TRIBAL HISTORY
A Piece of Siletz History
by Robert Kentta, Cultural Resources Director
This article is the fifth in a series of brief articles. Each
one covers a specific era or time period of our history, moving
slowly toward the present time. The previous article was about
the early settlement period. This article begins to discuss the
period when our ancestors, under threats of extermination,
were forced to make very difficult decisions to guarantee us a
future. Those decisions many times meant ceding (transferring
ownership to) vast areas of our homelands to the United States
by ratified treaty, in hopes of permanently retaining a smaller
piece - known as a reservation. This article is about the first
attempts at getting our people to cede lands to the
United States.
Part V - The Early Treaty-Making Period of 1851
As thousands of U.S. citizens took more than 2,000,000
acres of our homelands in Donation Land Claims, the United
States knew it could not guarantee clear title to its settlers
unless our people formally ceded those lands to the United
States by treaty.
This pattern has been repeated over and over across this
continent. Indian land was recognized as Indian land only so
long as settlers, miners, timber barons, or whoever weren’t
interested. Once one of the above became interested,
however, they generally moved in and held - by forced
occupation - the location until they had caused enough trouble
that the U.S. government had to “take action to secure the rights
of its citizens. It has always been an unbalanced and unfair
process, but based, in theory, on U.S. Constitutional recognition
of our people’s rights to life, liberty, and property.
At about the same time that the Donation Land Act was
passed (1850), Congress passed an act creating the Oregon
Superintendency of Indian Affairs. Previously, the governor of
the Oregon Territory had held dual office and also was in
charge of Indian Affairs for the region. The act created a
separate superintendent’s position.
The first superintendent of Indian Affairs of Oregon was
Anson Dart. Remember that “Oregon” at the time was the
Oregon Territory, consisting of what is now Oregon.
Washington and Idaho. Congress directed Dart to make
treaties with all tribes in Oregon, starting with our tribes who
were living in the areas most occupied by settlers (Western
Ordinance, con’t from page 30
16.29. AVAILABLE REMEDIES; AMOUNT OF LIABILITY.
(1) The Tribal-Court may award a prevailing plaintiff injunctive,
declaratory and monetary relief for violations of the Indian Civil Rights Act
No punitive damages may be awarded under this section.
(2) Monetary relief shall only be awarded by the tribal court when
actual damages can be proven by the plaintiff. Such awards shall not
exceed $10,000, provided, to the extent the Tribe has third party insurance
coverage which covers a particular claim, the Tribal Court may award
damages to the extent of available insurance coverage. To the extent a
tribal body or an employee, agent or officer of a tribal body is held liable
under the terms of this section, the Tribal Council may direct that any
(See Ordinance on page 32)
Oregon). Congress’ intent of the treaties was to get our tribes
living in the most settled areas to cede all of their lands and
agree to move east of the Cascade Range. A permanent
reservation would be created and we would be “out of the
way of settlement.”
In June 1851, two incidents preceded the negotiation of
treaties. The U.S. Army (for the first time) fought our people
when they attacked our villages along the Rogue River near
Table Rocks (killing about 50 and taking 30 women and
children prisoner).
At about the same time, Capt. Tichenor landed a group
at what is now Port Orford with intentions of establishing a
town-site near the main village. About 30 of our people died
at “Battle Rock” in the conflict that followed. There always had
been tension and skirmishes, but now our people were
threatened by an all-out extermination movement growing
among the settlers. This was especially popular among the
miners, who were now invading formerly secluded areas of
Southwest Oregon and Northwest California by the thousands.
Later in 1851, Dart conducted treaty meetings in the
northern Willamette Valley, along the lower Columbia River
down to Tillamook Bay, and from Sixes River to the mouth of
the Rogue. Under these treaties, each tribe refused to conform
to Congress’ plan for them. Each group was willing to cede
the majority of their territory, but insisted on permanently
reserving a piece of their home country for themselves and
reserving the right to fish in all usual and accustomed areas.
Word of Dart’s over-expenditures (in presents, room and
board, and salaries for his helpers, etc.) and the provisions of
his treaties soon made it to Washington, D.C. Before Dart
knew it, his authority for making treaties ended. He had tried
to honor the wishes of the tribes, but he was ever after
mistrusted by Indian and settler alike.
The U.S. Senate refused to take action on the treaties
that Dart had negotiated in 1851. So while our people who
signed those treaties technically maintained aboriginal title
to all their homelands, more settlers and miners continued to
arrive, many of them violent, lawless characters.
Not until a new superintendent took over in 1853 did
things began to change. Next month’s article will be about
that new superintendent, Joel Palmer, his treaties of
1853-1855, and what those treaties promised our people.
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