TRIBAL HISTORY
A Piece of Siletz History
by Robert Kentta, Cultural Resources Director
This is the 14th in a series-of articles on our tribal history. Last
month’s article took us up through October 1892, when our people
were (more or less) forced to sign an agreement that ceded all of the
reservation lands remaining after allotment (except the five sections
of tribal timber reserve). This article is less about an event and
more about the two decades immediately following the signing of
that agreement.
Part XIV-The Years 1893-1912
As soon as the 1892 agreement was signed, an effort to
split the western part of Benton County into a new county went
into overdrive. This resulted in establishing Lincoln County four
months later.
Ever since non-lndians had moved into the Yaquina Bay strip
in the 1860s, a certain amount of tension and animosity had existed
between the Willamette Valley citizens of Benton County and the
county’s coastal residents. Politically, the inland population controlled
the purse strings and other economic factors important to the coastal
white population. Essentially, coastal county residents were treated
like poor relations — and to a certain extent, the inlanders tried to make
sure they were.
Lee and Ira Wade, B.F. Jones, C.B. Crosno, and other white
men who were residents of the reservation area that had been opened
to settlement attended the “negotiations” leading up to the signing of
the 1892 agreement. They were very interested in forming a new county.
Getting the last remaining reservation lands opened to settlement
(except for the allotments and five sections of tribal timber reserve)
was crucial to the future of this new county they envisioned. In their
minds, you couldn’t have a 225,000-acre block of untaxable land taking
up a good portion of a county and still expect there to be sufficient
revenue for roads, schools, etc.
The years immediately leading up to allotment had been tough
ones for our people health-wise. Letters of concern even came from
the Indian Office in D.C., asking the Siletz agent the reason for the
completely off-the-charts death rate among the young people at Siletz.
Special inspectors investigated the conditions at the boarding
school and other potential factors contributing to the death rate. Some
changes were made at the school, but still a majority of our younger
generations slipped away. Many adults who had been assigned
allotments died over the next several years, too. This left a good number
of allotments without original owners.
Heirship to the allotments came into question in many cases.
Sometimes several siblings or other more distant relatives of an allottee
would share interest in the estate. Questions about how to handle
heirship at Siletz soon resulted in more legislation.
In 1901, Congress passed the Siletz Indian Inherited Lands
Act. To my understanding, the act limited Siletz Tribal members to just
one allotment in their name. Any other lands in their name had to be
deeded (so that county taxes applied) or the Siletz Agency would sell
the allotment through advertised sales and divide the proceeds amona
the heirs.
Most of our tribal people could not begin to pay property taxes.
In cases of multiple heirs, the deeding became a complicated matter,
so advertised sales became a common practice at the Siletz Agency.
Through this streamlined process, many allotments were quickly sold
to non-lndians. Homesteading within the recently opened tracts of the
reservation also was very active.
During the 1892 negotiations, the commissioners had promised
that no white men would be allowed to settle within the area ceded
under that agreement unless they strictly complied with the land laws
and in good faith intended to make a permanent home where they
homesteaded. Soon, however, it became more than obvious that the
opening of the remaining reservation lands to homesteading was
bringing in speculators and proxies of the timber companies.
Fraudulent homestead entries eventually ran so rampant that
several Toledo-area citizens were charged with land fraud. Also named
in the suits were General Land Office officials who had taken bribes
and cuts to approve titles to known fraudulent homestead entries. The
case was so well known that S.A.D. Puter, who was himself in jail for
land fraud, wrote a book called “Looters of the Public Domain.” Chapter
30 is specifically about the Siletz Reservation land fraud cases.
While speculators were exercising free reign within our
reservation boundaries, state officials began cracking down on our
tribal members for fishing and hunting outside of state regulations.
Our traditional eel traps were outlawed because state fish and game
officials were worried about the number of trout caught with the eels.
There was, of course, no recognition of treaty rights, which should
have stemmed from the removal, and confederation, of ratified treaty
tribes with our other tribes on the Siletz Reservation.
Eventually, the Portland office of the BIA devised a Siletz hunting
and fishing policy, which the state more or less respected. This policy
did not attempt to consider the possibility of treaty rights at Siletz. It
was more like a band-aid on a complicated issue, without looking at
the complete legal history. The policy eventually read that Siletz Tribal
members could set a net or take a deer outside of state seasons and
regulations, as long as they did so on Siletz allotment lands that still
remained in trust status (not deeded to the allottee or to heirs).
Meanwhile, our land and resource base shrank. A provision
within the 1892 agreement said that Siletz allotees could ask for clear
titles to their allotments within five years (instead of the automatic
25-year trust period stipulated under the General Allotment Act) if they
could speak English well enough and were considered “competent" by
the agent. Here was another glitch that caught our people unaware.
Clear title meant that you could mortgage your allotment to purchase
food, building materials, farm equipment, etc. and if you couldn’t repay
the loan, you lost your property.
In 1908, the Siletz Boarding School closed. This meant that
the school farm reserve that Agent Buford had fought so hard to keep
out of Siletz people’s allotments was now considered surplus. In 1910,
Congress passed another act that authorized the BIA to sell the five
timber reserve tracts. Only one (the Dewey Creek Tract), however,
was sold under that act. The act also authorized town lots to be sold
out of that 200 acres (now downtown Siletz).
The selling of the school reserve tract, the relaxed policy on
deeding allotments, combined with cases of non-paymdht of property
taxes, along with the allotment inheritance law, had devastating
effects. By 1912, Siletz Agent Egbert would comment that more than
half of the Siletz allotments were already out of Indian ownership.
Next month’s article with discuss the years leading up to
reforms in federal Indian policy, beginning with the Indian
Reorganization Act in 1934.
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