Oregon Indian Tribes
OREGON INDIAN TRIBES
FEDERALLY RECOGNIZED TRIBES
(Federal list last updated 3/07)
Confederated Tribes of the Coos, Lower Umpqua and Siuslaw Indians of Oregon
Confederated Tribes of the Siletz Reservation
Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Reservation
Confederated Tribes of the Warm Springs Reservation of Oregon (Warm springs, Northern Paiute, Wasco)
Cow Creek Band of Umpqua Indians of Oregon
STATE RECOGNIZED TRIBE
(Not recognized by the Federal Government)
None
UNRECOGNIZED / PETITIONING TRIBES
Celillo Village, Columbia River tribes. (Is this the same as Celilio-Wyam Indian Community?)
Celilio-Wyam Indian Community
Chetco Tribe
Chinook Indian Tribe of Oregon & Washington, Inc. (a.k.a. Chinook Nation) Letter of Intent to Petition 07/23/1979; Declined to acknowledge 7/12/2003, 67 FR 46204.(Oregon and Washington).
Clatsop-Nehalem Confederated Tribes
Confederated Tribes: Rogue, Table Rock & Associated Tribes. Letter of Intent to Petition 3/24/1997; properly executed Letter of Intent 6/19/1997.
Northwest Cherokee Wolf Band, Southeastern Cherokee Confederacy, Inc. Letter of Intent to Petition 03/09/1978; Declined to Acknowledge 11/25/1985 50 FR 39047.
Tchinouk Indians. Letter of Intent to Petition 05/16/1979; Declined to Acknowledge 03/17/1986, 51 FR 2437.
Tolowa-Tututni Tribe. (Oregon and California).
FIRST CONTACT TO PRESENT
Groups living along the lower Columbia River lived in large multi-family long houses. Other groups living further up the Columbia tended to live in smaller groups and be more nomadic.
These people fished for salmon on the Willamette River, and in the spring and summer, thousands gathered to harvest the Chinook salmon and trade with one another.
Many Oregon names are derived from Indian tribal names, such as Multnomah, Willamette, Siuslaw and Clackamas. The native Americans were followed many centuries later by Spanish and British mariners seeking the fabled “great river of the west.”
It is estimated that Indians speaking more than 30 different languages lived throughout Oregon by the eighteenth century.
PRE-CONTACT OREGON TRIBES
PRE-HISTORIC CULTURES IN OREGON
13 thousand years ago – Archeologists believe the first native americans had arrived in the Northwest from Mongolia by way of Siberia and Alaska. Native american oral stories say they have always been there.
A 9,300 years old nearly complete skeleton found on the banks of the Columia River on the Washington-Oregon border in 1996 was dubbed the Kennewick Man and battles between Indian tribes and scientists for jurisdiction over the skelleton spawned lengthly court battles.
The Indian pictographs on canyon walls and legends of the Northwest’s earliest historic accounts provide the story of how Oregon was shaped by the ocean, volcanoes and rain. The earliest groups lived by fishing and hunting large game.
RESOURCES
Genealogy:Sources of records on US Indian tribes Oregon Indian Boarding Schools