# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
The Burns Paiute Reservation is located in rural eastern Oregon. The Burns Paiute Tribe is primarily comprised of the descendants of the Wadatika Band of Northern Paiutes. The traditional homelands of the Burns Paiute include 5250 square miles of land in central-southeastern Oregon, Northern Nevada, northwestern California and western Idaho. The Burns Paiute still maintain aboriginal title to much of our aboriginal territory. The Tribe currently has 402 enrolled members of which 142 people call the Reservation their home. We are a relatively "young" community with over 50% of our population being under the age of 18.

Our history is both tragic and inspiring to living tribal members. We are the last truly free people in Oregon. Our ancestors resisted encroachment of settlers, refused to cede any of our lands, and fought to preserve our traditional life ways. Because of ancestors' resistance to Euro-America intrusion in our extermination campaigns against our people. A treaty of "Peace and Friendship" was eventually signed, but never ratified. An Executive Order Reservation was established setting aside 1.8 million acres for our people in 1869 but the Malheur Reservation was short-lived. An uprising to the east, the Bannock War, came to our homeland and when our people abandoned the Malheur Reservation to escape further conflict, a heavy price was paid. After the "war," our surviving ancestors were forcibly marched over 300 miles in knee-deep snow to Fort Simcoe and Fort Vancouver in Washington State. After a time, our ancestors began sneaking away from the forts. After five years, those remaining at the forts were given the option to leave. Those Wadatika who returned to the Harney Valley found that the tribe was now landless. In our absence, our Malheur Reservation was returned to "Public Domain." A makeshift tribal encampment was established on the outskirts of the town of Burns, Oregon. Since those dark days, the community has worked to improve our situation. We have purchased by the tribe and later converted to federal trust status. The purchased land is now our Reservation. We continue to work very hard to meet the needs of our people including preserving our traditional way of life as best we can.

For numerous reasons, the tragic post-contact treatment of the Wadatika also allowed for preservation of the language and many traditional subsistence and cultural practices. Our tribal ways endured because of returning survivors lived in a tight-knit tribal encampment with very limited resources, and they relied on one another to stay alive. Our children weren't allowed in public schools, and until the 1920's we were basically a forgotten tribal people. When the Indian agents did come to our remote encampment to take children to boarding school, people often successfully hid their children. When a small tribal school was established in the 1920's, attendance was ephemeral, and the Wadatika children continued to use their Paiute language outside of school hours. By the 1940's more of our children were being sent to boarding schools and later were admitted to the public schools in the town of Burns, Oregon. A gradual shift toward increased use of English as a first language didn't occur in earnest until the 1960's. Many traditional cultural practices endured and are still practiced among living tribal members.

Financial resources to protect our cultural resources and preserve our heritage are scarce. Because of our limited financial resources, we only recently re-established and have been able to maintain a Culture & Heritage Department. In addition to the federally mandated cultural resource management activities on and off the reservation, the Culture & Heritage Department is tasked with seeking and acquiring resources to assure our tribal history, language, and traditional life ways are preserved and sustained. Such preservation and revitalization is of highest priority while funding for such efforts is extremely difficult to acquire.

Our elders are our most precious "cultural resource" and we want to make sure their knowledge lives on. Culture & Heritage Department activities provide opportunities to gain stronger familial and community ties with each other as we work toward the common goal of saving our culture.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The Burns Paiute Reservation is located in rural eastern Oregon. The Burns Paiute Tribe is primarily comprised of the descendants of the Wadatika Band of Northern Paiutes. The traditional homelands of the Burns Paiute include 5250 square miles of land in central-southeastern Oregon, Northern Nevada, northwestern California and western Idaho.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
The Oregon Organic Act

In 1846, Great Britain transferred sovereignty of the Oregon Territory to the United States. The Oregon Organic Act, which established the U.S. Oregon Territory, confirmed and guaranteed the Indians right and title to their lands and property, and stated: "That nothing in this Act contained shall be construed to impair the rights of persons or property now pertaining to the Indians in said territory so long as such rights shall remain unextinguished by the treaty between the United States and said Indians."

1855 Treaty

The Coos, Lower Umpqua and Siuslaw Indians maintained peaceful relations with settlers as they began to stream in from the East. In 1855, four years before Oregon attained Statehood, a treaty was drafted by the federal government to allow for the peaceful acquisition and settlement of the Confederated Tribes ancestral lands. The treaty provided for compensation to the Tribes in terms of food, clothing, employment, education and health benefits. The three Tribes agreed to the Treaty of 1855, and patiently waited for Congress to ratify it.

However, they waited in vain. The federal government chose to ignore the treaty, and it was never ratified by the United States Senate. Within a year of the Indians' signing of the treaty, and the beginning of the 1856 Rogue River War between the whites and Indians to the south, the Coos Indians were rounded up and forcefully marched to a military fort, Fort Umpqua, where they were held prisoner along with the Lower Umpqua to prevent their involvement in the war raging in the south.

Trail of Tears

In 1860, they were marched 60 miles up the coast to the Alsea subagency in Yachats, a reservation on the Yachats River. This long trek was their "Trail of Tears", and within a short time at the reservation, many died of hunger, exposure, mistreatment, and sheer exhaustion. Once there, they were imprisoned for 17 years and forced to give up their traditional culture for farming, on a coastal plain ill-suited to agriculture. Fifty percent of the Tribal members died during this period due to the deplorable conditions including starvation, mistreatment, and disease.

