The Siuslaw are an

Indigenous people of the Pacific Northwest The Indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest Coast are composed of many nations and tribal affiliations, each with distinctive cultural and political identities. They share certain beliefs, traditions and practices, such as the centrality of sal ...

. Their autonym is sha’yuushtl’a. Today Siuslaw people are enrolled with 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 ...

and the

Confederated Tribes of Coos, Lower Umpqua and Siuslaw Indians The Confederated Tribes of the Coos, Lower Umpqua and Siuslaw Indians of Oregon are a federally recognized Native American tribe of Hanis Coos, Miluk Coos, Lower Umpqua (or Kuitsh), and Siuslaw people in Oregon.Oregon Oregon ( , ) is a U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. It is a part of the Western U.S., with the Columbia River delineating much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington (state), Washington, while t ...

, on the

Pacific Coast Pacific coast may be used to reference any coastline that borders the Pacific Ocean. Geography Americas North America Countries on the western side of North America have a Pacific coast as their western or south-western border. One of th ...

Territory

Historically, the Siuslaw lived along the

Siuslaw River The Siuslaw River ( ) is a river, about long, that flows to the Pacific Ocean coast of Oregon in the United States. It drains an area of about in the Central Oregon Coast Range southwest of the Willamette Valley and north of the watershed o ...

in western Oregon. They had 34 distinct named villages in the 1880s.

Language

The Siuslaw are closely related to the Lower Umpqua (or Kuitsh), and both group spoke dialects of

Siuslaw language Siuslaw was the language of the Siuslaw people and Lower Umpqua ( Kuitsh) people of Oregon. It is also known as ''Lower Umpqua''. The Siuslaw language had two dialects: Siuslaw proper (Šaayušƛa) and Lower Umpqua (Quuiič). Classification Si ...

, a Coast Oregon Penutian language. The

extinct Extinction is the termination of an organism by the death of its Endling, last member. A taxon may become Functional extinction, functionally extinct before the death of its last member if it loses the capacity to Reproduction, reproduce and ...

History

The Siuslaw people lived in their villages along the Siuslaw River for centuries until 1860, when they were forcibly removed to an

Indian reservation An American Indian reservation is an area of land land tenure, held and governed by a List of federally recognized tribes in the contiguous United States#Description, U.S. federal government-recognized Native American tribal nation, whose gov ...

Yachats, Oregon Yachats ( ) is a small coastal city in the southernmost area of Lincoln County, Oregon, United States. According to ''Oregon Geographic Names'', the name comes from the Siletz language and means "at the foot of the mountain". There is a range of ...

. The Siuslaw,

Coos Coos may refer to: People *Cowasuck, also known as Cowass or Coös, an Algonquian-speaking Native American tribe in northeastern North America *Coos people, an Indigenous people of the Northwest Plateau in Oregon *Confederated Tribes of Coos, Lower ...

, and Lower Umpqua had signed the 1855 Empire Treaty; however, the United States failed to ratify this treaty and lost it until 1916. In 1918, members of these three tribes who were not enrolled in the Confederated Siletz Tribes sued the U.S. federal government in the U.S. Court of Claims for

federal recognition This is a list of federally recognized tribes in the contiguous United States. There are also federally recognized Alaska Native tribes. , 574 Indian tribes are legally recognized by the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) of the United States.

. After two decades in 1938, the court ruled against the tribes. They filed suits with the

Indian Claims Commission The Indian Claims Commission (ICC) was a judicial relations arbiter between the United States federal government and Native American tribes. It was established under the Indian Claims Act of 1946 by the United States Congress to hear any longstandin ...

in 1951 and 1952 but were rejected. Despite not having secured recognition, these tribes were included in the 1954 law terminating recognition of more than 61 tribes in Oregon that went into effect in 1966. In 1984, the U.S. Congress recognized the

Confederated Tribes of the Coos, Lower Umpqua and Siuslaw Indians The Confederated Tribes of the Coos, Lower Umpqua and Siuslaw Indians of Oregon are a federally recognized Native American tribe of Hanis Coos, Miluk Coos, Lower Umpqua (or Kuitsh), and Siuslaw people in Oregon.''Handbook of American Indian Languages, Part 2.''
Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1922; pp. 431–630.

External links

Confederated Tribes of Coos, Lower Umpqua, and Siuslaw

Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians

{{DEFAULTSORT:Siuslaw People Native American tribes in Oregon Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians Indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest Coast Terminated Native American tribes