In a recent paper Melville Jacobs outlined briefly the history of linguistic research in connection with indigenous languages of Oregon. In this paper I will not repeat what has already been said, but rather attempt to describe the field situation in Oregon at the present time as accurately and completely as possible.
In May 1963 I began a survey of the indigenous languages still spoken in Oregon and the data presented below were derived from this survey. The purpose of the study was to determine the number of possible informants still using each of the native languages and the level of competence of each speaker in so far as this could be determined without actually doing linguistic field-work at the time. This information was a necessary prerequisite to the organization of a programme of research designed to salvage as much of the remaining languages in the area as possible.