The family curse or the toxic earth.

Re the origin of the term "Valley of Sickness" as a descriptor of this region, the article linked below is a rich source of information on how this phrase may have come to be.

Note that I say may because there is no definitive reason for the name, just theories, the article says.

The theories range from early Indians settling in a mosquito-infested place and catching diseases, to, surprisingly, the opposing theory that the valley was in fact a beautiful place where people went to be cured of sickness!

It seemed to me from reading the article that the most historically supportable theory involves plague-like conditions imported into the valley from the outside:

"(The) Kalapuyan (Indian) populations suffered catastrophic declines during early historical times, the most dramatic single decrease probably occurring during 1830 to 1833, when malaria swept the Willamette and lower Columbia areas. There is no reliable data on how large Kalapuyan populations were before this disastrous event. (Handbook of North American Indians, Volume 7, pg. 551)"

And

"The settlers, missionaries, and explorers of the period 1830-1855 give an account of the Chinookans that reflects the population decline experienced by these people from smallpox, measles, malaria, and other diseases. Most of the earlier sites were abandoned, or with reduced consolidated populations, particularly Multnomah and Clackamas Chinookians, who were thoroughly ravaged… (Handbook of North American Indians, Volume 7, pg. 535)"

But the other theories remain plausible until more definitive research decides the matter.

And here's a little extra, the possible meaning of "Willamette":

"Willamette is a Clackamas Chinook word. “Mette” is the french spelling that was changed in the 1800’s from “met” which was a poor way of spelling the Chinookan word “maɬ.” Maɬ is the chinookan word for water or river. The barred L which sits at the end of the word is not a letter in the English alphabet and so it was never recorded as such, except by linguists. You can see it tagged onto the end of many river names: Clackamas, Multnomah, Willamette, Klamath, and others."

Hence, "Willamette" means "the water or river of Willa," although the article says the meaning of "Willa" remains unclear.

https://www.petermichaelbauer.com/willamette-the-valley-of-an-8000-year-old-culture/#:~:text=in%20the%20fertile%20willamette%20valley%2c%20which%20indians%20named,broken%20covenants%20and%20treaties%20were%20a%20severe%20problem.

Probably as much as we want to know about the subject.

F8,
Yep, since 1860 our American average life expectancy has almost doubled (40 years to almost 80 years) so despite pollution ……

We Americans are the worst polluters ….. second homes, huge pickup trucks, airplane vacations, plastic shopping bags ….. you name it we do it.

I’ve no answers beyond if we try real hard we just may get what we need (versus want).

VinceInMT said...

F8 said...
the world has gotten so toxic and we so fat and complacent and yet most of us will meet the average life expectancy, which is up by more than a dozen years since i was a kid

The issue, for me, isn’t the specific number of years I will live but the quality of those years. I know people younger than myself who have already given up and have their activities limited due to poor lifestyle choices. Spending my final years in a La-Z-Boy in front of the TV and kvetching about life is not a choice I would make.

######

could not agree more

clocknut said...
Pratoman, I can relate to that. This past Monday I has a triple coronary artery bypass graft procedure. They also did a Maze procedure to try to end my constant battle with atrial fibrillation. The procedure went very well and I was only in the hospital for three and a half days, but now I've reverted to afib once again. Very disappointing, though not totally unexpected. At least I got a repaired heart out of the open heart surgery. I must say that what I just went through was much more challenging in every way that the prostatectomy 13 years ago.

Clocknut, very sorry to hear you had to go through that. I hope the AFIB gets resolved. I do whatever i can to avoid getting worse, as my dad had quadruple bypass, and due to something happening with the anesthesia (which the Drs never admitted) he was never the same mentally. So its my worst nightmare having to have bypass.

So glad you got the surgery done without any issues.

My dad stands alongside us here, as a fellow prostate cancer patient and also a leukemia survivor.

Growing up, my dad helped his grandfather in the family newspaper business. The newspaper remained in my family for over a century.

