The Importance of Native American Heritage Month

We acknowledge and honor the land which we stand upon, and we respect the ancestral connections Indigenous People and their descendants have with this land.  Central Oregon is home to the tribes of Warm Springs, Wasco, Paiute, Klamath, Modoc and Yahooskin.

-KIDS Center Land Acknowledgement-

“’We have been here since time began,’ Don Ivy, chief of the Coquille Indian Tribe, said. ‘We have been here since the first human got here’” - “Broken Treaties.”

Indigenous People have been the stewards of this land and all its living things since Before Present (BP).  They have been the nourishers and restorers, taking and giving back, listening and responding to the land’s needs.  We are lucky to be on such well cared for land today.  It is November, Native American Heritage Month, and while our dedication, respect, and honor for the many tribes who first inhabited this land must surpass the 30 days of this month, this month does help us,

To stop. 

And think.

And press us.

To learn. 

About Indigenous People

And the history we are surrounded by.  

We think learning should come straight from the source, and stories should be told, when possible, by the people who hold and have preserved those stories.  We hope to do that.  We also know that sometimes, we need to begin by doing some learning on our own.  So, this is where we have started. 

Beginning in the 1850’s, the superintendent of Indian Affairs for the Oregon Territory was ordered by Congress to begin clearing Indigenous People from their homelands west of the Cascades and move them to reservations further east.  Those orders resulted in a series of 19 treaties, and with Indigenous People giving up approximately 6 million acres of their own homeland to the government.  Currently there are 9 sovereign tribal nations in the state of Oregon.  The following three tribes are important to Central Oregon.   Each tribe has unique practices, cultural traditions, and relationships with the land and tribes around them, often dictated by where they lived geographically.

Burns Paiute of Harney County (https://burnspaiute-nsn.gov/)

Established in 1972, the Burns Paiute Tribe is primarily made up of descendants of the Wadatika Band of Northern Paiutes.  Named for the wada seeds harvested near the shores of Malheur Lake, their traditional homeland consisted of nearly 52,500 square miles from the Central Oregon Cascades to the Payette Valley north of Boise, Idaho and from John Day, Oregon to Steens Mountain in far southeastern Oregon.  Today, the Burns Paiute Tribe’s reservation can be found north of Burns, Oregon.

Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs (https://warmsprings-nsn.gov/history/)

The Treaty of 1855 defined the area of the Warm Springs Reservation, consisting of the Wasco and Warm Springs Bands, along with the Paiute.  The Wasco bands of the Columbia were mainly fishermen, while the Warm Springs bands relied more on game, roots and berries.  The Wasco and Warm Springs Bands were joined by the Paiute beginning in 1879.  Moving from areas in Lake, Harney & Malheur counties, the Paiute along with the Wasco and Warm Springs now reside in areas from the Cascades to the Deschutes River in Central Oregon.  Approximately 10 million acres of land were relinquished in the 1855 treaty.

Klamath Tribes (https://klamathtribes.org/history/)

The Klamath, Modoc and Yahooskin – Paiute people reside in the Klamath Basin.  In an 1864 treaty, The Klamath Tribes retained about 1.5 million acres, while relinquishing nearly 22 million acres of their homeland.  The Klamath, Modoc and Yahooskin mission is to protect, preserve and enhance the spiritual, cultural and physical values and resources of the Klamath, Modoc, and Yahooskin-Paiute peoples by maintaining the customs and heritage of their ancestors.

6 additional tribes in greater Oregon are:

·       Confederated Tribes of Coos, Lower Umpqua and Siuslaw Indians (https://ctclusi.org/)

·       Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde (https://www.grandronde.org/)

·       Confederated Tribes of Siletz (https://www.ctsi.nsn.us/)

·       Confederated Tribes of Umatilla Reservation (https://ctuir.org/)

·       Cow Creek Band of Umpqua Indians (https://www.cowcreek-nsn.gov/)

·       Coquille Indian Tribe (https://www.cowcreek-nsn.gov/)

For thousands of years, more than 60 tribes could be found in what is now the state of Oregon.  There were sixty to seventy languages spoken including Chinookan, Salishan, Siuslawan, and Athpaskan-Yeak, among others, on the coast and languages in the Numic family spoken by the Northern Paiutes in what is now Eastern Oregon.  Chinookan and Sahaptian speakers lived on the Columbia Plateau, and the western interior was home to people who spoke languages that included Kalapuyan, Siuslawan, Molala, Takelman, and Klamath-Modoc. 

There are 574 tribes in the United States, including 229 in Alaska, more than 630 First Nation communities (also referred to as “Indians”) in Canada,  and in Latin America, the Indigenous population “consists of approximately 50 million people, who belong to 500 different ethnic groups.” The number and diversity of Indigenous communities abounds.

It’s important for us to know about our community and to honor the history of Indigenous People.  We want to have deeper understanding, one which doesn’t reduce the rich history of Indigenous People into stereotypes we might hear.  We’ll need to continue to learn, explore, and share with each other.  One way to pass this learning along and create a community of understanding is by teaching our children.  Please see our book list below for books you can read to or with the growing and eager learners in your home.

Co-authored by Carrie Burleigh, Intake Specialist, and Kristin Campbell, Forensic Interviewer