Despite these differences, the varying Siletz tribes shared many cultural values and practices before the arrival of Europeans. They traveled by canoe, passed down their history through oral traditions, revered sacred sites, fished, hunted, and gathered plant foods from the rich natural environment around them. They were skilled basket makers, canoe carvers, and architects, and continue to be so today. The Siletz people have faced relentless and brutal oppression over the past 250 years. In 1856, they were forced onto the 1.1-million-acre Coast Indian Reservation on the central Oregon Coast. Nearly 900,000 acres of that land was unlawfully seized from them over the following decades. The community was simultaneously devastated by starvation, violence, exposure, depression, disease, and boarding school abuse. In 1954, the U.S. federal government “terminated” the tribe, stripping it of its federally recognized status. This was part of a nationwide series of terminations that aimed to assimilate Native Americans into mainstream society and strip them of their traditional cultures and communities. After termination, the Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians lost their sovereign government, as well as their remaining resources and land. PHOTOS COURTESY OF CONFEDERATED TRIBES OF SILETZ INDIANS EXPLORELINCOLNCITY.COM | 57
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