User:Emma.Fagan/Native American peoples of Oregon

The Native American peoples of Oregon page needs sections on "Dispossession and the reservation system," "Termination and re-recognition," and "Native Americans in contemporary Oregon". Additional editing notes are in [brackets].

Existing Lead

The Native American peoples of Oregon are the set of Indigenous peoples who have inhabited or who still inhabit the area delineated in today's state of Oregon in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. While the state of Oregon currently maintains relations with nine federally recognized tribal groups, the state was previously home to a much larger number of autonomous tribal groups, which today either no longer exist or have been absorbed into these larger confederated entities. Six of the nine tribes gained federal recognition in the late 20th century, after undergoing the termination and restoration of their treaty rights starting in the 1950s.

History

Dispossession and the reservation system

Donation Land Act

See also: Donation Land Claim Act

From 1850 to 1855, the Oregon Donation Land Act entitled white male settlers arriving in present-day Oregon to 320 acres of land apiece, while also legitimizing the land claims made by those who had already arrived and claimed land. The law also applied to "American half-breed Indians" who made claims on the land. The Donation Land Act came into effect before treaties or land cessions were negotiated with Oregon's indigenous peoples, and so allowed white settlers to claim lands already occupied by Native American tribes. Eventually, over 2.5 million acres of land were claimed, and with the influx of settlers came increased conflict and so-called "race wars" between themselves and Oregon's indigenous peoples, such as the Rogue River Wars (as discussed previously).

However, under agreements made with England concerning the turnover of the Oregon Territory to the U.S., the United States had agreed to respect the land rights of indigenous peoples living within the territory. The U.S., therefore, was legally unable to allow settlement in the area without making land cession treaties with tribal groups. To get around the issue, the United States Congress passed the Indian Treaty Act the same year that the Oregon Donation Land Act went into effect, which allowed for the appointment of commissioners who would negotiate land cession treaties with, as well as the possible removal of, Native American tribes.

The decade following the implementation of both acts saw the signing of treaties with indigenous groups throughout the Oregon territory, including the Warm Springs and Wasco tribes (1855), the Siletz (1855), the Cow Creek band (1853), the Umatilla (1855), and the Kalapuya (1855). Several tribes living in the Willamette Valley were originally successful in retaining their rights to the lands they inhabited at the time; however, those treaty agreements were never ratified by the United States, and subsequent negotiations by superintendent Joel Palmer resulted in the confederation of the Willamette Valley tribes and their removal to a reservation.

Many tribes were forcibly removed to reservations, including the Warm Springs Reservation, the Umatilla Reservation, and the Coast Indian Reservation. The latter was quickly altered soon after its creation; the reservation lost a significant portion of its original land and was divided into the Grand Ronde and Siletz Reservations.

Land cession treaties

• Willamette Valley Treaties of the 1850s
  • Treaty with the Kalapuya, 1855
• Treaty with the Warm Springs and Wasco Tribes, 1855.
• Treaty with the Siletz, 1855
• Cow Creek Treaty, 1853.
• Coast Treaty
• Northeastern Oregon treaties\
• umatilla treaty 1855

Reservations

• Coast Indian Reservation (precursor to Grande Ronde and Siletz reservations) [explain further]
• Grand Ronde Reservation
• Siletz Reservation
• Warm Springs Reservation

[give basic info on each one/its creation, check for more]

[map?]

Termination

See also: Indian termination policy

The Termination Era of the mid-20th century saw the end of federal recognition status for over 100 indigenous tribes, primarily in the western United States. In the 1950s, Oregon tribes rapidly lost their rights to legal jurisdiction and federal recognition, as the United States government brought an end to their responsibilities towards indigenous nations that were previously guaranteed by treaty agreements.

Public Law 280

Main article: Public Law 280

In 1953, several indigenous nations in Oregon and four other states lost sole legal jurisdiction over their own territories through Public Law 280, passed by the U.S. Congress. Under this law, state law enforcement took over the ability to prosecute certain civil and criminal offenses involving tribal members, as well as offenses that took place within a tribe's territory, from tribal governments. The Burns Paiute Tribe, the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs, and the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Reservation are all exempt from this law.

