Siletz

Last updated
Siletz
Total population
Fewer than 5,300 (2018) [1]
Regions with significant populations
Flag of the United States.svg  United States (Flag of Oregon.svg  Oregon)
Languages
English, formerly 'Dee Ni [2] and Tillamook [3]
Related ethnic groups
Tolowa and Salish peoples

The Siletz (pronounced SIGH-lets) 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 (perhaps Oregon Athabaskan? variants: Salǽˑtʃʼɪtʃʽ, Sai-lĕtc-́ĭc qûn-nĕ, and Sii-lee-ch'ish)

Contents

Their eastern neighbors the Central Kalapuya tribes called them Tsä Shnádsh amím.

In Chasta Costa and Euchre Creek-Tututni and Chetco-Tolowa they were known as Shii-lee-ch'ish, the Naltunne-Tututni name was Sai-lĕtc-́ĭc me-́t̟ûn-nĕ (all with reference to the Siletz River) and the Upper Coquille-Tututni name ʃɪllǽˑttʃʼɪʃmæ̽-dɜnhæ or Sii-lee-ch'ish- dv-ne ("Siletz River People"). [4]

Today they are a constituent band of the Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians, and the group from which the confederation received its name. In 1856 following the Rogue River Wars in southern Oregon, people from among more than 27 Native Tribes and Bands, speaking 10 distinct languages: Alsea/Yaquina, chinuk wawa (also known as Chinook Jargon), Coos, Kalapuya, Molala, Shasta, Siuslaw/Lower Umpqua, Takelma, Tillamook, and a broad group of Athapascans speaking groups of SW Oregon, including Upper Umpqua, Coquille, Tututni, Chetco, Tolowa, Galice and Applegate River peoples who by treaty agreements and force were removed by the United States to the Coast Indian Reservation, later known as the Siletz Reservation.

Over generations the Siletz people have faced brutal federal policies which resulted their 1.1 million acre reservation being illegally taken from them. Congress passed the Western Oregon Termination Act, ending the government to government relationship with the Siletz Tribes. The Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians was successful in lobbying Congress to repeal the Termination Act as applied to the Siletz and again was federally recognized as of November 18, 1977. Today their members are enrolled in the federally recognized tribe of the Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians.

The only native language still spoken on the reservation is Siletz Dee-ni, which is a combination of all Athbaskan dialectic variant vocabularies spoken by several of the original reservation tribes. In cooperation with the National Geographic Society and the Living Tongues Institute for Endangered Languages, the tribe produced a "talking dictionary" of Siletz Dee-ni in 2007 to aid in preservation and teaching. [5]

History

Traditionally, the Siletz were believed to be a Salishan-speaking group; they inhabited an area along the central coast of Oregon near the Siletz River until the middle of the 19th century. The tribe was considered the southernmost group of the larger Coast Salish culture, [3] which was centered near the Strait of Georgia and Puget Sound in what are now British Columbia, Canada, and Washington, United States.

The Siletz were closely related in language and culture to the Tillamook tribe to their north along the Oregon Coast. During or after the Rogue River Wars of 1855–1856, which extended to areas of northern California, members of the tribe were moved by the United States government to the Coast Indian Reservation, later called the Siletz Reservation.

The Tillamook and peoples of more than 20 other small tribes, including the Tolowa people of northern California, were also removed to the reservation. [3] It is located along the Siletz River in the Central Oregon Coast Range, 15 miles northeast of Newport, which is on the coast in Lincoln County.

Population

Language

The Siletz are believed to have spoken the "Siletz dialect" or "Southern Tillamook" of the Tillamook (Hutyéyu) language, which was part of the Coast Salish languages. Tillamook was declared extinct when its last native speaker died in 1970. [3]

What is now known as the Siletz Dee-ni language was restricted historically to speakers in "a small area on the central Oregon coast." [2] [5] Linguists have concluded that Siletz is not related to Tillamook at all, but is a form of Tolowa, an Athabaskan language rather than a Salishan language. [5] The Tolowa people were one of the 20 Native American groups whose descendants comprise the Confederated Tribes of Siletz.

