#Oregon tribe has hunting and fishing rights restored under a long-sought court ruling
November 27, 2024
LINCOLN CITY, Ore. (AP) — "Drumming made the floor vibrate and singing filled the conference room of the Chinook Winds Casino Resort in Lincoln City, on the Oregon coast, as hundreds in tribal regalia danced in a circle.
"For the last 47 years, the Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians have held an annual powwow to celebrate regaining federal recognition. This month’s event, however, was especially significant: It came just two weeks after a federal court lifted restrictions on the tribe’s rights to hunt, fish and gather — restrictions tribal leaders had opposed for decades.
"'We’re back to the way we were before,' Siletz Chairman Delores Pigsley said.
'It feels really good.'
"The Siletz is a confederation of over two dozen bands and tribes whose traditional homelands spanned a large swath of what is now western Oregon. The federal government in the 1850s forced them onto a reservation on the Oregon coast, where they were confederated together as a single, federally recognized tribe despite their different backgrounds and languages.
"The Siletz is a confederation of over two dozen bands and tribes whose traditional homelands spanned a large swath of what is now western Oregon. The federal government in the 1850s forced them onto a reservation on the Oregon coast, where they were confederated together as a single, federally recognized tribe despite their different backgrounds and languages.
“The goal was to try and assimilate Native people, get them moved into cities,” said Matthew Campbell, deputy director of the Native American Rights Fund. 'But also I think there was certainly a financial aspect to it. I think the United States was trying to see how it could limit its costs in terms of providing for tribal nations.'
"Losing their lands and self-governance was painful, and the tribes fought for decades to regain federal recognition. In 1977, the Siletz became the second tribe to succeed, following the restoration of the Menominee Tribe in Wisconsin in 1973.
"In the 1950s and ‘60s, Congress revoked recognition of over 100 tribes, including the Siletz, under a policy known as 'termination.' Affected tribes lost millions of acres of land as well as federal funding and services.
"But to get a fraction of its land back — roughly 3,600 acres (1,457 hectares) of the 1.1-million-acre (445,000-hectare) reservation established for the tribe in 1855 — the Siletz tribe had to agree to a federal court order that restricted their hunting, fishing and gathering rights. It was only one of two tribes in the country, along with Oregon’s Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde, compelled to do so to regain tribal land."
Read more:
https://apnews.com/article/siletz-oregon-tribal-rights-powwow-restoration-ee2c9fd73c372298aa4d505e3c992761
#Siletz #NativeAmericans #ConfederatedTribesOfSiletz #LandBack #OregonTribes #FishingRights #HuntingRights #Assimilation