Along with loss of their homelands to white settlement, federal promises of just treatment were persiste ntly broken over the ensuing 100 years.

Yachats area was opened for pioneer settlement

In 1876, the Yachats area was opened for pioneer settlement, and the Tribal members were released to return to

their homelands that had been changed forever, or travel north to the Siletz Reservation. Indeed, they found that their homes no longer existed and they became wanderers, settling wherever they could fit in amongst the new pioneer homesteads.

Those Tribal members who stayed in the area found menial jobs or worked in the fields as harvesters. They kept their Tribal identity alive by meeting monthly and observing special celebrations through the year.

Western Oregon Termination Act

In the late 1940's, the U.S. government started action to withdraw recognition of some Indian tribes. The Coos, Lower Umpqua and Siuslaw Indians voted to strongly oppose termination. However, without their knowledge or consent, they were included in the Western Oregon Termination Act of 1954. To quote: " The blatant lack of participation in the process is most evident among the Indians of Southwest Oregon. The Coos, Lower Umpqua and Siuslaw never passed a resolution in favor of termination and were adamantly opposed to it. In 1948, the Coos, Lower Umpqua's sent forty-eight delegates to the Siletz Reservation to express their disapproval of termination; but were not allowed to make their case, as they had been locked out of the meeting and were told the termination bill did not affect them".

Even though the U.S. government officially terminated them, the Confederated Tribes never sold their small reservation and Tribal Hall, and, instead, maintained it. During the Termination Years (1954 to 1984), the Confederated Tribes attempted to provide services to its members with the few resources that they had. They also continued to fight for restoration, and recognition as a sovereign nation.

Then, on October 17, 1984, as a result of a long moral, legal and legislative battle, President Ronald Reagan restored the Tribes to federal recognition by signing Public Law 98-481. The Tribes' sovereignty was once again recognized and funding was restored for education, housing and health programs. In 1987, the Tribe approved a constitution and began to lay the groundwork for a self-sufficiency plan.

Since this historic event, there has been a period of rapid growth, along with some political and administrative pains as a result. This internal turmoil has created impediments to progress in achieving self-sufficiency and cultural restoration. In spite of these obstacles, the Tribes have been continually building on the basic framework established by the Restoration Act.

Restoration

During the past several years, the Tribal Planning Department, Tribal Council and Tribal members have conducted and participated in studies to develop demographic data and determine socioeconomic needs of the tribal membership. Through formal survey, input has also been obtained from tribal members concerning priorities and needs relating to restoration of a tribal forest land base. Using information obtained from these studies and surveys, goals have been established for service delivery programs, forest land restoration, and other Tribal government functions to meet the needs of tribal members. These activities represent a major effort to plan for the future of the Tribes and establish the foundation for development of a Reservation Plan and Forest Land Restoration proposal.

Today we strive to perpetuate our unique identity as Indians and as members of the Confederated Tribes of Coos, Lower Umpqua and Siuslaw Indians, and to promote and protect that identity. It is our goal to preserve and promote our cultural, religious and historical beliefs while continuing to learn and grow as a part of the community we live in. We also work to promote the social and economic welfare of our members both inside and outside of our five-county service area here in Oregon. Our five-county service area is made up of Coos, Curry, Lincoln, Douglas and Lane counties.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
History - Confederated Tribes of Coos, Lower Umpqua and Siuslaw Indians

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The Oregon Organic Act In 1846, Great Britain transferred sovereignty of the Oregon Territory to the United States. The Oregon Organic Act, which established the U.S.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
The Reservation

The Grand Ronde Reservation was established by Executive Order on June 30, 1857. Originally 61,000 acres, it was located on the headwaters of the South Yamhill River in the Oregon Coast Range. Federal actions in the late 1800s quickly decreased the Grand Ronde Reservation land-base.

The General Allotment Act of 1887 was designed to transition tribal members into farmers. Under this act, the government divided the Grand Ronde Reservation into 270 allotments for individual tribal members, totaling slightly more than 33,000 acres. This act also allowed tribal allotment lands to go from federal trust status to private ownership after 25 years. This resulted in major portions of the Reservation being lost to non-Native ownership. Then, in 1901, U.S. Inspector James McLaughlin declared a 25,791-acre tract of the Grand Ronde Reservation "surplus" and the U.S. sold those "surplus" lands for $1.16 per acre.

Termination and Restoration

The Grand Ronde Tribe's federal recognition ended on August 13, 1954 when Congress passed the Western Oregon Termination Act. This legislation stripped the Tribe of its federal status and severed the trust relationship with the federal government. Between 1954 and 1983, Grand Ronde tribal members were a landless people in their own land. The termination policy robbed the Tribe of its social, economic and political fabric, leaving a scattered population and poverty.

In spite of this, Grand Ronde remained a community interconnected by families. Tribal leaders began working in the early 1970s to restore the Tribe's federal status. They began the arduous task of reestablishing the Confederated Tribes of the Grand Ronde Community of Oregon. They raised money to lobby Congress, testified before lawmakers in Washington DC, and fought for the Tribe's recognition. Their hard work and dedication were realized on November 22, 1983 when President Ronald Reagan signed the Grand Ronde Restoration Act (Public Law 98-165). Five years later the Tribe regained 9,811 acres of the original reservation when the Grand Ronde Reservation Act was signed on September 9, 1988. These lands lie just north of the community of Grand Ronde.

