It is located at the southern end of the Willamette Valley , near the confluence of the McKenzie and Willamette rivers, about 50 miles 80 km east of the Oregon Coast. The second-most populous city in Oregon, Eugene had a population of , as of the United States census [ 12 ] and it covers city area of The Eugene-Springfield metropolitan statistical area is the second largest in Oregon after Portland.
The first people to settle in the Eugene area were the Kalapuyans , also written Calapooia or Calapooya. They made "seasonal rounds," moving around the countryside to collect and preserve local foods, including acorns, the bulbs of the wapato and camas plants, and berries. They stored these foods in their permanent winter village. When crop activities waned, they returned to their winter villages and took up hunting, fishing, and trading. Other Kalapuyan tribes occupied villages that are also now within Eugene city limits.
They were close-neighbors to the Chifin, intermarried, and were political allies. Some authorities suggest the Brownsville Kalapuyans Calapooia Kalapuyans were related to the Pee-you.
It is likely that since the Santiam had an alliance with the Brownsville Kalapuyans that the Santiam influence also went as far at Eugene. According to archeological evidence, the ancestors of the Kalapuyans may have been in Eugene for as long as 10, years. French fur traders had settled seasonally in the Willamette Valley by the beginning of the 19th century. Their settlements were concentrated in the "French Prairie" community in Northern Marion County but may have extended south to the Eugene area.
Having already developed relationships with Native communities through intermarriage and trade, they negotiated for land from the Kalapuyans.
