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Oregon Collection
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1981
SIL
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NEWSLETTER
CONFEDERATED TRIBES OF SILETZ INDIANS
T R IB A L
BOX 549, SILETZ, OR 97380
H IS T O R Y
Most Indian reservations are located on the native lands of the tribes, that
is the lands on which the tribes had always lived. Some tribes were not so lucky.
They were forcibly "removed" to lands more convenient to the United States. Many
tribes, for example, were removed from their own lands to what is now the state of
Oklahoma. These forced removals were described by later historians by such names
as "the trail of tears" and "the long walk." The leading scholar on Indian
history referred to removal as a "tragic phase of American history."
The treaty of August 11, 1855, gave the Indian people who were to become
the Siletz Tribe one year to move to the reservation. But the bloody "extermination"
policy of the Oregon settlers cut that time short. Uneven battles, ambushes, and
outright massacres of Indians by settlers forced General Palmer to order the
removal of the Indians to the reservation in February, 1856. There was much loss
of hope, and the will to live.
A story of the "trail of tears," as taught to a Siletz Tribal member by her
grandmother.
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Ki-Ya-Na-Ha remembered how they were told to
take only the clothes they had on their backs
because when they go to Siletz new clothes and
much food would be given to them. She began
to cry for she saw her people gathered up like
heards of sheep. Some families were even broken
up, maybe a mother in one bunch and her children
in another. Many fled to the mountains, for
they did not want to leave their homes. But
they learned very quickly that if they wanted to
live that they dared not protest.
Our trail of tears began, Ki-Ya-Na-Ha was not one
of the ones that rode on the ship or wagon, for
she remembers walking most of the way. She told of
women being abused, misused, and even kicked
around by the white soldiers, especially if a
mother tried to protect her young daughters. If
men came to the rescue of their families, they
were badly beaten and in some cases shot and
left, for they were not allowed to stop and bury
anyone that died along the way. She also remembered
little children being kicked around if they fell too
far behind.
T jniversity of
OREGON LIBRARY
MAY 6
1981
c o n t In u e c f-