The confederation takes its name from the Siletz River, which surrounds the original headquarters of the reservation. The word siletz translates to a description of something that is coiled like a rope or a snake, describing the route of the river winding through the mountains circuitously to the ocean. The confederation includes remnants of the Siletz, a Coast Salish people who also became incorporated into the larger confederation.
Tribes
The confederation is made up of the following tribes and bands.[3]
Oregon Athabaskans, including all Athabaskan bands from southwestern Oregon (bands of Rogue River Athabaskan peoples, Chetco people, Tolowa people and Upper Umpqua (Etnemitane) people), such as the following:
After the Rogue River Wars of 1855–56, most of the peoples were forced onto the Coast Indian Reservation, which later became known as the Siletz Reservation, where they were to form a single unified tribe. The Coast Reservation originally comprised 1.1 million acres, which was established by the executive order of President Franklin Pierce on November 9, 1855, only weeks after the start of the last phase of the Rogue River Wars. The Siletz Reservation was reduced by around 3/4 its area (approximately 900,000 acres) in 1865 and 1875 in violation of treaties. In 1894, 551 individuals received federal allotments from the remaining reservation, and tribal members were forced to cede the "surplus" for 74 cents an acre. By 1912, restrictions on inheriting lands within families led to more than one half of the Siletz allotments being owned by non-Indians.
All of the remaining Siletz lands were sold except for the 39 acres called Government Hill.[5] The proceeds of the sale of the timberland property were distributed to enrolled tribal members in two installments: $250 per person in December 1954, and a final payment of $542.50 per person in August 1956.[6] Other inherited allotments were held in trusts but were also sold off at the request of the owners.
Restoration bills
During the 1960s, several members of the Siletz tribe began to organize and restore common bonds. Their initiatives included the restoration of the tribal cemetery on Government Hill and aggressive lobbying of Congress and the office of the President to again recognize Siletz as a federal Native American tribe.[5]
In June 1974, Rep. Wendell Wyatt introduced a first restoration bill, but it did not pass.
On December 17, 1975, Senator Mark Hatfield introduced restoration bill S. 2801. At the time Senator Hatfield presented his restoration bill he was quoted as saying that the Siletz People were "ill-prepared to cope with the realities of American society" when the Termination act went to effect and that they had been "tossed abruptly from a state of almost total dependency to a state of total independence ...[forcing them] to leave the only way of life they had known." The bill included wording to grant or restore hunting and fishing rights. This bill also did not pass.
Senator Hatfield and Senator Bob Packwood introduced a new bill, S. 1560, in the month of May 1977. Unlike its 1975 predecessor, it did not include that the hunting or fishing rights be restored (although a companion bill was sent by Rep. Les AuCoin to the United States House of Representatives, H.R. 7259, which the Oregon Fish and Wildlife Commission fought and helped to stall). On August 5, 1977, the United States Senate passed the restoration bill and on November 1, 1977, so did the House. The bill was then sent to President Jimmy Carter on November 3 and then signed into law on November 18, 1977.
Today about 5,600 of their descendants are enrolled members of this tribe, which is based on the Siletz Reservation along the Siletz River in the Central Oregon Coast Range, about 15 miles northeast of Newport, Oregon.
Important events in tribal history
A sign in front of Logan Road, owned by the Confederated Tribes of the Siletz Indians
On November 18, 1977, the Confederated Tribes became the second tribe in the U.S. to have its federal status restored, and returned to being a sovereign government.
On June 2, 1979, tribal members adopted a constitution.
On November 1, 1979, people of the town of Siletz, voted 148 to 134 to give back to the tribe approximately 36 acres (150,000m2) of former tribal land, which was originally the site of the old Siletz Agency, "Government Hill". The tribe had given this land to the city at the time of termination.
In 1980, the Siletz Reservation Act was signed into law, returning about 3,660 acres to the Siletz Tribe as its initial restored Siletz Reservation.
In 1994, the Tribe voted to lower the blood quantum, to 1/16, which allowed new members to join.