In the 21st century, Siletz Dee-ni was the only native language still spoken on the reservation. Realizing that their language was endangered, the Consolidated Siletz tribe have taken actions to preserve and teach it. Also called Tolowa Dee-ni, the language has been studied by several groups. Members of the tribe have worked with a variety of linguists to document the language. Their work is "a comprehensive attempt to include the similarities and the differences of the known dialects of the Southwest Oregon / Northwestern California Athabaskan Language." [6]

The Siletz have taken part in an international effort by the National Geographic Society, the Living Tongues Institute for Endangered Languages, [5] and linguists such as K. David Harrison of Swarthmore College to save languages that are threatened with extinction. Alfred "Bud" Lane, among the last fluent native speakers of Siletz on the reservation, has recorded 14,000 words of the Siletz Dee-ni language. Lane and other Siletz had decided they wanted to work to preserve and revive the language. [2]

Lane's work was used to help produce a Siletz talking dictionary, one of eight dictionaries produced for endangered languages in this project, as reported at the annual meeting in 2012 of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). The bilingual dictionary, in English and Siletz Dee-ni, with illustrations, will be used to teach the dialect to tribal members in the Siletz Valley. Such digital tools and social media can help small groups communicate. [2] Professor Harrison said, "a positive effect of globalisation is that you can have a language that is spoken by only five or 50 people in one remote location, and now through digital technology that language can achieve a global voice and a global audience." [2]

Related Research Articles

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Siletz Reservation</span> Indian reservation in United States

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Umpqua people</span>

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Clatsop</span> Indigenous people in Oregon state

The Clatsop are a Chinookan-speaking Indigenous people of the Pacific Northwest of the United States. In the early 19th century they inhabited an area of the northwestern coast of present-day Oregon from the mouth of the Columbia River south to Tillamook Head, Oregon. Today, Clatsop descendants are members of the federally recognized Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians, as well as the unrecognized Chinook Indian Nation and Clatsop-Nehalem Confederated Tribes.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kalapuya</span> Native American tribe

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.

Pacific Coast Athabaskan is a geographical and possibly genealogical grouping of the Athabaskan language family.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rogue River Wars</span> 1855-56 conflict between Native American tribes and U.S. soldiers and settlers in Oregon

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 Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians in the United States is a federally recognized confederation of more than 27 Native American tribes and bands who once inhabited an extensive homeland of more than 20 million acres from northern California to southwest Washington and between the summit of the Cascades and the Pacific Ocean. After the Rogue River Wars, these tribes were removed to the Coast Indian Reservation, now known as the Siletz Reservation. The tribes spoke at least 11 distinct languages, including Tillamook, Shasta, Lower Chinook, Kalapuya, Takelma, Alsea-Yaquina, Siuslaw/Lower Umpqua, Coos, the Plateau Penutian languages Molala and Klickitat, and several related Oregon Athabaskan languages.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Loren Bommelyn</span> Tolowa traditionalist, language instructor, and basket weaver from California

Loren Me’-lash-ne Bommelyn is a tradition bearer for the Tolowa tribe. He has dedicated himself to preserving the traditional songs, language, and basketry. He is the foremost ceremonial leader of the tribe, and its most prolific basketweaver. Bommelyn is an enrolled member of the federally recognized Tolowa Dee-ni' Nation and was elected as their tribal chairperson.

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."

Siletz Dee-ni may refer to:

The Tillamook are a Native American tribe from coastal Oregon of the Salish linguistic group. The name "Tillamook" is a Chinook language term meaning "people of [the village] Nekelim ", sometimes it is given as a Coast Salish term, meaning "Land of Many Waters". The Tillamook tribe consists of several divisions and dialects, including :

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chetco people</span> Ethnic group

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 Yontocket massacre or Burnt Ranch massacre was an 1853 massacre of Tolowa people at the village of Yontocket, northwestern California.

Tututni, also known as Upper Coquille, (Lower) Rogue River and Nuu-wee-ya, is an Athabaskan language spoken by three Tututni tribes: the Tututni tribe, the Coquille tribe, and the Chasta Costa tribe, who are part of the Rogue River Indian peoples of southwestern Oregon. In 2006 students at Linfield College participated in a project to "revitalize the language." It is one of the four languages belonging to the Oregon Athabaskan cluster of the Pacific Coast Athabaskan languages.

The Tolowa Dee-ni' Nation, previously known as Smith River Rancheria, is a federally recognized tribe of Tolowa people in Del Norte County, California. They are Athabascan people, distantly related to northern Athabascans of eastern Alaska and western Canada, as well as the Apache and Navajo peoples of the American Southwest.

References

  1. "Enrollment", Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians website, 8 Aug 2011 (retrieved 1 Sept 2011)
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 Jonathan Amos (18 February 2012). "BBC News - Digital tools 'to save languages'". BBC News. Retrieved 2012-06-03.
  3. 1 2 3 4 "Siletz" [usurped] , Four Directions Institute. (retrieved 1 Sept 2011)
  4. ILDA - Indigenous Languages Digital Archive
  5. 1 2 3 4 Anderson, Gregory D.S.; K. David Harrison (2007). "Siletz Talking Dictionary". Living Tongues Institute for Endangered Languages. Retrieved 2012-06-03.
  6. "Guide to using the Siletz Dictionary" by Amy Smolek, in Anderson, Gregory D.S. and K. David Harrison. (2007) Siletz Talking Dictionary, Living Tongues Institute for Endangered Languages; accessed 25 November 2016

Further reading