Siletz Reservation

Siletz Reservation
Indian reservation
Location of the Siletz Reservation in Oregon
Tribe	Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians
Country	United States
State	Oregon
County	Lincoln
Area
• Total	15.16 km2 (5.852 sq mi)
Website	Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians

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.

History

Establishment

In November 1855 President of the United States Franklin Pierce issued an executive order creating a reservation for the relocation of the indigenous peoples of the coastal region of the Oregon Territory. A 120-mile-long strip of land was designated for the Coast Indian Reservation. This reservation extended from Cape Lookout in Tillamook County on the north coast, extending to the Siltcoos River, near Florence in the South.

As Oregon's population grew, the federal government opened up some reservation lands for settlement by white newcomers, who displaced the indigenous peoples. The reservation area was reduced and fragmented by the executive order December 21, 1865 of President Andrew Johnson and by the Act of Congress March 3, 1875. Tribal groups reestablished a presence in isolated portions of their traditional homelands.

Daily life

While the Dawes Act of 1887 forced division of communal tribal lands into individual plots of 160 acres each to heads of households of tribal members, with any remaining acreage classified as "surplus" and sold to non-natives, this splitting of collective lands into individual parcels took place at the Siletz Reservation more than a decade earlier. This break-up of communal lands accelerated the process of atomization of the state's indigenous peoples.

Writing of his experiences in January 1879, a visitor described the houses of the Siletz reservation as "built of lumber, mostly about twenty feet square, with good floors, and roofed with shingles or good boards." The work on these was performed "almost entirely by the Indians themselves, under direction of the government carpenter," the visitor noted.

According to the testimony of John Boswell, resident physician of the U.S. Indian Agency at Siletz, by the summer of 1878 there were already more than 120 individual houses at the reservation, ranging in size from "twelve to fourteen feet square" up to one "eighteen by thirty-five, with kitchen running back with porch and woodshed." "They are constantly building as fast as the mill can supply lumber," Boswell advised.

Farms were surrounded by "as good rail and plank fences as can be found anywhere in the state" and the plow-work of farms showed evidence of "careful and honest labor," the 1879 visitor declared, adding that horses and livestock appeared to be in good condition.

Writing with a positive spin for a white audience in a weekly newspaper, Boswell observed:

"Quite a number of them have good barns, with granaries to hold their crops. Some of them still make their beds on the floor, while perhaps one-half have bedsteads and tables, and perhaps one-third of them have their cooking stoves; and, indeed, some of their houses would lose nothing by comparison with many of the whites. As a general rule they go decently dressed, and many of them are extravagant in dress, wearing clothes that are more costly than their circumstances would justify; in this respect they are about like white people.

Boswell noted that the school in 1878 was in "prosperous condition for an Indian school" with an average daily attendance of over 50, including half a dozen children of white employees. Some children had to travel a significant distance to attend, so a noon meal was made available. Plans were in the offing to convert the school from a traditional educational facility to a "manual labor" boarding school in which "the girls will be educated in all the arts of housekeeping, while the boys will be required to work on the farm, or at trades, and all will be kept at the school and away from the influences of their former Indian habits."

This calculated scheme of cultural assimilation was augmented by the introduction of a local unit of the Christian church, in the charge of the "efficient and zealous labors" of a professional minister, supplanting traditional belief systems.

Law and order was prescribed by Washington, D.C. Reservation land was divided into districts, with each district under the authority of a Native American policeman, all of whom reported to a professional Chief of Police, who was a white employee of the Indian Agency.

Contemporary culture and lifestyle

Tribal housing

The confederated Siletz tribes have built several different areas for tribal members to live. The tribe has created a rent-to-buy style program so that tribal members are able to own their own houses. The tribe has also created elders housing units for the elderly tribal members, and they boast several different areas where members are able to rent tribal apartments, these apartments are spread all over the city on tribal properties.

Tribal events

The Siletz reservation is home to many tribal programs. The most prominent is the annual celebration held in Siletz on top of Government Hill, the Nesika Illahee Pow-wow. [1] This event happens during the second weekend of August. The pow-wow opens up every year with a parade and leads into the celebration that lasts all weekend. Siletz is also home to many other cultural events such as a culture camp, youth activities, and activities for elders. The reservation also houses the Siletz dance house where solstice celebrations take place along with many other events like weddings and coming-of-age ceremonies.

Education

There is one K-12th grade school in Siletz, the Siletz Valley Charter School also known as the Siletz Valley Early College Academy. The school had been closed for many years but reopened in 2006 due to funding provided by Chinook Winds Casino. It is a public school within the Lincoln County School District.

Casino gambling

Since the late 20th century, the confederated Siletz tribes have established casino gambling on its lands and generated monies for its people's welfare, as well as contributing to county needs.

See also

• Tolowa language

Further reading

• David R.M. Beck, "'Standing Out Here in the Surf': The Termination and Restoration of the Coos, Lower Umpqua and Siuslaw Indians of Western Oregon in Historical Perspective," Oregon Historical Quarterly, vol. 110, no. 1 (Spring 2009), pp. 6–37. In JSTOR.
• C.F. Coan, "The Adoption of the Reservation Policy in Pacific Northwest, 1853–1855," Quarterly of the Oregon Historical Society, vol. 23, no. 1 (March 1922), pp. 1–38. In JSTOR.
• Charles F. Wilkinson, The People Are Dancing Again: The History of the Siletz Tribe of Western Oregon. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2010.

External links

• Confederated Tribes of Siletz homepage