We Are Still Here

The Coquille Indian Tribe flourished in Oregon’s southwestern corner for thousands of years, cherishing the bountiful forests, rivers and beaches of a homeland encompassing more than 750,000 acres. But the 19th century’s onslaught of European diseases, gold mining and westward expansionism nearly erased our people. Treaties ceded our homeland to the U.S. government, in exchange for promises that would go unfulfilled. Our ancestral culture nearly went extinct.

In 1954, Congress declared the Coquille Tribe “terminated.” But we endured. Restored to federal recognition in 1989, we are rebuilding our nation.

Today we number almost 1,200 members. We have regained more than 10,000 acres of our ancestral homeland, and we proudly manage the bulk of it as sustainable forest. We provide education assistance, health care, elder services and (where needed) housing assistance to our people, while contributing substantially to the surrounding community’s economy. Our various enterprises employ about 600 people, and our community fund is the region’s leading local source of charitable grants.

Despite contagion, dispossession, assimilation and near-annihilation, we are still here.