Klamath Termination Act

Main article: Klamath Termination Act

Public Law 587, passed in 1954, terminated the trust relationships between the Klamath tribe, the Modoc tribe, the Yahooskin Band of Snake Indians, and the United States government, and initiated the process of transitioning the supervision of indigenous lands away from the federal government and into private hands. As reservation lands were divided up and sold, more than three-quarters of enrolled Klamath tribal members chose to receive the value of their share in cash, while the remainder opted to keep their share of the land in trust. Eventually, however, the land held in trust was also sold, and all tribal members received payments for their shares. The act did, however, stipulate that the Klamath would retain their water and fishing rights as established by treaty, rights that were later upheld in federal court. The Klamath Tribes were terminated in part because the federal government judged them to be ready for self-management and assimilation. At the time, a booming lumber industry on Klamath lands had enriched the local economy, making the Klamath one of the richest indigenous nations. The federal government held that selling off the Klamath's timberlands and distributing the payouts among enrolled Klamath members would help build individual wealth, thereby contributing to the goal of assimilation and independence from federal oversight. Additionally, in a hearing for the proposed termination act, Orme Lewis, then-Assistant Secretary of the Interior, noted that:

". . . the Klamath Tribe and the individual members thereof have in general attained sufficient skill and ability to manage their own affairs without special Federal assistance. Through intermarriage with non-Indians and cooperative work and association with their non-Indian neighbors . . . these people have been largely integrated into all phases of the economic and social life of the area. The standard of living of the Klamath Indians compares favorably with that of their non-Indian neighbors. Their dress is modern, and there remains little vestige of religious or other traditional Indian customs. Most of them live in modern homes . . . Farms are mechanized with modern machinery . . . the Klamath tribe has been considered one of the most advanced Indian groups in the United States, and much consideration has been given to the possibility of terminating Federal supervision . . . "

Western Oregon Indian Termination Act

Main article: Western Oregon Indian Termination Act

Public Law 588, also known as the Western Oregon Indian Termination Act, was passed by the U.S. Congress in the same year as the Klamath Termination Act. The act ended the official recognition by the federal government of sixty tribal bands west of the Cascade mountain range, negating the existing trust relationship via previous treaty agreements, and ending services provided to tribal nations by the federal government. After receiving various options for what to do with their common lands, both tribes chose to sell of some or all of their tribal land holdings. Following this decision, the Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians and the Confederated Tribes of the Grand Ronde Community were required to register member rolls with the federal government, which were used to disburse funds from the sales equally among tribal members. Members of the Siletz confederation received $542.50 per person, while members of the Grand Ronde confederation received $35 each.

Restoration

Tribe	Date of Termination	Date of Reinstatement
Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians	1955	1977
Cow Creek Band of Umpqua Tribe of Indians	1954	1982
Confederated Tribes of the Grand Ronde Community of Oregon	1954	1983
Confederated Tribes of Coos, Lower Umpqua, and Siuslaw Indians	1956	1984
Klamath Tribes	1954	1986
The Coquille Tribe	1954	1989

Following the termination of their trust relationships with the federal government, six indigenous tribes successfully engaged in decades of lobbying and Congressional hearings in an effort to regain their lands and have their sovereignty recognized again.

1977: Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians

From 1975 to 1976, the Siletz people gave testimonies and sent lobbyists to the U.S. Congress in support of the Siletz Restoration Act. Sponsored by Oregon Senator Mark Hatfield, the Act would restore federal recognition status to the Siletz and grant them "all Federal services and benefits" applicable to recognized tribes. The Act did not, however, restore reservation lands or hunting, fishing, or trapping rights. The Act was approved in 1977 as Public Law 95-195, and the Siletz exist today as the Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians. The Siletz were officially granted the rights to 3,063 acres of reservation lands three years later, under Public Law 96-340. In 2016, Public Law No. 114-262 came into effect; the law restored the additional lands that were originally granted to the Siletz as part of the Coast Indian Reservation in 1855, to be held in trust for them by the federal government.

1982: Cow Creek Band of Umpqua Tribe of Indians

The Cow Creek Band of Umpqua Tribe of Indians were next to be restored, under Public Law 97-391 in 1982. The Cow Creek Band received federal recognition and services, but there was no restoration or creation of reservation lands. In 2018, the Western Oregon Tribal Fairness Act restored over 17 thousand acres of land to the Cow Creek Band, which are now held in trust for them by the U.S. federal government.