After restoration and the re-establishment of the Grand Ronde Reservation were completed, the Tribe focused on rebuilding its institutions and developing programs to meet the needs of its members.
Click image to enlarge

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Our Story | Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The Grand Ronde Reservation was established by Executive Order on June 30, 1857. Originally 61,000 acres, it was located on the headwaters of the South Yamhill River in the Oregon Coast Range. Federal actions in the late 1800s quickly decreased the Grand Ronde Reservation land-base.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Introduction | Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The origins of our Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians is a complex subject in itself. The ancestors of the Confederated Tribes of Siletz spoke at least 10 different base languages. 11 if you include a few Sahaptin speaking Klickitat people who were living in the Willamette and Umpqua Valleys when the reservation was created – and so found themselves being removed to Siletz along with the original people of those valleys. Many of these separate languages have so many strong dialectic divisions even within the same language, that from one end of the same language group’s territory to the other, it was sometimes impossible for fellow speakers to understand each other.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.authors[].name
Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation CTUIR

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Tribal affairs are governed by an elected body called the Board of Trustees. A chairman presides over the Board, which consists of eight other members. The Board sets policy, makes the final decisions on tribal affairs, and takes a lead role in determining priority projects and issues. The Board conducts business meetings weekly, in addition to numerous work sessions with staff and special board meetings with external individuals and organizations. All of the board members, except the Chair, participate in various commissions and committees established to oversee specific tribal issues, such as education, natural resources, water, health and welfare, cultural resources, fish and wildlife, law and order, and more.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
The Wasco bands on the Columbia River were the eastern-most group of Chinookan-speaking Indians. Although they were principally fishermen, their frequent contact with other Indians throughout the region provided for abundant trade. Roots and beads were available from other Chinookan bands such as the Clackamas. Game, clothing and horses came from trade with Sahaptin bands such as the neighboring Warm Springs and the more distant Nez Perce. In exchange for these goods, the Wasco traded root bread, salmon meal, and bear grass.

The Warm Springs

The Warm Springs bands who lived along the Columbia's tributaries spoke Sahaptin. Unlike the Wascoes, the Warm Springs bands moved between winter and summer villages, and depended more on game, roots and berries. However, salmon was also an important staple for the Warm Springs bands and, like the Wascoes, they built elaborate scaffolding over waterfalls which allowed them to harvest fish with long-handled dip nets. Contact between the Warm Springs bands and the Wascoes was frequent, and, although they spoke different languages and observed different customs, they could converse and traded heavily.

The Paiutes

The Paiutes lived in southeastern Oregon and spoke a Shoshonean dialect. The lifestyle of the Paiutes was considerably different from that of the Wasco and Warm Springs bands. Their high-plains existence required that they migrate further and more frequently for game, and fish was not an important part of their diet. The Paiute language was foreign to the Wasco and Warm Springs bands, and commerce among them was infrequent. In early times, contact between them often resulted in skirmishes. Although Paiute territories historically included a large area from southeastern Oregon into Nevada, Idaho, and western Utah, the Paiute bands which eventually settled at Warm Springs lived in the area of Lake, Harney, and Malheur counties in Oregon.

The Arrival of Settlers

During the 1800's, the old way of life for the Indian bands in Oregon was upset by the new waves of immigrants from the east. In 1843, 1,000 immigrants passed through The Dalles. In 1847 there were 4,000. By 1852, up to 12,000 settlers were crossing Wasco and Warm Springs territories each year.

In 1855, Joel Palmer, superintendent for the Oregon Territory, received his orders to clear the Indians from their lands. He did so by negotiating a series of Indian treaties including the one establishing the Warm Springs Reservation. Under the treaty, the Warm Springs and Wasco tribes relinquished approximately ten million acres of land, but reserved the Warm Springs Reservation for their exclusive use. The tribes also kept their rights to harvest fish, game and other foods off the reservation in their usual and accustomed places.

Early Reservation Years

Traditional ways of life changed greatly after the Wasco and Warm Springs tribes relocated onto the Warm Springs Reservation. Salmon wasn't as plentiful as it had been on the Columbia, and the harsher climate and poor soil conditions made farming more difficult. They quickly found that their former economic system was no longer workable. In addition, federal policies to assimilate the Indian people forced them to abandon many of their customary ways in favor of modern schools, sawmills, and other infrastucture foreign to the tribes

Paiute Settlement at Warm Springs

The settlement of the Paiutes on the Warm Springs Reservation began in 1879 when 38 Paiutes moved to Warm Springs from the Yakama Reservation. These 38 people, along with many other Paiutes, had been forced to move to the Yakama Reservation and Fort Vancouver after joining the Bannocks in a war against the U.S. Army. Eventually more of them came, and they became a permanent part of the Warm Springs Reservation.

Tribal Government and Indian Self-Determination

In 1934, Congress passed the Indian Reorganization Act (Wheeler-Howard Act) to revitalize Indian communities and to bolster Indian tribes as governments. The IRA recognized the necessity for tribal governments to manage their own affairs, and offered Federal assistance to tribes organizing under its provisions. The Warm Springs, Wasco, and Paiute tribes studied the IRA carefully before deciding to accept its terms.

