Coquelle Thompson
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Coquelle Thompson (ca. 1848–1946) was a Coquille Indian from the
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of
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who was a cultural and linguistic consultant to at least six important anthropologists over the course of his long life. Born the son of a chief of the Upper Coquille Indians, and his Hanis Coos wife, he was among the several hundred Indians from southwestern Oregon who were removed by ship from Port Orford to the Coast or Siletz Indian Reservation in June 1856. His is an Indian eye-witness account of that removal. He grew up and lived on the Siletz Reservation, serving for decades as a member of the tribal police force. In 1873, Coquelle Thompson attended a version of the Ghost Dance of 1870 held at
Corvallis, Oregon Corvallis ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Benton County, Oregon, Benton County in central western Oregon, United States. It is the principal city of the Corvallis, Oregon Metropolitan Statistical Area, which encompasses all of Benton Co ...
, and later he attended a dance of the Warm House at Upper Farm, Siletz Reservation. He soon became a convert to a version of the Ghost Dance known at Siletz as the Warm House Dance, and proselytized along the
Oregon Coast The Oregon Coast is a coastal region of the U.S. state of Oregon. It is bordered by the Pacific Ocean to its west and the Oregon Coast Range to the east, and stretches approximately from the California state border in the south to the Columbia ...
as far south as
Coos Bay Coos Bay (Hanis language, Coos language: Atsixiis or Hanisich) is an estuary where the Coos River enters the Pacific Ocean, the estuary is approximately 12 miles long and up to two miles wide. It is the largest estuary completely within Oregon sta ...
. His version became known as the Thompson Warm House Dance. He was married three times and had eleven children, all of whom died before adulthood except two, who married and have descendants to the present day among the
Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians The Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians in the United States is a federally recognized confederation of more than 27 Native American tribes and bands who once inhabited an extensive homeland of more than 20 million acres from northern Calif ...
.


References


Further reading

* Nathan Douthit. ''Uncertain Encounters: Indians and Whites at Peace and War in Southern Oregon 1820s–1860s''. Oregon State University Press, 2002. {{DEFAULTSORT:Thompson, Coquelle Year of birth uncertain 1840s births 1946 deaths 19th-century Native American people 20th-century Native American people Indigenous people of the Pacific Northwest People from Coos County, Oregon People from Lincoln County, Oregon