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Prior to the arrival of European immigrants in the 1800s, little is known about Native American settlements in the Gaston area. What is known indicates that Native Americans in the area lived similarly to other Pacific Northwest tribes. In nearby Cherry Grove there are a few petroglyphs usually credited to the Atfalati tribe, which is a division of Kalapuya. Diseases such as smallpox, malaria and influenza which were brought to North America by European Settlers, decimated local native American population. By the time Europeans began to significantly settle the region, as much as 90% of the original native populations had been killed.