Native Americans of the Oregon Coast

  • TILLAMOOK
  • "The Tillamooks are actually a southern branch Salishan family of tribes which occupied the coastal area of British Columbia from the Strait of Georgia south through the Puget Sound area of Washington State, along the coast as far south as the Siletz River, Oregon, except around the mouth of the Columbia River (occupied by the Chinook). The Coast Salish practised the wealth and gift distribution ceremony known as the Potlatch. They generally lived in cedar plank houses facing rivers or the sea; and have a tradition of complex wood-carving art which weakened to the south into simpler art forms. Two dominant subsistence and material resources among the Salish were salmon and red cedar, and they excelled in basketry and textiles. They were essentially a river and bay people in a heavy forest area with a moist, mild climate."
  • "The Tillamook and closely related bands, Nehalem and Nestucca, lived around the Nehalem and Salmon Rivers in present Tillamook County, Oregon, and were the largest Coast Salish group south of the Columbia. Lewis and Clark estimated the group at 2,200 in 1805, but they had declined to 200 by 1900. A few Nestuccas appear to have been reported amongst the Grand Ronde Indians. The census of 1970 gave 139 for the whole group." Source
  • There were three Indian tribes in Tillamook County: the Tillamooks, Nehalems and Nestuccas. They lived in the area which now bear their names. These were a peaceful, friendly people, faithful to their tribal rituals. Like most coastal Indians, they were flatheads, a mark of distinction among the tribes. (The flat head was achieved by binding a bag of feathers on the top of the baby's head. The baby was nursed to sleep and the bag removed when he awoke. This was done from birth to about one year of age.) The houses in which they lived were constructed of wood; the sides tight and well built with cracks in the roof for the release of smoke from the fires. The Northwest Indians were the only tribes in North America to build homes of wood. Because of their skill in building and handling canoes, they were called the "Canoe Indians". The canoes ranged in size from the tiny duck hunting canoe to the large 40 to 60 an dugout and were sailed to Astoria and California. The Indian population of the county was estimated at 2,200 in 1806 and by 1849 had dwindled to 200. Source History of Tillamook County
  • 1400's: Tillamook, or Killamook, Indians inhabited a large area between Nehalem and the Salmon River and from the crest of the Coast Range to the Pacific Ocean, with their main village near the mouth of the Kilchis River. "Tillamook" translates as "Land of Many Waters." The earliest Tillamook inhabitants in the Netarts area also settled around 1400 (according to archeological work of Newman, 1959). Netarts originally extended from Cape Lookout to Cape Meares. In the language of the local Killamooks "Ne ta at", meant "near the water." Later modernized spelling became Netarts. The best known occupied area for the local Indians was on the spit, with other middens in evidence at most creek outlets around the bay, mainly at Wilson Beach. Indian trails led along the coast to the mouth of the Columbia and eastward to the Willamette Valley. The "Octopus" tree on Cape Meares, once featured in Ripley's "Believe it or Not," was an Indian meeting place, and burial canoes are known to have been placed above present-day Oceanside. Source
  • Tillamook from the  U of O Linguistics site. Includes the Nehalem, Tillamook, Nestucca, Salmon River, and Siletz.
    • Tillamook
    • The Tillamooks were formerly called by other names, such as the Calamoxes. They lived on the Pacific Coast of Oregon between Nehalem and the Salmon River and from the crest of the Coast Range to the Pacific Ocean. The word tillamook is said to mean 'land of many waters.' The anthropologist Franz Boas said it means 'people of Nekelim, or Nehalem' Source
    • Nestucca
    • Nehalem
    • Siletz
    • The southernmost Salish tribe on the river which bears their name, in Lincoln County, Oregon. Remnants were included on the Siletz Reservation as part of the much larger "Confederated Siletz" and are no longer reported separately

  • ALSEA and SIUSLAW
  • "A group of Indians on the Oregon coast forming a small linguistic family. From north to south these were the Yaquina on the Yaquina River near present Newport, Oregon; Alsea on the Alsea River; Siuslaw on the Siuslaw River near Florence, Oregon; and Kuitsh or Lower Umpqua on the lower Umpqua River near Reedsport, Oregon. The Siuslaw were the most linguistically divergent. They were coastal and riverine people, wealthy in dentalia shells; they hunted seals, and held slaves. Because of their coastal location they came into contact with white trading vessels in the late 18th century; in 1780 they perhaps numbered 5,000. The usual reductions followed, hastened by the activities of the Hudson's Bay Company, the influx of white miners, and the Rogue Wars of the 1850s. Remnants were moved to the Siletz Reservation on that part known as the Southern or Alsea Reservation. In 1910 a census reported only 29 Alsea, 19 Yaquina and seven Siuslaw; and in 1930, nine Kuitsh. They are all now part of the so-called 'Confederated Siletz Indians of Oregon'." Source
    • Alsea
      • Alsea from the  U of O Linguistics site
      • RESERVATION Some may have been placed on the Coos, Lower Umpqua, & Siuslaw and at Grande Ronde after losing their own reservation in the early 1900s. They are now part of the 'Confederated Siletz Indians of Oregon'.
    • Yaquina
    • Siuslaw
    • The Siuslaws lived on and near the Siuslaw River along the Oregon coast, in an area of sand dunes south of the rocky cliffs of Sea Lion Caves and Heceta Head. The houses of their roughly thirty-four villages consisted of excavations beneath frame-board structures covered with earth. Two or more of these houses were sometimes joined together. Passage in and out was by ladders. Siuslaw subsistence patterns included gathering foods from the sea and hunting game. A small tribe numerically, the Siuslaws on occasion were encroached upon by peoples from as far north as the Columbia River.
    • Kalawatset (LowerUmpqua)
    • A Brief Interpretive History of the Rogue River War and the Coast, Alsea, and Siletz Reservations to 1894