In 1937, the three tribes organized as the Confederated Tribes of the Warm Springs Reservation of Oregon by adopting a constitution and by-laws for tribal government. In 1938, they formally accepted a corporate charter from the United States for their business endeavors. These organizational documents declared a new period of tribal self-government on the Warm Springs Reservation.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
History - Confederated Tribes of the Warm Springs

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The Wascoes The Wasco bands on the Columbia River were the eastern-most group of Chinookan-speaking Indians. Although they were principally fishermen, their frequent contact with other Indians throughout the region provided for abundant trade. Roots and beads were available from other Chinookan bands such as the Clackamas.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.provider_name
Cow Creek Band of Umpqua Tribe of Indians

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
The Cow Creek Band of Umpqua Tribe of Indians is one of nine federally recognized Indian Tribal Governments in the State of Oregon. The Cow Creek Tribal Nation, located in Southwestern Oregon, has over 1,800 members who are governed by an elected eleven-member council known as the Tribal Board of Directors. The Cow Creek Tribe has a rich history in southern Oregon that reflects hard work, perseverance and the desire to be self-reliant.

The Cow Creek Tribe is unique in that they, on September 19, 1853, were one of the first two tribes in Oregon to secure a Treaty with the United States of America. This Treaty, ratified by the U.S. Senate on April 12, 1854, established the Government-to-Government relationship between two sovereign governments. As a result of the Treaty, the Cow Creek Tribe became a landless tribe, ceding more than 800 square miles of Southwestern Oregon to the United States. The Tribe was paid 2.3 cents an acre for their land. The U.S. Government was selling that same land, through the Donation Land Claims Act, for $1.25 an acre to pioneer settlers. This Treaty between the United States Indian agent, General Joel Palmer, and the Cow Creek Indian people, had many deficiencies. Specifically, there was no understanding by the Indians of the language or the concept of signing (making their mark on) the Treaty document and further, there was no understanding by the Indians of land ownership, let alone land boundaries (hunting, fishing and gathering sites, as well as tribal composites, were well established).

The Treaty also promised health, housing and education to the Cow Creek Tribe. However, the Treaty was ignored by the U.S. Government for nearly a century until the Western Oregon Indian Termination Act of 1954. This Act, advertised as legislation to "Set the Indians Free," caused federal relations with over 60 tribes and bands in Western Oregon to cease to exist. The Cow Creek Tribe had never received services or "recognition" since shortly after 1855. Ironically, however, they were "recognized" for the purpose of their involuntary termination in 1954.

The Cow Creek Tribe received no prior notification of the Termination Act, as required by law, and because of that were able to obtain presidential action in 1980 to take a land claims case to the U.S. Court of Claims. The Court of Claims case was subsequently litigated by the Tribe to a negotiated settlement of $1.5 million.

The Cow Creek Tribe vested their entire judgment fund of $1.5 million in an endowment, from which they draw, on an annual basis, only the earned interest. These earnings have always been earmarked for economic development, education and housing, in order to create a higher quality of life for all Cow Creek Tribal members.

Origins

The Cow Creek Tribe lived between the Cascade and Coast Ranges in Southwestern Oregon, along the South Umpqua River and its primary feeder stream, Cow Creek. This territory included the entire Umpqua watershed; however, the Tribe was very mobile. A vast area surrounding this watershed was known as their trade, hunting and gathering area. This area extended north into the Willamette Valley and to the east to Crater Lake and the Klamath Marsh area, as well as reaching as far west as the Coast Range and south through the Rogue River Watershed into the Siskiyous. Deer and elk were abundant as were summer runs of silver salmon and winter runs of steelhead. The Cow Creek Tribe made extensive use of the huckleberry patches along the Rogue-Umpqua Divide and the hunting areas and "medicine" trees in the watershed of Jackson Creek. There was more broad usage of the South Umpqua Falls and Big Rocks for fishing and general subsistence purposes. Their homeland was one of beauty, but it also demanded work from its occupants. Cow Creek men carried their arrows in a quiver made of the entire skin of a fox or otter. Cow Creek women wove baskets of wild-hazel bark, bear grass and maidenhair fern stems.

Plant life was also an important source of food.In addition to gathering huckleberries, blackberries and blackcaps, the Cow Creek Tribe gathered tarweed, hazel and chinquapin nuts, wild onions, Indian lettuce, acorns, camas, mushrooms and lambs quarters.

Plants served medicinal purposes as well. Snakeweed was used for burns, cuts and blood poisoning. Mullen leaves were steeped and made into cough syrup. Wild ginger teas cured fevers.

Cow Creek homes were designed in response to the seasons. The Cow Creek Tribe constructed their winter houses primarily of pine boards over shallow excavations in the earth. There are records that rock shelters, with animal hides, were also used for homes.

During the salmon runs, the Cow Creek Tribe built weirs across the streams and placed funnel-shaped basket traps made of hazel shoots in the narrow channels. According to pioneer settler, George Riddle (1851), "The salmon in great numbers would pass up by the side of the trap and, failing to get above the dam would be carried back into the open end of the trap, and the weight of the water would hold them."

Survival

Survival for the Cow Creek Tribe was very difficult during the 1850s. When gold was discovered, the area was flooded with miners from California who filed claims on the local rivers and streams. Hydraulic mining filled rivers with dirt and debris, destroying salmon runs. The filing for land by settlers under the Donation Land Claims Act in 1850 set the stage for increasing tensions between Indians and the newcomers. Epidemics swept through their villages, killing members of the Tribe, including their chief, Miwaleta.

