Rich Bergeman, The Land Remembers: The Rogue River Wars

August 5 – October 15, 2024

The National Historic Oregon Trail Interpretive Center
2267 Hwy 86
Baker City, Oregon 97841
https://www.nps.gov/places/000…
(541) 523-1843
Open daily 10am-5pm

“The Land Remembers” features over 40 black-and-white prints by Corvallis photographer Rich Bergeman that explore the Southern Oregon landscapes where the Rogue River Indian Wars were fought 170 years ago.

One of the bloodiest–and yet mostly overlooked–of the Indian conflicts to occur in the Oregon Territory, the Rogue River Wars were characterized by persistent fighting between local tribes and the miners and settlers who moved into southwest Oregon in the early 1850s.

Using an infrared-sensitive camera, Bergeman spent two years traveling from the Rogue Valley to the Oregon Coast to photograph scenes at or near the sites of battles, peace parlays, massacres and other significant events that occurred during the war years of 1851-56. Bergeman said his goal was not to document specific historic sites, but rather “to bring the largely forgotten war back into our collective consciousness through a reflective study of the landscapes that played host to those tragic events.”

In addition to the photographs, the story of the war years is retold through wall text, maps and gallery guides, as well as an accompanying book available in the Lone Pine Mercantile at the Interpretive Center.

The source of the conflict was the convergence of two separate events–the discovery of gold in the region and the passage of the Oregon Donation Land Claim Act. The various tribes who had populated the area for centuries saw their homelands suddenly invaded as settlers and miners streamed in. Conflict inevitably followed, with a cycle of fighting and truces between 1851 and 1854 that eventually erupted into all-out war involving the U.S. Army. It finally ended in 1856 with the forced removal of the Rogue Valley and South Coast tribes to reservations at Siletz and Grand Ronde.

Bergeman is a retired instructor of journalism and photography at Linn-Benton Community College in Albany. The 75-year-old photographer has been exhibiting his work throughout the Northwest since the 1980s. Over the past two decades he has focused primarily on portraying forgotten Northwest histories through photographs of what’s been left behind. His portfolios can be seen at richbergeman.zenfolio.com, and in book form at blurb.com