Government of the PNW before 1900

* Earliest government

  - Native Americans had tribal government

    -> even after conquest, kept this form on reservations

  - captains and managers provided the government for the

    Europeans

    -> expedition leaders, ship's captains, company managers

    -> Hudson's Bay Company leader McLoughlin was a huge figure

  - missionaries and trappers outside of "the law"

  - Oregon moved to provisional government in 1841

    -> dealing with inheritance and property law

    -> some policing

    -> dealing with wolves

* American Government

  - starts with the treaty of 1846

  - 1848, after the Whittman massacre, the Oregon Territory

    established

  - Oregon City and then Salem, Oregon (after 1851) were the

    capitals

  - 1853 Washington splits off into its own territory

    -> large enough, distant enough, and economically important

       enough

  - Oregon wanted to become a state by 1857

    -> fulfilled the three requirements:

       -> had 120,000

       -> had a constitution approved by people

       -> constitution had to be approved by congress

    -> slavery issue kept the issue undecided

       => would they enter slave or free?

    -> in 1859, Buchanan signs legislation making Oregon a state

       => 33rd state

       => a free state

  - Washington waits until 1889 (42nd state)

    -> population grew slowly

       => 1880 saw only 75,116 people