Efforts were made to remove the Cow Creek Tribe from the area to reservations in northern Oregon. Indian people were promised a wonderful life on the reservation. A young boy was sent to one of the relocation reservations to assess the condition of reservation life. He traveled during the night to avoid being captured. Once he arrived at the reservation, he was terrified by what he saw. Conditions on the reservation were deplorable. His first sight was of an infant sucking on its dead mother's breast.

Given the young scout's information, most of the Cow Creek Tribe resisted relocation efforts. In response to their deft avoidance of relocation, the Bureau of Indian Affairs sent exterminators to Oregon for the purpose of killing the Cow Creek people. The Cow Creek Tribe remained in seclusion while maintaining their way of life. Eventually, many Cow Creek people married pioneers, miners and fur traders in the area. Names familiar to the south county area were Dumont, LaChance, Rainville, Pariseau, Rondeau and Thomason. Many of these names are still prevalent in the Cow Creek Tribe.

Today

The Cow Creek Tribe never received the reservation their Treaty promised. Even without a reservation, the people remained in their homelands. They continued to meet and hold council as their ancestors had always done. Historical tribal documents from these meetings were instrumental in providing proof of the Cow Creek Tribal ways. A more aggressive approach to restoration took place in the 1970s. Though they had no financial resources, tribal members began to energize to pursue the legal validation of what their ancestors had already known. Today, the Tribe is buying back its land and operating various business enterprises for the economic development of the Cow Creek Tribe and the communities in which they live.

The Tribal Government Office, located in Roseburg, Oregon houses not only the Tribal Government body and programs, but also the Cow Creek Tribal Gaming Commission and the Cow Creek Health and Wellness Center.

The Tribal Government is responsible for establishing the policies and procedures for the administration of tribal programs, economic development ventures and other governmental business.

The Gaming Commission is the regulatory body of the Tribe, responsible for compliance to rules and regulations as established by both the Tribal Government and the Tribal/State compact.

The Cow Creek Health and Wellness Center, which includes a comprehensive medical staff, is provided for the benefit of not only tribal members and their families, but also for Cow Creek Tribe employees and their families.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Tribal Story - Cow Creek Band of Umpqua Tribe of Indians

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The Cow Creek Band of Umpqua Tribe of Indians is one of nine federally recognized Indian Tribal Governments in the State of Oregon. The Cow Creek Tribal Nation, located in Southwestern Oregon, has over 1,800 members who are governed by an elected eleven-member council known as the Tribal Board of Directors.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
ODFW Tribal Relations - Burns Paiute Tribe

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
A blueprint for conservation of the state’s native fish and wildlife and their habitats, the Strategy provides information on at-risk species and habitats, identifies key issues affecting them and recommends actions.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Oregon Tribal Spotlight: Burns Paiute Tribe of Southeast Oregon

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Nestled in Southeast Oregon’s beautiful Logan Valley — about 45 miles southeast of John Day, in the Malheur National Forest — are the descendants of the Wadatika Band of the Northern Paiutes. Ancestors of these people consisted of small, peaceful bands of hunters and root gatherers whose territory originally stretched approximately 3.3 million acres, reaching beyond Oregon’s eastern and southern borders.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Oldest living Burns Paiute tells of hardships growing up

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
The Heart and Spirit of Tribal Consultation: Burns Paiute Tribe

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
The Heart and Spirit of Tribal Consultation: CTCLUSI

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
The Heart and Spirit of Tribal Consultation: Confederated Tribes of the Grand Ronde

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
The Heart and Spirit of Tribal Consultation: Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
The Heart and Spirit of Tribal Consultation: Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
The Heart and Spirit of Tribal Consultation: Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
The Heart and Spirit of Tribal Consultation: Cow Creek Band of Umpqua Tribe of Indians

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
The Heart and Spirit of Tribal Consultation: Coquille Indian Tribe

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
The Heart and Spirit of Tribal Consultation: The Klamath Tribes

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.provider_name
Native American Fish and Wildlife Society

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Tribal Highlight: Confederated Tribes of Coos, Lower Umpqua, and Siuslaw Indians Awarded Funds to Restore Tidal Wetlands

Utilizing funding awarded by the America's Ecosystem Restoration Initiative (AERI) competitive grant program for ecological restoration and cultural preservation, the Confederated Tribes of Coos, Lower Umpqua, and Siuslaw Indian s are restoring tidal wetlands to improve Oregon C oast coho salmon habitat.

Oregon

Aerial photo s of haich ikt'at'uu from May 2023 before restoration work began (top photo ) ,
A 180-acre wetland restoration project - especially one that requires a major land use conversion - is a massive undertaking. This AERI project benefits from a detailed and lengthy design phase, which laid the foundation for the strong partnership that now drives the restoration effort. Ironing out those details took a lot of time, energy, and funding, but those efforts set the stage for a very smooth implementation phase largely funded by AERI. All the preliminary communication and joint efforts between CTCLUSI and their partners has had benefits beyond this particular project. "Now we have the resources and experiences from this project that will allow us to be more hands on in future restoration projects," stated Tyler Slyter, CTCLUSI's COO, when expressing how this project has helped to eliminate silos and bring together groups with a common conservation vision.

The history of haich ikt'at'uu's land use is difficult to piece together, with gaps in the records of past site modifications. What is clear is that the restoration site was originally a tidal wetland, featuring a natural levee. For over a century, the site was a cattle farm, during which time the natural levee was altered and the site dewatered and built up. Located within the tidally influenced lower reaches of the Siuslaw River, the historical wetland nature of the site will be revitalized through this project, creating a dynamic tidal ecosystem once again.

