19041

Homestead Act, Farms, the Pioneer Flood & Shuffling Cards
Honoring the Salmon & other lost Flora and Fauna

The Homestead Act, signed by President Lincoln in 1862, promised citizens or intended citizens 160 acres of almost free land (a small registration fee plus 2 years of hard work to improve and live on that land). For a world based on inheritance and favoritism, it was a shuffling of the cards in the favor of the industrious. In turn, it was Heaven to pioneer immigrants who believed in hard work and individual salvation as sons and daughters of Abraham, lived under Biblical and English law where an individual was sovereign – a concept enhanced by America’s equal rights and opportunities granted in the U.S. and State/Provencial Constitutions. This was contrary to individual rights bestowed by tribal affiliations that reflect origin, race, gender, religion and/or other group favoritisms. These ancestors came here to be freeborn as common brothers and sisters, adopting English as their common language, and trusting in their young to change laws via democratic voting as conditions required. In the URL references below, we explore the Oregon Territory’s waves of immigration to this area, each of the immigrant cultures and communities, and their contributions … with apology to the: Alsea, Chetco, Chinook, Coos, Coquille, Nehalem, Nestucca, Siletz, Siuslaw, Tillamook, Tolowa, Umpqua and Yaquina who were displaced … their forest groves and glades, salmon streams and hunting grounds lost.