OREGON HEALTH SCIENCES UNIVERSITY

public, coeducational institution of higher learning in Portland, Ore., U.S. It is part of Oregon's State System of Higher Education, and it is specifically dedicated to training health professionals and to biomedical research. The university comprises schools of Medicine, Dentistry, and Nursing. It also includes the Biomedical Information Communication Center, Casey Eye Institute, Vollum Institute for Advanced Biomedical Research, and the Center for Research on Occupational and Environmental Toxicology. The university awards undergraduate, graduate, and professional degrees. Total enrollment exceeds 1,300. The medical school was founded in 1887 as part of the University of Oregon. In 1974 the schools of Dentistry, Medicine, and Nursing, along with the university's hospital and clinics, merged with Doernbecher Children's Hospital and the Child Development and Rehabilitation Center to form the University of Oregon Health Sciences Center. The centre became independent of the University of Oregon in 1981, and its name was changed to the Oregon Health Sciences University. History When the first Europeans arrived in the Oregon countrya region vaguely defined at the time but roughly comparable to the present Pacific Northwestabout 125 Indian tribes with a population estimated at 100,000 to 180,000 lived in and around the area. In what became the state of Oregon, the leading tribes were the salmon-eating Chinook along the lower Columbia River; the Tillamook, Yamel, Molala, Clackamus, and Multnomah in the northwest; the Santiam and Coos in the southwest; the Cayuse, Northern Paiute, Umatilla, Nez Perc, and Bannock in the dry lands east of the Cascade Range and in the BlueWallowa mountains; and the Klamath and Modoc in the south central area. Their mode of life resulted in a relatively small population: they had no form of agriculture and no domesticated animals other than the dog; and they used crude implements for gathering, hunting, and fishing. The tribes along the Columbia River, known as the Canoe Indians, fashioned excellent canoes from logs. The explorers The first Europeans to see the Oregon coast were Spanish sailors searching for a northwest passage. In 1579 English pirate Francis Drake, in quest of Spanish loot and a northwest passage in his Golden Hind, anchored in an inlet north of the Golden Gate and with a brass plate took possession of the country for Queen Elizabeth I. Until the third quarter of the 18th century, when the Spanish renewed exploration along the coast, the Oregon country remained unexplored. In 1778 the English sea captain James Cook visited and traded in Oregon. In 1787 Boston merchants sent two ships to the Oregon country under Captains Robert Gray and John Kendrick. On his second voyage Gray entered the harbour that bears his name (in Washington), and in May 1792 he sailed over the bar of the Columbia River and named it for his ship, the Columbia. This was the first U.S. claim to the Pacific Northwest by right of discovery. The Northwest was also approached by land. Two British fur companies, the Hudson's Bay Company and the North West Company, raced across the continent to open routes to the Pacific; the Americans were not far behind. Meriwether Lewis and William Clark reached the mouth of the Columbia in 1805, strengthening the U.S. claim to the region. John Jacob Astor, at the head of the Pacific Fur Company, began white settlement of the Oregon country with the establishment of a trading post at Astoria in 1811. In 1824 the Hudson's Bay Company established Fort Vancouver, and John McLoughlin was appointed to head this company's far-flung operations. For the next 22 years he was the dominating figure in the region.