The group discusses the restoration goals and construction that has occurred .
Upon completion of excavation and construction, they will be able to replace the tide gate and make the final changes to the outer levee that will once again allow the Siuslaw River and tides to bring life sustaining water to the restored wetland - providing critical habitat for Oregon Coast coho salmon, other anadromous fish species, and many species of wetland associated wildlife and plants important for a healthy ecosystem and cultural well-being of the CTCLUSI people.

"The benefits of this AERI award and the capacity it has provided CTCLUSI to be involved at such a level goes way beyond just this specific restoration project - it stands up as a shining example of how the Tribes can be good partners to work with on any number of projects and for many purposes, whether habitat restoration or environmentally friendly and culturally responsible economic or energy development or something else. The Tribe is a part of the community and is vested in its sustainable future and growth and therefore desires to work with their neighbors to accomplish these goals." - Tyler

In 2022 and 2023, Tribal Nations requested about $500 million through the America the Beautiful Challenge program (now known as America's Ecosystem Restoration Initiative). NFWF and the agencies have committed to providing at least 10% of annual funds to Tribes. Thus far the quality of Tribal proposals has been rewarded with over a third of funds going to Tribal Nations! In the first two years NFWF awarded 35 projects to Tribal Nations, totaling about $76 million. While this amount is significant, the disparity between requested and awarded funding demonstrates the need for long-term, sustainable funding for Tribal conservation and restoration.

NAFWS is the only national Tribal organization with a specific focus on Tribal fish and wildlife resources. As a unique membership organization with 227 Support Member Tribes in 7 regions, NAFWS strives to meet the needs of its Individual Members and Member Tribes through conferences, trainings, youth education, and by participating with innovative projects and initiatives in Indian Country.

Disclaimer: This project is made possible through a grant from the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation.
Disclaimer: The text of this article has been changed to reflect the new name of the America's Ecosystem Restoration Initiative. For more information on this change, please contact Megan Hawkins, [email protected].

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Tribal Highlight: Confederated Tribes of Coos, Lower Umpqua, and Siuslaw Indians Awarded Funds to Restore Tidal Wetlands

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Utilizing funding awarded by the America's Ecosystem Restoration Initiative (AERI) competitive grant program for ecological restoration and cultural preservation, the Confederated Tribes of Coos, Lower Umpqua, and Siuslaw Indians are restoring...

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
The Confederated Tribes of Coos, Lower Umpqua, and Siuslaw Indians: Canoes

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.authors[].name
David Lewis (Takelma, Chinook, Molalla, Santiam Kalapuya)

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde Community of Oregon is a confederation of over twenty-seven tribes and bands from western Oregon, southern Washington, a…

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
State of Oregon: Blue Book - Confederated Tribes of The Grand Ronde

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The official website of the Oregon Secretary of State

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The people of the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde represent almost thirty different tribes and bands that the U.S. government removed to the Grand Ronde Reservation in the nineteenth century. The history of the reservation - and how so many western Oregon Native people came to reside there - is long and complex.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde is a sovereign Native American nation in north-central Oregon. It currently has more than 5,100 members worldwide.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
After 45 years, Siletz Tribe fully regains subsistence rights on their territory

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
In 1980, the Siletz and the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife agreed to create a reservation for the tribe, after it regained its federal status after being terminated in the 1950s. But in exchange, the Siletz gave up their subsistence rights.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
State of Oregon: Blue Book - Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The official website of the Oregon Secretary of State

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Oregon Tribal Spotlight: Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Xaa-wan’-t’i (welcome) to the beautiful coastal homeland of the Siletz people in Lincoln County. The ability to deeply communicate and understand others is what makes humans, well, human. This is why words matter and why language is so important. Linguists understand that when a people’s history is full of language differences and dialectical variations, diversity and cultural differences will be prominent.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Siletz Tribe regains full hunting and fishing rights

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
What’s in a Flag: The Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
The Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
The Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation is made up of three tribes: the Umatilla, Cayuse, and Walla Walla tribes.

When the leaders of the three tribes signed a treaty with the United States in 1855, they ceded 6.4 million acres of homeland in what is now northeastern Oregon and southeastern Washington. The 172,000-acre Umatilla Indian Reservation, almost half of which is owned by non-Indians, includes significant portions of the Umatilla River watershed.

Today the confederation, united under a single tribal government adopted in 1949, numbers over 2,800 members (2011). The Umatilla are governed by a Board of Trustees composed of nine members elected by the General Council. Tribal headquarters are located in Mission, just outside Pendleton, Oregon.

The Umatilla River and Grande Ronde rivers have been the focus of the tribe's fish restoration activities for more than a decade. Under the tribe's leadership, salmon were reintroduced in the Umatilla River in the early 1980s. The tribe, along with the state of Oregon, operates egg-taking, spawning, and other propagation facilities that are helping restore salmon runs. The tribe successfully reintroduced chinook salmon to the Umatilla River after 70 years of extinction.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
The Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation is made up of three tribes: the Umatilla, Cayuse, and Walla Walla tribes. When the leaders of the three tribes signed a treaty with the United States in 1855, they ceded 6.4 million acres of homeland in what is now northeastern Oregon and southeastern Washington.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Harness the power of maps to tell stories that matter. ArcGIS StoryMaps has everything you need to create remarkable stories that give your maps meaning.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
The Confederated Tribes of the Warm Springs Reservation of Oregon

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Commission on Indian Services​

History

The Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs is comprised of three tribes: The Wasco, Paiute, and Warm Springs Tribes. To begin we tell the story of the tribes on the Columbia River.