In 1995, the first "Run to the Rogue" took place, in which tribal members took turns carrying an eagle flag staff from Government Hill in Siletz to Agness, Oregon (located on the Rogue River) in what is Oregon's longest relay on foot.
In 2005, a 227-room hotel adjacent to Chinook Winds Casino was purchased and added to the casino.
December 6, 2016 S.817 Bill Passed in U.S. House of Representatives. Real Property located within the original Siletz Reservation boundaries lines is now deemed "on reservation."
Organization and location
The Confederated Tribes have 5,600 enrolled members,[1] 70% of whom live in Oregon and only 8% of whom live near on the 3,900-acre (16km2) reservation. An additional 6% live in the town of Siletz and 22.6% live in Lincoln County. There are 445 households in the city of Siletz and 143 households on the Siletz Reservation.
The tribe owns and manages about 16,000 acres total, about 4,000-acre (16km2) of which is a reservation located along the Siletz River in the Central Oregon Coast Range of central Lincoln County, Oregon, approximately 15mi (24km) northeast of Newport.[7] In total, they own a checkerboard of approximately 15,000 acres (61km2) in and around the original 1.1 million acre Coast Indian Reservation, established Nov 9, 1855 – which was quickly whittled down, and the tribe terminated by act of Congress in 1956. The Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians became the second tribe terminated by an act of Congress to regain federal recognition by passage of the Siletz Restoration Act Nov 18, 1977.
The tribe owns and operates the Chinook Winds Casino and Convention Center, the Chinook Winds Golf Resort[8] in Lincoln City (including the Chinook Winds Resort hotel purchased from Shilo Inn hotels in 2004), the oceanfront Lot 57 north of Chinook Winds Casino, Hee Hee Illahee RV park in Salem, the Logan Road RV Park,[9] the Salem Flex Building where the Salem Area Offices currently exist, the Portland Stark Building which was purchased in August 2007, which is the site of the tribe's Portland Area Office, the Eugene Elks building which houses the Eugene Area Office, the Siletz Gas & Mini Mart, the old Toledo Mill site, and a commercial building in Depoe Bay.
The tribe also owns and runs the Siletz Community Health Clinic. A $7.5 million plan is underway to expand the clinic.[10] $2 million of the funding will come from the Federal government's IHS Small Ambulatory Grant funding. The clinic is currently 15,000 square feet (1,400m2) but will grow to 45,000 square feet (4,200m2) between 2006-2016.
The Siletz Tribal Police department was discontinued, but the tribe now contracts with the nearby Lincoln County Sheriff's Office to provide law enforcement services to the Siletz area.
The tribe is gradually accumulating additional property into the reservation, as part of its Comprehensive Plan. This includes 3,851 acres (15.58km2)[11] entrusted to the tribe in 2007 by the state and federal governments as part of the New Carissa oil spill settlement, on the condition that the Confederated Tribes will manage it as a marbled murrelet habitat.
The tribal government is attempting to get its 1850's treaties with the United States recognized by referencing them[12] in the tribe's constitution, and also by mentioning the treaties in a work by Charles Wilkinson, who was hired by the Tribal Council to write a history of the Siletz. There have also been attempts to retrieve the remains of tribal ancestors from the Smithsonian Institution, and to retrieve various other tribal artifacts distributed throughout the United States of America.
Tribal Council Chairman Delores Pigsley
The current Tribal Council includes Chairman Delores Pigsley, Vice Chairman Bud Lane, Secretary Sharon Edenfield, Treasurer Robert Kentta, Reggie Butler, Sr., Lillie Butler, Loraine Butler, Angela Ramirez and Selene Rilatos.
The tribal government's Public Information Office publishes the monthly Siletz News.[14]
Cultural activities
Artifacts and historical documents are stored and displayed at the Siletz Tribal Cultural Center, located on Government Hill, under the care of Cultural Programs Staff.
Tolowa is taught as a common tribal language. Beginning Athabaskan language has been taught at the Siletz Valley Charter School, which opened in the fall of 2006.
Many Native Americans gather around a drum, preparing for a powwow in 1900
The second weekend in August of every year the tribe is host to its annual Nesika Illahee Pow-wow.
