Native American Heritage Month
Lauren Rosenstein is the Oregon Department of Energy’s Community Equity and Inclusion Analyst. Lauren brings a wealth of experience and a commitment to equity and antiracism – she is committed to listening to community needs and helping identify and remove barriers to accomplish equitable energy and climate goals through building relationships and collaborating across agency programs. This month, Lauren reflects in her own words on Native American Heritage Month and what it means for our agency and our work.
Oregon’s nine federally recognized Tribes. Map courtesy of Oregon Department of Education.
November is Native American Heritage Month. This is a time to celebrate the vast diversity, contributions, history, and culture that Tribes from across this land bring and have brought since time immemorial. Time immemorial can mean since the beginning of time or from time beyond memory. The first people who lived here continue to live here — and so we recognize the past, the present, and the future during this month.
Across the United States there are currently 574 federally recognized Tribes, including nine federally recognized Tribes located in Oregon. In Portland, Oregon more than 300 federally recognized Tribes are represented!
“A federally recognized Tribe is an American Indian or Alaska Native Tribal entity that is recognized as having a government-to-government relationship with the United States, with the responsibilities, powers, limitations, and obligations attached to that designation, and is eligible for funding and services from the Bureau of Indian Affairs.
Furthermore, federally recognized Tribes are recognized as possessing certain inherent rights of self-government (i.e., tribal sovereignty) and are entitled to receive certain federal benefits, services, and protections because of their special relationship with the United States. At present, there are 574 federally recognized American Indian and Alaska Native tribes and villages.”
The nine federally recognized Tribes of Oregon are:
The Burns Paiute Tribe is primarily comprised of the descendants of the Wadatika Band of Northern Paiutes. A “Band” is a smaller, often mobile group of people within a larger Native American Tribe.
The Confederated Tribes of Coos, Lower Umpqua, and Siuslaw Indians includes three Tribes represented and four Bands: two Bands of Coos Tribes: Hanis Coos and Miluk Coos; Lower Umpqua Tribe; and Siuslaw Tribe.
The Confederated Tribes of the Grand Ronde Community of Oregon includes more than 30 Tribes and Bands from western Oregon, northern California, and southwest Washington represented.
The Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians includes Clatsop, Chinook, Klickitat, Molala, Kalapuya, Tillamook, Alsea, Siuslaw/Lower Umpqua, Coos, Coquelle, Upper Umpqua, Tututni (including all the lower Rogue River Bands and those extending up the coast to Floras Creek and down to Whales Head), Chetco (including all of the villages from Whales Head to the Winchuck River), Tolowa, Takelma (including the Illinois Valley/mid-Rogue River and Cow Creek peoples), Galice/Applegate, and Shasta
The Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation is a union of three Tribes Cayuse, Umatilla, and Walla Walla.
The Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs includes the Warm Springs, Wasco, and Paiute Tribes.
The Cow Creek Band of Umpqua Tribe of Indians never received the reservation their Treaty promised, and even without it, the people remained in their homelands.
The Coquille Indian Tribe has more than 1,100 members and has regained more than 10,000 acres of their ancestral homeland.
The Klamath Tribes include the Klamath, the Modoc, and Yahooskin-Paiute people, known as mukluks and numu (the people).
The State of Oregon requires state agencies to develop and implement Tribal relations polices through ORS 182.162-168 for federally recognized Tribes. There are also about 400 unrecognized Tribes throughout the U.S.; this status means there is not a government-to-government relationships and consultation with the U.S. government as a sovereign nation.
The United States has a shameful history of how Native American Tribes have been treated. Throughout U.S. history, including here in Oregon, treaties have been made to recognize Tribes — and they have been broken. In 1954, the Western Oregon Indian Termination Act terminated recognition of 61 Tribes. The Klamath Termination Act (also in 1954) terminated federal recognition of the Klamath Tribes. This action not only ended federal recognition, it also took reservation land and ended federal aid.
After many years of work by Tribal members, federal recognition of these Tribal governments was restored: Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians (1977), Cow Creek Band of Umpqua Tribe of Indians (1982), Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde (1983), Confederated Tribes of Coos, Lower Umpqua and Siuslaw Indians (1984), the Klamath Tribes (1986), and Coquille Indian Tribe (1989). ODOE’s Biennial Energy Report includes a history timeline with the goal of gaining deeper perspective of Oregon’s energy history to include the significant ways Tribes have had their land base diminished or completely removed.
The Oregon Department of Energy is committed to and grateful for the opportunity to further strengthen our relationships with Oregon’s Tribes — and there is no way this blog post can capture the complex and vibrant Tribal past, present, and future. A better way to learn more about the Tribes in this region is to read books, listen to stories, or visit museums that have been created by people who are from the Tribes.
Grand Ronde’s Chachalu Museum and Cultural Center features a four-part exhibit taking place over the course of the year called stik.
Recently I was invited to Grand Ronde’s Chachalu Museum and Cultural Center where there is a four-part exhibit taking place over the course of the year called stik. This exhibit features stories from the forest told through the perspectives of timber industry workers, conservationists, hunters, weavers, and others to reflect on how interaction with the land has changed from time immemorial to the present day.
The exhibit feels alive; there are sounds, textures to explore, baskets to touch, a canoe to run your hands along, and tools to pick up and feel their weight. All of the items that can be touched are not just part of the exhibit, they are used to bring a unique perspective and importance to the space — recognizing that the culture, traditions, community, place, and purpose of the Confederated Tribes of the Grand Ronde are alive.
ODOE is committed to the unique consultation and relationship the nine federally recognized Tribes of Oregon have and celebrate the long standing and ongoing work they do to bring holistic environmental justice to the field of energy.
For more information about ODOE’s commitment to the nine federally recognized Tribes of Oregon, check out our Annual Reports to Oregon Tribes