The Columbia River Plateau and Basin provided a rich life for the River people of the region. A dynamic culture flourished along this artery of life. The people shared similar languages, cultures, diets, religions, a history of interaction, and a sharing of common resources and trade. The Columbia River and lands provided salmon. The foothills and mountain slopes were plentiful with deer, roots and berries that sustained a healthy diet.

The Wasco

The Wasco bands on the Columbia River were the eastern-most group of Kiksht speaking Indians. Although they were principally fishermen, their frequent contact with other Indians throughout the region provided for abundant trade. Roots and beads were available from other River Tribes such as the Clackamas. Game, clothing and horses came from trade with Sahaptin bands such as the neighboring Warm Springs and the more distant Nez Perce. In exchange for these goods, the Wasco traded roots, berries, salmon meal and bear grass.

The Warm Springs

The Warm Springs bands who lived along the Columbia's tributaries spoke Sahaptin. Unlike the Wasco, the Warm Springs bands moved between winter and summer villages, and depended more on game, roots and berries. However, salmon was also an important staple for the Warm Springs bands and, like the Wasco, they built elaborate scaffolding over waterfalls which allowed them to harvest fish with long-handled dip nets. Contact between the Warm Springs bands and the Wasco was frequent, and, although they spoke different languages and observed different customs, they could converse and traded heavily.

The Paiutes

The lifestyle of the Paiutes was considerably different from that of the Wasco and Warm Springs bands. Their high-plains existence required that they migrate further and more frequently for game, and fish was not an important part of their diet. The settlement of the Paiutes on the Warm Springs Reservation began in 1879 when 38 Paiutes moved to Warm Springs from the Yakama Reservation.

Early Reservation Years

Traditional ways of life changed greatly after the Wasco and Warm Springs tribes relocated onto the Warm Springs Reservation. Salmon wasn't as plentiful as it had been on the Columbia, and the harsher climate and poor soil conditions made farming more difficult. They quickly found that their former economic system was no longer workable. In addition, federal policies to assimilate the Indian people forced them to abandon many of their customary ways in favor of modern schools, sawmills and other infrastructure foreign to the tribes.

Spiritual and Cultural Traditions

Songs, dances, story-telling, feasts, ceremonies, prayers and celebrations establish paths for the rights of passage among societies. In Warm Springs country the people have successfully kept alive many traditions that are wrapped in spiritual and cultural significance. Traditional feasts, prayer songs in the longhouses, and stories and legends of Coyote and Animal People are shared and passed down from one generation to another.

Languages

In Warm Springs Country, we are finding the paths to revitalize the three languages of the Warm Springs Tribes. Language is the heart and soul of communication and heritage. Fluent speakers under the age of fifty years old are no longer with us. Much needed work is being done with traditional culture to bring language back through the Tribal Language Program. Coming together and revitalizing and learning the languages of the Warm Springs Tribes the Kiksht (Wasco), Numu (Paiute) and Ichishkin (Sahaptin) increases the circle of knowledge.

This is a brief history. Please visit us in person or see our website for more information. Today, we will end this story until we meet again

Address

1233 Veterans Street, PO Box C, Warm Springs, OR 97761

Discover More

Official Website
Oregon Blue Book​
Spilyay Tymoo​

​

E: austin.smithjr2@ctwsbnr.org​

TRIBAL COUNCIL

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Commission on Indian Services warm-springs

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Commission on Indian Services​ The Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs is comprised of three tribes: The Wasco, Paiute, and Warm Springs Tribes. To begin we tell the story of the tribes on the Columbia River. The Columbia River Plateau and Basin provided a rich life for the River people of the region.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
State of Oregon: Blue Book - Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs Reservation

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The official website of the Oregon Secretary of State

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Warm Springs Asks State to Repeal Agreement with Grand Ronde - Underscore Native News

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Nine months after Oregon passed a historic agreement with the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde, the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs filed a petition to repeal the agreement, saying the state didn’t consult them about an agreement that threatens their treaty rights.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Warm Springs Indian Reservation being restored after wildfires

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Southern Oregon Experience | The Cow Creek Band of Umpqua Tribe of Indians | Episode 9

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The Takelma are recognized as a sovereign nation, The Cow Creek Band of Umpqua Tribe of Indians.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Cow Creek Band of Umpqua Indians: Connecting with the Land

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Your browser does not support the audio element.

The ancient Takelma language had been spoken at least since Europeans first arrived, according to Dr. Stephen Beckham, retired Pamplin Professor of History at Lewis & Clark College. The language disappeared over time as tribal members were removed onto English-speaking-only reservations.

Now, tribal members are in the process of restoring it.

At 21 years old, tribal member Elizabeth Bryant is the most fluent speaker of the language. She's the Lead Takelma Teacher Learner for the Cow Creek Band of Umpqua Tribe of Indians. And for the past three years, she and a few others have been working on creating a dictionary and teaching classes to tribal members. The goal is to revitalize important history.

"It really ties into that sense of my ancestors. And this is where I come from, these are my people who are no longer with us. And so it's very much an emotional connection to what they could have been thinking," she said.

