Category: Oregon Coast

California Natives, colonization, General History, Oregon Coast, Oregon indians, Rogue Valley, treatiesLeave a comment

Causes of the 1853 Rogue River War

David G. Lewis, PhD

The first Rogue River War was a series of skirmishes and battles between mainly gold miners and the tribes. The miners had no regard for the tribes and tended to treat them badly. Some miners, the worst of the bunch, would murder native men on sight and take native women to rape them. It’s very hard to find the ultimate beginning of the conflicts, but it likely resides in the treatment of the tribes, and the histories from the 1840s of white encroachment into the region seeking gold riches. Other white men established settlements on the coast in both California … Continue reading Causes of the 1853 Rogue River War

General History, Grand Ronde Reservation, Native Issues, Oregon Coast, Oregon indians, Siletz Reservation, treaties, Willamette ValleyLeave a comment

Petition to Survey the Reservation and to Live in Peace, September 20, 1869

David G. Lewis, PhD

Previous essays have addressed the poor treatment of the tribes on the Grand Ronde Indian Reservation into the late 1860s. In 1869 during his inauguration speech, newly elected President U.S. Grant stated that he would support a path to citizenship for tribes that became civilized. (In this essay I will not quibble with the idea of civilization even though we can rightly question which people were proving to be civilized and which were proving to be lawless and uncivilized.) Indian Agents took notice of Pres. Grant’s statement, which amounted to a change in federal Indian policy and began to ask … Continue reading Petition to Survey the Reservation and to Live in Peace, September 20, 1869

General History, Oregon Coast, Oregon indians, Siletz ReservationLeave a comment

Joel Palmer Returning Indians and Feeding Natives, Siletz 1871

David G. Lewis, PhD

Joel Palmer was the Indian Agent at the Siletz Agency in 1871 and had responsibilities, as emphasized in his 1871 journal, over continuing to removing Indians from the Southern Coast to the Coast Reservation, some of whom had run away from from the reservation earlier. 1871 removal of Tolowa and Chetco to the Coast Reservation. In November Palmer began to gather the necessary supplies together to remove some few Indian families from the coast. Palmer was also engaged in trying to figure out how to feed the people already on the reservation, these two responsibilities split his time significantly. The … Continue reading Joel Palmer Returning Indians and Feeding Natives, Siletz 1871

General History, Grand Ronde Reservation, Native Issues, Oregon Coast, Oregon indians, Siletz ReservationLeave a comment

Joel Palmer’s Defiant Cattle Drive Through Grand Ronde, 1874

David G. Lewis, PhD

In 1874, Joel Palmer was again an independent contractor for the Indian service, after having completed a two-year stint as the Indian Agent for the Siletz Agency. Palmer was constantly working on business deals, and one which he hatched was a plan to raise cattle on the Coast, where they would be in readily available to be sold to the Siletz Reservation. In this period Siletz was very remote and in the winter months, it was exceedingly difficult to get supplies or food into the reservation, as the trails were muddy and the rivers fast and treacherous. Palmer’s plan was … Continue reading Joel Palmer’s Defiant Cattle Drive Through Grand Ronde, 1874

General History, Oregon Coast, Oregon indians, Siletz Reservation7 Comments

Nachicolcho or Siletz: a Place on the Oregon Coast

David G. Lewis, PhD

The Siletz placename is something of a mystery. Leo J. Frachtenberg, the ethnologist assigned to collect native languages on the Grand Ronde and Siletz reservations in about 1913,  in about 1914 thought the word “Siletz” to be of Athapaskan origin and suggested that the origin is in the word “Si’is/Silet” meaning Black Bear. I have looked at Frachtenberg’s paper on the word numerous times over the years and normally have stated that the word was probably not Athabaskan but instead Salish as the Siletz Indians were said to be Salish/Tillamookans. They were perhaps the most southern of the Tillamookan tribes … Continue reading Nachicolcho or Siletz: a Place on the Oregon Coast