The land sits near Willamette Falls outside Oregon City, which has been the focus of redevelopment plans for nearly a decade. All of that is embodied in the in the return to the name of this area.” It’s a spiritual and a cultural site, and a place of commerce. So we are returning to that because it is a powerful people. “It’s not so much a renaming as a return,” Kennedy tells Oregon Business. The name was officially decided upon by the tribal government after consulting with descendants of the Clackamas people who are indigenous to the area, according to Cheryle Kennedy, chairwoman of the Grand Ronde.
The announcement of the village name is recent, but the name isn’t new: Tumwata is the original name for the falls, and the village that sat nearby. Last week the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde announced a name for the 23-acre Oregon City site the tribe is working to redevelop: Tumwata Village.
