This study re-examines Pacific Northwest history during the shift from British colonialism in the form of the land-based fur trade to American colonization following the overland migrations. It focuses on the French-Indian settlement in French Prairie, and the cultural relations between the Kalapuya (the indigenous people), inter-ethnic fur trade families, and Anglo-American newcomers.

I am particularly interested in the question of land ownership under the Provisional Government statues, the Oregon Donation Land Claim Act, and the unratified treaties with the Willamette Valley Native peoples of the early 1850s.

I would welcome assistance from Pacific Northwest historians familiar with issues of land ownership, transmission and speculation in the mid Willamette Valley; with any lesser known sources on the Kalapuya and the French-Canadian/Native families of French Prairie.