As a youth, my dad began fainting in school.

Eventually, it was determined that he was suffering from toxic lead poisoning, as he helped in the process where metals were melted down for the newspaper's LINOTYPE typesetting machine.

Decades later, he was diagnosed with leukemia, and has survived over 25 years. A prostate cancer diagnosis followed.

In my time, I was told to "stay clear" of the LINOTYPE typesetting machine, after my dad's experience. However, I was very involved with assembling the freshly printed pages of the family newspaper.

The smell of ink was heavy in the workroom and my hands were soon blackened with fresh ink repeatedly.

Printing inks were formulated in the early 1900s to dry faster ~ and thus contained petroleum-based chemicals that allowed the ink to dry faster during the printing process.

I began helping when I was in elementary school, helping my great-grandfather, just as my dad had done in the early 1950s, when he was growing up.

Now that years have passed ~ I sometimes quietly wonder, in retrospect, if working at my great-grandfather's newspaper office, and being involved in the printing work from a young age with all the petroleum-based ink was a contributory cause of my father's leukemia diagnosis ~ and the subsequent diagnoses of prostate cancer for my father and then for me, just a few years apart.

CYCLONE ~ # Iowa State University

Rockin@57 said...
Genetics or environment? I could argue for both. I was diagnosed (age 57) with PC in 2020. At the same time both my sister (diagnosed at age 56) and mother already had cancer. Both have since died from their cancer. I later found out there were MANY ancestors on my mother's side who died from cancer. On my father's side, my grandmother lived to 96, her two aunts lived to 97 and 98 and her uncle 104. My in-laws are both 86 and still very active. I believe genes are involved with both longevity and decline. Funny thing, my wife and I comment on how her folks still eat as they did their entire lives. Real bacon, generous amounts of butter, fatty beef/pork and gravy on everything. My parents, grandparents and their generations did the same. I believe the difference is their food was fresh. Also, obesity was pretty rare compared to today. Chemicals and preservatives in everything now. Not to mention what's in our air and water. Wouldn't surprise me if average expected life starts to drop in the near future.

Great overview
Lots of sugar in stuff too
I do some ancestry work for our town's history - fascinating to see the WW2 registration cards and how low men's weights were in the early 1940's
6'0" - 165
5'8" - 130
are a couple of examples. You might find that in your family histories as well.

5 cancers in my family, but 2 were lung cancer from smoking
1 kidney cancer - not sure of the cause (paternal uncle) - my original uro checked me out via ultrasound of kidneys and recommended 1x every 5 years
2 pancreatic cancers - paternal great uncle and paternal 2nd cousin

GG1273 said...
…I do some ancestry work for our town's history - fascinating to see the WW2 registration cards and how low men's weights were in the early 1940's
6'0" - 165
5'8" - 130
are a couple of examples. You might find that in your family histories as well….

I look at lots of vintage photos and that is certainly one thing that is evident aside from the clothing styles of the past: people were smaller.

I’m an avid cook and do all of it for my family and going grocery shopper is one of my favorite “chores.” I like looking in other folk’s shopping carts and at their physique and I can see some correlation/causation at work.

I retired from federal service working at a military base. One day I was talking with a coworker who was nearing retirement and was excited about all the things he was going to do. He then said he hoped he would live long enough to do them all. Prior to the current method of media blasting ( think sandblasting), he spent many years stripping paint off aircraft with liquid chemicals. He told me three of his previous coworkers who had retired had all died from brain cancer. He passed away about five years after retiring. His obituary listed cancer as the cause of death but didn't mention what kind it was.

I worked in the pulp and paper industry for 22 years. Black liquor, green liquor, white liquor, caustic, sulfuric acid, dioxin, slimacide, chlorine, anhydrous ammonia, SO2 etc. Everything about that place was toxic.

Nobody in my family ever had cancer (all living in Europe). I moved to the U.S. over twenty years ago. Fifteen years later I had prostate cancer. Makes me wonder.