Every summer and winter solstice for hundreds if not thousands of years, a dance has been held, called the Feather Dance (or Nee-dash), for 10 nights.
In recent years a new tradition has been started. During the winter solstice, dancers, singers, and tribal members from the Confederated Tribes visit the Tolowa's cedar plank dance house near Smith River, California. During the summer solstice, dancers, singers, and tribal members of the Tolowa tribe visit the peoples of the Confederated Tribes of Siletz's cedar plank dance house.
Population
Finding records of the ethnic and cultural history of the Confederated Tribes of Siletz is somewhat difficult. A partial attempt at the tribal population makeup before it was forced on reservation lands in the mid-19th century is as follows:
According to a report by the National Geographic Society and the Living Tongues Institute for Endangered Languages, Siletz Dee-ni is the last of many tribal languages spoken on the reservation. In 2007 only one living fluent speaker remained.[15] However, according to a later report in The Economist, the language has since been at least partially revived thanks to an on-line dictionary project; in some areas, "many now text each other in Siletz Dee-ni."[16] The tribe has a language revival program with classes in three area offices and Siletz Valley school.[17] As of 2020, a number of younger conversant speakers have learned the language.
Mary "Dolly" Fisher, activist to restore federal recognition of the Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians from 1974. She won the Nanwood Honeyman Award for significant contribution to the advancement of women in Oregon. She won The National Congress of American Indians award, honoring Indian and Native Women's leadership. Named tribal casino as "Chinook Winds."
The Coquille are a Native American people who historically lived in the Coquille River watershed and nearby coast south of Coos Bay. They were signatories of the Oregon Coast Tribes Treaty of 1855 and were subsequently removed to the Siletz Reservation in northwestern Oregon in 1856. Most Coquille people today live there as members of the Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians, but some whose ancestors remained in the traditional homeland or fled the reservation now make up the Coquille Indian Tribe, centered in southwest Oregon where the Coos River flows into Coos Bay.
The Siletz Reservation is a 5.852 sq mi (15.157 km²) Indian reservation in Lincoln County, Oregon, United States, owned by the Confederated Tribes of Siletz. The reservation is made up of numerous non-contiguous parcels of land in east-central Lincoln County, mostly east of the city of Siletz, between it and the Polk County line.
The Umpqua people are an umbrella group of several distinct tribal entities of Native Americans of the Umpqua Basin in present-day south central Oregon in the United States. The area south of Roseburg is now known as the Umpqua Valley.
The Tututni tribe is a historic Native American tribe, one of Lower Rogue River Athabascan tribes from southwestern Oregon who signed the 1855 Coast Treaty, and were removed to the Siletz Indian Reservation in Oregon. They traditionally lived along the Rogue River and its tributaries, near the Pacific Coast between the Coquille River on the north and Chetco River in the south. Lower Rogue River Athabascan tribes are a group of Athabascan tribes who were historically located in southwestern Oregon in the United States and speak the same Athabascan language, known as Lower Rogue River.
The Siletz were the southernmost of several divisions of the Tillamook people speaking a distinct dialect; the other dialect-divisions were: Salmon River on the Salmon River, Nestucca on Little Nestucca River, Nestucca River and Nestucca Bay, Tillamook Bay on the Tillamook Bay and the mouths of the Kilchis, Wilson, Trask and Tillamook rivers, and Nehalem on Nehalem River. The name "Siletz" comes from the name of the Siletz River on which they live. The origin of the name is unknown
The Kalapuya are a Native American people, which had eight independent groups speaking three mutually intelligible dialects. The Kalapuya tribes' traditional homelands were the Willamette Valley of present-day western Oregon in the United States, an area bounded by the Cascade Range to the east, the Oregon Coast Range at the west, the Columbia River at the north, to the Calapooya Mountains of the Umpqua River at the south.
The Alsea are a Native American tribe of Western Oregon. They are, confederated with other Tribes on the Siletz Reservation, Oregon, and are members of the Confederated Tribes of Siletz.