1983: Confederated Tribes of the Grand Ronde Community

In 1983, the Confederated Tribes of the Grand Ronde Community of Oregon came together and regained federal status under the Grand Ronde Restoration Act, after engaging in lobbying, fundraising efforts, and testimony before the United States Congress. The Grand Ronde Reservation Act went into effect in 1988, and returned to the Grand Ronde Community 9,811 acres of land that had initially been granted to them within the original Grand Ronde Reservation. In 2016, the same bill that restored the original reservation lands of the Siletz also enabled the U.S. Department of the Interior to more easily accept land parcels given to the tribes in trust - in other words, making it easier for the Grand Ronde Community to regain their treaty lands.

1984: Confederated Tribes of Coos, Lower Umpqua, and Siuslaw Indians

The Confederated Tribes of Coos, Lower Umpqua, and Siuslaw Indians were restored to federal recognition and granted reservation lands in 1984 after the passage of the Coos, Lower Umpqua, and Siuslaw Restoration Act. Under the Act, the state of Oregon retained civil and criminal jurisdiction over tribal members. The Western Oregon Tribal Fairness Act, which also restored the lands of the Cow Creek Band in 2018, put over 14,000 acres of land in trust for the Coos, Lower Umpqua, and Siuslaw.

1986: Klamath Tribes

The Klamath Tribes, a confederation of the Klamath, Modoc, and Yahooskin peoples, were restored to federal recognition status in 1986 under the Klamath Indian Tribe Restoration Act. While their treaty rights were restored, the Klamath also did not regain any of their previous reservation lands.

Native Americans in contemporary Oregon

Federally-recognized tribes in Oregon

Today, Oregon's indigenous peoples have consolidated into nine federally-recognized tribal groupings:

• Burns Paiute Tribe
• Confederated Tribes of Coos, Lower Umpqua and Siuslaw Indians
• Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde
• Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians
• Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation
• Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs
• Cow Creek Band of Umpqua Tribe of Indians
• Coquille Indian Tribe
• Klamath Tribes

Representation in state government

As of 2020, there have been two representatives in the Oregon State Legislature of indigenous descent:

• Tawna Sanchez , of Shoshone-Bannock, Ute, and Carrizo descent, currently serves in the Oregon House of Representatives, where she has been since 2017.
• Jackie Taylor , of Citizen Potawatomi Nation, served in the Oregon House of Representatives from 1991 - 2000.

Government-to-government relations

Established in 1975, Oregon's Legislative Commission on Indian Services (LCIS) represents the interests of indigenous nations located within the state of Oregon to the state government. The Commission is made up of 13 members who are nominated by local tribes and selected by the legislature, and is intended to be a means of communication between state and tribal governments to inform their respective decision-making processes. Oregon was the first state to establish such a commission for its state legislature.

In 2001, Oregon's Senate Bill 770 established "government to government" relations between tribal nations and the Oregon State Government. This bill created ORS 182.162-168, which further codified the legal relationships between the state of Oregon and the nine federally-recognized tribes located within the bounds of the state. The "Oregon Approach" was the first such bill passed in the United States, creating a framework for more complex intergovernmental relations while also acknowledging the inherent sovereignty of tribes. As Karen Quigley, then-Executive Director of the LCIS, noted in 2013:

"Tribal sovereign governments- like other governments- means at a minimum that each of Oregon’s nine federally recognized tribal governments has a distinctive legal and political status separate from other sovereigns including other tribal governments. Like other governments, each tribal sovereign has the inherent authority to govern its people and see to their health, safety and welfare, decide requirements for citizenship, pass laws & regulations, tax and spend, create infrastructure and provide governmental services to its citizen members. Tribal governments are not “granted sovereignty." . . . [They] are the oldest form of sovereigns in Oregon by thousands of years."

Curriculum in state schools

The state of Oregon's Tribal History/Shared History law was created in 2017 via Senate Bill 13. Under this law, the Oregon Department of Education and Oregon's nine federally-recognized tribes will work together to develop curriculum that expands the English, math, social studies, science, and health lessons taught in Oregon's public schools to include the history and culture of the state's indigenous peoples. The curriculum will also be "community-based," meaning that students attending public schools near one of the nine federally-recognized tribes will be given lessons relating to that specific tribe.

Gaming

See also: Native American gaming

[discuss federal/state regulations, economic gains, any possible downsides?]