This sign is one of four in kiosk near entrance to Cascadia State Park.
Marker Name: Native Americans
Marker Text: Native American Indians used the Cascade area for thousands of years. Cascade Cave is one of the oldest known Indian sites in western Oregon. The cave was used as a temporary camp for at least 8,000 years. Indians using the cave, hunted a number of animals including deer, elk, and rabbit. They also gathered nuts and seeds that they prepared with hand-held grinding stones.
Indians use of the area continued well into this century. Groups from the Warm Springs Reservation often camped on nearby ridges during the summer to feed their horses in the open meadows. In the fall they harvested huckleberries before returning to the reservation for the winter. Their ancestors may have camped at Cascade Cave.
The heavy snowfall common in the Cascades limited Indian use of the area to the summer and fall. As warm weather caused the snowmen to slowly retreat to higher elevations, plants began to grow. The deer and elk moved with the snowmen to higher elevations to eat the new plant growth. Indians followed the retreating snow, camping at each site for a few days or weeks to hunt. As the winter snows began to fall, the natives returned to their winter villages located in the valleys.
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