The Molala are a people of the Plateau culture area in the Oregon Cascades and central Oregon, United States. They are one of the Confederated Tribes of the Grand Ronde Community of Oregon, with 141 of the 882 members in the 1950s claiming Molala descent. The Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians also has Molalla representation among its confederation of Tribes and Bands. The Siletz Reservation was established in 1855, for the Coast, Willamette and Umpqua Tribes. The Molalla are one of the Tribes who signed the 1855 Willamette Valley Treaty.
The Confederated Tribes of the Grand Ronde Community of Oregon (CTGR) consists of twenty-seven Native American tribes with long historical ties to present-day western Oregon between the western boundary of the Oregon Coast and the eastern boundary of the Cascade Range, and the northern boundary of southwestern Washington and the southern boundary of northern California. The community has an 11,288-acre (45.7 km2) Indian reservation, the Grand Ronde Indian Reservation, which was established in 1855 in Yamhill and Polk counties.
Pacific Coast Athabaskan is a geographical and possibly genealogical grouping of the Athabaskan language family.
The Rogue River Wars were an armed conflict in 1855–1856 between the U.S. Army, local militias and volunteers, and the Native American tribes commonly grouped under the designation of Rogue River Indians, in the Rogue River Valley area of what today is southern Oregon. The conflict designation usually includes only the hostilities that took place during 1855–1856, but there had been numerous previous skirmishes, as early as the 1830s, between European American settlers and the Native Americans, over territory and resources.
The Tolowa language is a member of the Pacific Coast subgroup of the Athabaskan language family. Together with three other closely related languages it forms a distinctive Oregon Athabaskan cluster within the subgroup.
The Tolowa people or Taa-laa-wa Dee-ni’ are a Native American people of the Athabaskan-speaking ethno-linguistic group. Two rancherías still reside in their traditional territory in northwestern California. Those removed to the Siletz Reservation in Oregon are located there.
The Shasta Costa, are a Native American tribe, one of Lower Rogue River Athabascan tribes from southwestern Oregon, who originally lived on the Rogue River and its tributaries, or, more precisely, on the "Lower Illinois River and the Rogue River between present-day Agness and Foster Bar." They spoke Shasta Costa dialect of Tututni language. They were classified as Rogue River Indians for the purposes of treaty negotiation. One of their villages, Tlegetlinten, was located near Agness, and was eventually "occupied by Euro-American settlers."
Rogue River Indians are a conglomeration of many tribal groups in the Rogue River Valley area, belonging to three language families: Athabascan, Takelma, and Shastan.
The Chetco are a tribe of Native Americans who originally lived along the lower Chetco River and Winchuck River in Curry County in the U.S. state of Oregon. The name Chetco comes from the word meaning "close to the mouth of the Chetco River" in their own language, which is part of the Athapascan languages. Although they were once one of the largest tribes on the Pacific coast of Oregon, "the last known full-blooded Chetco" living on the Chetco River died in 1940.
The Native American peoples of Oregon are the set of Indigenous peoples who have inhabited or who still inhabit the area delineated in today's state of Oregon in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. While the state of Oregon currently maintains relations with nine federally recognized tribal groups, the state was previously home to a much larger number of autonomous tribal groups, which today either no longer exist or have been absorbed into these larger confederated entities. Six of the nine tribes gained federal recognition in the late 20th century, after undergoing the termination and restoration of their treaty rights starting in the 1950s.
The Western Oregon Indian Termination Act or Public Law 588, was passed in August 1954 as part of the United States Indian termination policy. It called for the termination of federal supervision over the trust and restricted property of numerous Native American bands and small tribes, all located west of the Cascade Mountains in Oregon. The act also called for disposition of federally owned property which had been bought for the administration of Indian affairs, and for termination of federal services which these Indians received under federal recognition. The stipulations in this act were similar to those of most termination acts.
Mary Peters (1852–1921) was an Umpqua woman who operated a ferry across the Rogue River.
References
1 2 "Enrollment". Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians. August 8, 2020. Retrieved September 1, 2011.
↑ Youst, Lionel; Seaburg, William (2002). Coquelle Thompson, Athabaskan Witness: A Cultural Biography. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press. p.258. ISBN0806134488.
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