 

  • COOS
  • "The Confederated Tribes of Coos, Lower Umpqua, and Siuslaw Indians are the aboriginal inhabitants of the central and south-central coast of Oregon. Their homeland includes the estuaries of the Coos Bay, and the Umpqua and Siuslaw Rivers. The Tribes have been operating under a confederated government since the signing of the Treaty of August, 1855. They currently possess a 6.1 acre reservation and tribal hall erected in 1940, but past claims have not yet been settled." Source
  • A small language family formed by two tribes in a narrow strip of the Oregon coast between the Coos and Coquille Rivers. The northern division were the Hanis or Coos proper, who lived around the bay and river which bears their name; the southern division were the Miluk on the Lower Coquille near its estuary. The combined population of the two groups has been estimated at 2,000 in 1780. They obtained subsistence from the sea; gatherered clams, and from the land obtained camas roots and berries; they also had dugout canoes.
  • RESERVATION Coos, Lower Umpqua, & Siuslaw

 

  • COQUILLE
  • Originally, the Coquilles were known by their native name, which was spelled in English Mishikhwutmetunne and meant "people living on the stream called Mishi, or Misha. They lived on the east fork of the Coquille River, Oregon, west of Myrtle Creek. They lived in lean-to houses of cedar planks and subsisted on acorns, deer, and fish including salmon.
  • Coquille Language groups: Upper Coquille, Upper Umpqua, Cow Creek, Kwatami, Shasta Costa, Chetco, Tolowa, Dakubetede from the U of O Linguistics site
    • Upper Coquille
    • Upper Umpqua
    • They lived mostly on the south fork of the Umpqua River, Oregon, near present Roseburg, where they were met by Astorian fur traders in the early 19th century. They numbered somE 400 in the mid-19th century; forced north to the Grand Ronde Reservation, they reported 84 in 1902. Source
      • RESERVATION Grande Ronde includes Shasta, Kalapuya, Moallala, Rogue River, Umpqua, and many others.
    • Cow Creek
    • One band [of Upper Umpqua] , the Cow Creek Indians, survived in their old homes, and a few descendants still live around Riddle south of Myrtle Creek, Oregon, numbering 221 in 1985. Source
    • :"The Cow Creek Band of the Umpqua Tribe of Indians was created by treaty on September 19, 1853. By terms of the 1853 treaty the Indians ceded nearly 800 square miles of their land for $12,000 in twenty-one payments and a small temporary reservation on their lands on Cow Creek. Later they were removed to another reservation. In contrast to such confinement, they previously had been a mobile people who moved their villages seasonally from place to place." Source
    • Tutuni
    • An Athabascan tribe of the Illinois and lower Rogue Rivers in southwestern Oregon who also occupied the coast south to the Chetco River; they are commonly called 'Coast Rogues'. They were contacted by the British explorer George Vancouver in 1792. Although subsequent contact with other vessels and inland fur traders brought epidemics they still numbered around 1,300 in 1850. They suffered the same fate as many other southwestern Oregon groups, being shipped to the Siletz-Grand Ronde complex in 1857. Source
    • Kwatami
    • Shasta Costa (Chastacosta)
    • A small Athabaskan tribe on the lower course of the Illinois River near its junction with the Rogue River. They joined the general Indian resistance to white settlement in their lands but were moved north to the Siletz Agency where a few remain. Source
    • Chetco
    • An Athabaskan people of the mouth of the Chetco River near present Brookings, Oregon. They lived in wooden plank houses and were closely allied to the Tolowa to the south. They aided other 'Coast Rogue' Indians in the general resistance of 1853-1856, and were moved north to the Siletz Reservation, where they numbered only nine in 1910. Source
    • Tolowa or Smith River
    • An Athabascan tribe who occupied the Smith River drainage and some of the nearby coast in the extreme northeastern corner of California. Linguistically they were closer to the Rogue River tribes to the north than to their relatives to the south. They resided in permanent villages along the coast in winter, and in late summer they moved inland for salmon and acorns. Their house types were low peaked redwood plank dwellings with gable end entrances. Tolowa society was dominated by acquisition of wealth, usually dentalium shells, obsidian blades and woodpecker scalps. Source
    • Dakubetede
    • Small Athabaskan tribe from Applegate Creek, a tributary of the upper Rogue River, Oregon; probably now extinct. Source

       

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Created March, 2000

Last Update 3/5/00

©2000 Lynn Ewing