some of the history I learned. While the treatment of indigenous peoples followed more or less the same tragic script as in the rest of the country, some rather bizarre and incongruous laws were passed regarding African-Americans, Chinese-Americans and other non-white groups.

As the U.S. debated slavery, many white settlers came to Oregon to create a state with neither enslaved nor free blacks. How was this possible? By 1847, slavery was declared illegal in Oregon, but the state government also passed a number of exclusion laws aimed at African Americans. The short-lived "lash law" required that all blacks receive 39 lashes, repeated every six months, until they left the state. Subsequent exclusion laws reconfirmed the prohibition on black residency.

Oregon’s bid for statehood posed a conundrum for the U.S. Congress. The territory's status as "free" upset pro-slavery Democrats, and its exclusion laws, written into the draft of the state constitution, worried Republicans. (Remember, the platforms of the named parties essentially switched after the Civil War) Nevertheless, after two years of intermittent debate, Oregon entered the Union as a free state. Even more strangely, its two U.S. senators, Delazon Smith and Joseph Lane, were pro-slavery Democrats. When Oregon joined the U.S. in 1859, it became the only state ever admitted, before or since, with exclusion clauses stipulated in its constitution.

This seems to have set the stage for continuing discriminatory legislation. In 1862 a law was passed requiring African-American, Chinese-American, Hawaiian, and “Mulatto" residents to pay an annual poll tax of five dollars. If they lacked the funds, the state forced them to work on public roads for 50 cents a day until the tax was satisfied. In 1866, the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution nullified Oregon's exclusion laws, but it was not until 1926 that Oregonians voted to officially repeal them. Even so, in the 1930s, the practice of red-lining - highlighting neighborhoods predominantly populated by African Americans as "high risk" for home loans - contributing to the ongoing wealth gap between whites and African Americans in the U.S.

The discrimination continued unabated. In 1882 The Chinese Exclusion Act banned Chinese workers from entering the country. Designed to last 10 years, the law was not repealed by Congress until 1943 when China became an ally during World War Il. In 1923, Oregon's legislature approved an alien land law prohibiting land ownership by "aliens ineligible for citizenship." The legislation was aimed particularly at first-generation Japanese immigrants, or Issei, who were buying farmland and orchards. Like other West Coast states with a significant Japanese-American population, people of Japanese ancestry were removed to internment camps in 1941 after the bombing of Pearl Harbor. Roughly 70% of the 4.000 incarcerated Nikki from Oregon returned to the state, but they maintained title to only 25% of the land they had held prior to incarceration.

Especially in light of immigration issues being debated today, my attention was captured by an exhibit about the Bracero Program. In 1942 The Bracero (Spanish for manual worker) Program, the result of a joint agreement between the U.S. and Mexico, brought agricultural workers to the U.S. from Mexico to address World War II labor shortages. The program drew over 200,000 Mexican workers to the United States, including 15,000 to Oregon. While the workers were not citizens, they were working in the U.S. legally and had a path to naturalization. Many workers remained in the U.S. and became part of the Latino diaspora, becoming productive, tax-paying citizens and creating vibrant communities. The Braceros' vital contributions to the war effort have yet to be fully recognized, but the Latino community has worked to make this important history more visible. From what I have learned, the Bracero program seems to have been a win-win for all involved. It is interesting that, although similar solutions have been proposed more recently, they have not been implemented.

Before closing out this history review, I want to return briefly to the many Native Tribes who still live and thrive, although in a far more restricted fashion, in Oregon. The museum gave a lot of space to their history; I have not rehearsed it, not because it is any less interesting or important, just because it is repetitive of previous posts. However, one exhibit board in particular caught my eye and I thought it was worth highlighting. In 2005, the Tribal Council of the Confederated Tribes of Coos, Lower Umpqua and Siuslaw Indians created a program called Peacegiving . Peacegiving is an alternative to the criminal justice system and offers a cultural response to conflict. It is facilitated by Peacegivers-Tribal members who have the support of the community to resolve disputes by means that honor Tribal values of peace and healing. I found one descriptive website , which I will spend more time with at a later time. The lead states that Peacegiving will provide a voluntary dispute resolution alternative, grounded in the tribal traditions of peace and healing. Although I have not yet researched this concept more deeply, I have to wonder if we could all learn something from this approach.

After leaving the museum, I started walking around the city without any particular destination. A few blocks took me downtown, and I could see from the map that there was an area near the Willamette River called Old Town. I thought to walk over, but a block north of downtown, the neighborhood precipitously deteriorated. Even in the middle of a Sunday afternoon, it felt unsafe. I turned around and headed back to my hotel.

A word about Hotel Vance. I think this would generally be considered a nice hotel. It is part of the Tribute collection acquired by Marriott. They are all independent hotels, so it is difficult to know what to expect. However, the decor is uber-modern, to the point of starkness. The only wall decor, both in the halls and in the rooms, are large scale cartoon-like murals. I found them jarring. Because of the starkness, the room lacks warmth and coziness. And a distinct derth of lighting contributes to a cave-like feeling. In spite of the fact that it is clean and otherwise well-appointed, and the staff is helpful and friendly, I would not choose to stay here again. I just prefer a warmer environment.

Tomorrow I will visit the famed Portland Japanese Garden.