Oregon Public Broadcasting

An area at the confluence of the Columbia and Willamette rivers was once home to a thriving Indian village. Hidden underground in a section of the Ridgefield National Wildlife Refuge near Vancouver are clues to an ancient culture that occupied the land from around 1450 up to 1835 when tribes disappeared, succumbing to diseases brought by European traders. Lewis and Clark were greeted by villagers when they visited the area 200 years ago. Their journals show they camped in a clearing near the huge plank houses that sheltered about 100 tribe members. Excavations in the 1990s uncovered over 10,000 artifacts. These excavations continue slowly today as scientists painstakingly examine fragments trying to make sense of village life that was lost in time.