The Champoeg Meetings were the first attempts at formal governance by European-American and French Canadian pioneers in the Oregon Country on the Pacific Northwest coast of North America. Between 1841 and 1843, a series of public councils was held at Champoeg, a settlement on the French Prairie of the Willamette River valley in present-day Marion County, Oregon, and at surrounding settlements.[1] The meetings were organized by newly arrived settlers as well as Protestant missionaries from the Methodist Mission and Catholic Jesuit priests from Canada.
Since the first decade of the 19th century, a small but growing number of pioneers had settled in the Oregon Country, mostly to pursue business interests in the North American fur trade. Despite its economic value, the region was so vast and remote that it was left unorganized for several decades, with no European-American government in place to set laws and resolve disputes. Prior to the Champoeg Meetings, the closest thing to a government in the Oregon Country was the privately owned Hudson's Bay Company, which effected a loose authority mainly through the efforts of Dr. John McLoughlin at Fort Vancouver in present-day Vancouver, Washington.
Uncertainty about settling the estate of prominent settler Ewing Young in 1841 stirred a group of settlers led by missionary Jason Lee to advocate for a settler-run local government in the region. The assemblies at Champoeg addressed issues of probate law and estate administration, how to reward hunters who killed animals preying on livestock, and how to compromise on a system of leadership for the proposed government. The meetings eventually culminated in a vote on May 2, 1843, which concluded in favor of forming what became the Provisional Government of Oregon. Though primarily supported by American pioneers and opposed by French Canadian settlers in anticipation of the region's annexation by the United States, several French Canadians also voted in favor of forming a provisional government. A state park and marker at the site of the May 2 vote commemorate the proceedings, as well as a large mural behind the desk of the Oregon Speaker of the House at the Oregon State Capitol in Salem.
^Carey, Charles History of Oregon. Chicago: The Pioneer Historical Publishing Co. 1922
The ChampoegMeetings were the first attempts at formal governance by European-American and French Canadian pioneers in the Oregon Country on the Pacific...
Northwest region of North America. Its formation had been advanced at the ChampoegMeetings since February 17, 1841, and it existed from May 2, 1843 until March...
Native American encampment and later town known as Champoeg, Oregon. These first ChampoegMeetings eventually led to further discussions, and in 1843...
settling in the Tualatin Valley, Meek played a prominent role at the ChampoegMeetings of 1843, where he was elected a sheriff. He was later elected to and...
Treaty of 1818 Russo-American Treaty of 1824 Willamette Cattle Company ChampoegMeetings Star of Oregon Whitman massacre Cayuse War Donation Land Claim Act...
settlers in the Willamette Valley established a provisional government at Champoeg. Political pressure in the United States urged the occupation of all the...
Treaty of 1818 Russo-American Treaty of 1824 Willamette Cattle Company ChampoegMeetings Star of Oregon Whitman massacre Cayuse War Donation Land Claim Act...
settling in the Tualatin Valley, Meek played a prominent role at the ChampoegMeetings of 1843, where he was elected as a sheriff. Later he served in the...
referred to the May 2, 1843, vote by Oregon Country settlers at the third ChampoegMeeting to form a provisional government independent of the United States and...
Treaty of 1818 Russo-American Treaty of 1824 Willamette Cattle Company ChampoegMeetings Star of Oregon Whitman massacre Cayuse War Donation Land Claim Act...
sharing and formally established the borders on June 15, 1846. The ChampoegMeetings, including a constitutional committee, held from February 1841 until...
years to gain ownership title to it. The provisional government formed at Champoeg had limited the land claims offered in the hope of preventing land speculation...
Treaty of 1818 Russo-American Treaty of 1824 Willamette Cattle Company ChampoegMeetings Star of Oregon Whitman massacre Cayuse War Donation Land Claim Act...
1854–1855 ones were. On April 12, 1851, at the Santiam Treaty Council in Champoeg, Oregon Territory, Santiam Kalapuya tribal leaders voiced strong opinions...
Abernethy and the Reverend Gustavus Hines. Babcock was selected at the ChampoegMeeting in David Leslie's home on February 18, 1841, to be the first Supreme...
Voyages of the Famed Quebec Mission to the Pacific Northwest, Portland, OR: Champoeg Press Franchère, Gabriel; Huntington, J. V. (1854), Narrative of a Voyage...
Post was established in 1814 by the North West Company near the site of Champoeg. By 1829, Étienne Lucier was establishing a land claim nearby and starting...
Aaron Chamberlain, Champoeg Anderson Cox, Champoeg Robert Newell, Champoeg William H. Rector, Champoeg Willard Hall Rees, Champoeg Medorem Crawford, Clackamas...
included a copy of the Organic Laws of Oregon adopted by settlers at the ChampoegMeetings. It was a popular guidebook for immigrants for the next ten years...
1842 at Champoeg (halfway between Lee's mission and Oregon City) to discuss wolves and other animals of contemporary concern. These meetings were precursors...
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