In 2019, the Cow Creek Band of Umpqua Tribe of Indians received a three-year grant from the federal Administration for Native Americans to do this restoration work. They hired Curriculum Specialist and Applied Linguist Dave Prine to help.

Elizabeth Bryant teaches a Takelma language class at the tribal community center in Myrtle Creek.
Courtesy of Korina Worden / JPR

"We really got to use the language in context, we really got to play with the language, throw it back and forth with each other," he said.

It was historically spoken along the South Umpqua River and in the Rogue River and Cow Creek Valleys. The Cow Creek Band of Umpqua was the northernmost group that spoke Takelma. The Rogue River Indians, sometimes called the Takelma Tribe, lived in the Rogue River Valley.

But, how do you teach, or even learn, a language that no one speaks? Especially a language like Takelma, which Prine said has no related languages.

The tribe got lucky. In the early 1900s, anthropologist and linguist Edward Sapir made recordings of Frances Johnson, the last known speaker of Takelma. He also wrote down sound charts, translations, and extensive field notes.

"We take those papers, and we had a current linguist that looked at all of those and learned from there to then teach them to us and try and bounce ideas off of like, okay, well it looks like this is how a sentence is made, these are the sounds, we have 100% what the sounds sounded like," Bryant said.

The field notes provided more than just translations. Michael Rondeau, CEO of the tribe, said Sapir's writings provide explanations for customs that he has practiced for years, but never knew the origin of. One such custom was gifting visitors with meat.

"He wrote down that a custom of the tribe was that when someone would come to visit from far away, when they left, they would gift them with meat. It immediately just stuck in my mind. In the field notes that Sapir had written, it explains so much about the way we are," Rondeau said.

In this way, Takelma provides a cultural connection for the tribe as much as a linguistic one.

"I feel that we owe it to our ancestors to at least make sure that language is preserved in a way that's respectful to the tribe and to those elders that had passed on. It's a way of keeping the past alive and authentic," Rondeau said.

The group made extensive progress over the last three years, posting educational resources online, holding in-person and virtual classes, and creating a dictionary. At a recent virtual class, 17 people joined Bryant to learn the colors.

But, there's still much more left to do. That federal grant ended this summer, and Prine left. Bryant now has another year-long grant, but she'll have to keep applying for funding to continue her work. So far, she has worked with 250 tribal members on learning the language, and she said 30 regularly show up to classes.

The goal is to raise awareness about the language and encourage more people to speak it. Although participation by tribal members is prioritized, Bryant said classes are open to anyone who would like to learn the language.

Prine said he'd like to turn Takelma into a living language that evolves over time.

"There's just this wealth of knowledge that is spoken in other languages, and once you lose those languages, you lose that knowledge. And you're missing part of this glorious picture of what knowledge can be and culture and identity," he said.

For Bryant, the language is a connection to where she comes from, and it conveys the importance of her culture. She's motivated to continue doing this work by the cultural significance of the Takelma language.

"We're still here, and the reason we're doing this is because it's a connection to our culture, and the importance of connection to our culture I would say is at the root of why I'm here," she said.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.keywords[]
native americans | language | southern oregon

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Cow Creek Tribe works to restore once-extinct language

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Your browser does not support the audio element. The ancient Takelma language had been spoken at least since Europeans first arrived, according to Dr. Stephen Beckham, retired Pamplin Professor of History at Lewis & Clark College. The language disappeared over time as tribal members were removed onto English-speaking-only reservations.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Cow Creek Band of Umpqua Tribe of Indians | Mukurtu West

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.provider_name
Cow Creek Band of Umpqua Tribe of Indians

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Starting in the early 1800’s a variety of fur trappers and explorers entered into our Ancestral Territory.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
State of Oregon: Blue Book - Coquille Indian Tribe

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The official website of the Oregon Secretary of State

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Four Tribal Nations stand against Coquille Indian Tribe’s casino project

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
It’s been more than a decade of effort from the Coquille Indian Tribe to open a new casino along South Pacific Highway in Medford - a project drawing opposition

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Coquille Indian Tribe celebrates 35 years of restoration

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Hundreds gathered at Bullard’s Beach in Bandon, Oregon on June 28 for the 35th annual First Salmon Ceremony as part of the Coquille Indian Tribe Restoration Celebration.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Catalog No. — General Land Office Oregon 1879

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
State of Oregon: Blue Book - Klamath Tribes

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The official website of the Oregon Secretary of State

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Interior Department Reaches Landmark Agreement with Klamath Basin Tribes, Project Irrigators to Collaborate on Ecosystem Restoration and Water Reliability | U.S. Department of the Interior

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The Department of the Interior today announced a historic agreement with the Klamath Tribes, Yurok Tribe, Karuk Tribe and Klamath Water Users Association to advance collaborative efforts to restore the Klamath Basin ecosystem and improve water supply reliability for Klamath Project agriculture

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
history of the klamath tribe, native american people

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.keywords[]
native american klamath tribes modoc yahooskin

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The Official Klamath Tribes YouTube Channel. We are the Klamath Tribes, the Klamaths, the Modocs and the Yahooskin. We have lived here (see map), in the Klamath Basin of Oregon, from time beyond memory. Our legends and oral history tell about when the world and the animals were created, when the animals and gmok'am'c - the Creator - sat together and discussed the creation of man.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Tribes celebrate removal of dam, revival of community along Klamath River | VOA News

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Baskets of the 19th and 20th centuries form the heart of the museum’s Native American ethnographic collections.