The Chinese Massacre in Hells Canyon
R. Gregory Nokes
7 January, 2023          
​9:30 am - 11:00 am 
For the health and safety of everyone in attendance, proof of vaccination and masking are required.
Covered up at the time, and long-forgotten since, the massacre of nearly three-dozen Chinese gold miners in Oregon’s Hells Canyon in 1887 stands as one of the worst crimes in Oregon history.  The miners were among the hundreds of thousands of Chinese, mostly men, who journeyed across the Pacific to American shores in the 1800s, seeking a better life for themselves and their families in China. However, for the  miners in Hells Canyon it was not to be.  A gang of white horse thieves robbed them of their gold, killed them all, and threw their bodies into the Snake River in what can only be understood as a savage act of racial hatred.  Some of the killers were apprehended —there were confessions, an investigation and a trial.  But, an all-white jury refused to find the killers guilty and set them free.  Author and historian R. Gregory Nokes shares with First Saturday PDX how he pieced together the details of this long-forgotten crime, and the efforts of volunteers from throughout the West to honor the victims. ​
About the Speaker:
A Portland native, R. Gregory Nokes did his undergraduate studies at Willamette University prior to attending Harvard University as a Nieman Fellow in 1971-72.  Greg spent more than 40 years in journalism, at The Medford Mail Tribune, The Oregonian, and 25 years with The Associated Press as a foreign and diplomatic correspondent. During that time, several trips to China inspired his interest in the region's history.  Greg retired from journalism in 2003 to embark on a second career as an author and lecturer on early Northwest history.  He is the author of Massacred for Gold: The Chinese in Hells Canyon, Breaking Chains: Slavery on Trial in the Oregon Territory, and The Troubled Life of Peter Burnett: Oregon Pioneer and First Governor of California. 
For more information, see here.  
The author's book will be available for purchase.
Suggested Resources:
  • Massacre at Hells Canyon, video, by OPB available here
  • Chinese in Peril:  The Massacre in Hells Canyon - video, by University of Idaho Confucius Institute, available here
  • R. Gregory Nokes, Massacred for Gold:  The Chinese in Hells Canyon (Oregon State University Press, 2oo9), ​​available here and at the presentation ​

​After the presentation, ​join us for a no-host lunch to further the discussion with our speaker, and have some good Chinese food. 
​​* Our partner for this event, Lan Su Chinese Garden, is offering the following to attendees:
  • Discounted admission for the same day to the Garden 
  • Access to discounted new annual membership to the Garden
  • ​For more information about the Garden see their website:  https://lansugarden.org  ​​​​​
For the health and safety of everyone in attendance, proof of vaccination and masking are required.
Our program series is supported by Portland State University's Institute for Asian Studies, Northwest China Council, Lan Su Chinese Garden and the Portland Chinatown Museum.   All our programs are free and open to the public.