For the Clackamas people, the rivers were at the heart of their way of life. The great salmon runs both required and allowed a large settled population; the limited time for harvest required a great many hands for labor and the prized fishing sites needed warriors for protection from invaders. Even after Americans settled at Oregon City, the local Indians continued to supply the fish. 

They resided below Willamette falls along the Willamette and Clackamas Rivers, and along the Columbia River from Cleilo Falls nearly to the coast. The Clackamas were roughly divided into the Multnomah west of the Willamette River, the Clowwewalla around the Willamette Falls, as well as the area east of the Willamette on the valleys of the Clackamas and Sandy Rivers.