Overview of the Nine Tribes

On this page you can find information about the Nine Federally Recognized Tribes in Oregon and links to their websites.

The Burns Paiute Reservation is located in rural Eastern Oregon. The Burns Paiute Tribe is primarily comprised of the descendants of the Wadatika Band of Northern Paiutes. The traditional homelands of the Burns Paiute include 5,250 square miles of land in Central-Southeastern Oregon, Northern Nevada, Northwestern California and Western Idaho. The Burns Paiute still maintain aboriginal title to much of their aboriginal territory. The Tribe currently has 402 enrolled members of which 142 people call the reservation their home.

Burns Paiute Tribe

The Confederated Tribes of Coos, Lower Umpqua and Siuslaw Indians are made up of three Tribes (four bands):

Two bands of Coos Tribes: Hanis Coos (Coos Proper) and Miluk Coos;
Lower Umpqua Tribe; and
Siuslaw Tribe.

Although both Coos bands lived in close proximity to one another on the Coos River tributaries, they spoke different dialects of the Coos language and had their own unique history and cultural differences. The diversity of languages and cultures you can find along the West Coast attests to the longevity these bands sustained for hundreds of generations in the lands they call home. The Tribes trace their ancestry back to the aboriginal inhabitants of the South-Central coast of Oregon. Their historic homelands extended from the richly forested slopes of the Coastal Range in the east to the rocky shoreline of the Pacific Ocean in the west, a vast region of some 1.6 million acres. Their service area is made up of Coos, Curry, Lincoln, Douglas and Lane counties.

Confederated Tribes of Coos, Lower Umpqua and Siuslaw Indians

The Confederated Tribes of the Grand Ronde Community of Oregon is a federally recognized Tribe that includes over 30 Tribes and bands from Western Oregon, Northern California, and Southwest Washington. Since time immemorial Tribal people have relied on these traditional landscapes for their livelihood. The fish and game were plentiful and what the lands didn’t provide, they acquired by trade. This way of life changed with western expansion. Ratified and unratified treaties between the Tribes and the United States Government from 1853 through 1855 resulted in the forced removal of Tribal members from their ancestral homelands. The Tribe is active throughout its ancestral homelands but located in Western Oregon, where it has a 11,500-acre reservation in Yamhill County. The Confederated Tribes of the Grand Ronde Community of Oregon includes Tribal bands from the Kalapuya, Molalla, Chasta, Umpqua, Rogue River, Chinook and Tillamook. With approximately 5,400 enrolled Tribal members, the Tribe is governed by a nine-member Tribal Council that is elected by the Tribe’s voting membership.

Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde

The Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians is a federally recognized confederation of 27 bands, originating from Northern California to Southern Washington. The Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians include 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. Each of these Tribes has a unique individual history, culture and legal relationship with the federal government, which was brought to be incorporated into the Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians. Ancestors of the Confederated Tribes of Siletz spoke at least 10 different base languages. Termination was imposed upon the Siletz by the United States government in 1955. In November 1977, they were the first Tribe in Oregon and second in the United States to be fully restored to federal recognition. The Tribe manages a 3,666-acre reservation located in Lincoln County, Oregon.

Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians

The Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation (CTUIR) is a union of three Tribes: Cayuse, Umatilla and Walla Walla. The CTUIR has over 3,100 Tribal members. Nearly half of those Tribal members live on or near the Umatilla Reservation located in Northeaster Oregon near Pendelton. The Umatilla Indian Reservation is about 172,000 acres (about 273 square miles). CTUIR is governed by a Constitution and bylaws adopted in 1949. The governing body is the nine-member Board of Trustees, elected every two years by the General Council. In 1855, the three Tribes signed a treaty with the U.S. government, in which it ceded over 6.4 million acres to the United States. In the treaty, the Tribes reserved rights to fish, hunt and gather foods and medicines such as roots and berries, and pasture livestock on unclaimed lands. Tribal members continue to exercise these rights throughout the CTUIR’s area of traditional use, which extends to and beyond harvesting fish at Willamette Falls in Western Oregon to hunting buffalo in the Greater Yellowstone area, as they have since time immemorial.

Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation

The Warm Springs Indian Reservation stretches from the summit of the Cascade Mountains to the Deschutes River in North Central Oregon. The Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs includes the Warm Springs, Wasco and Paiute Tribes. In 1937, the three Tribes organized as the Confederated Tribes of the Warm Springs Reservation of Oregon by adopting a Constitution and bylaws for Tribal government. Despite the great loss of traditional culture that occurred as a result of settlement on the reservation, the people of the Warm Springs Reservation have succeeded in holding on to many of their ancient traditions and values. Their longhouses still ring with prayer songs that have been handed down for generations.

Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs

The Cow Creek Tribal Nation, located in Southwestern Oregon, has over 1,800 members who are governed by an elected eleven-member council known as the Tribal Board of Directors. The Cow Creek Tribe has a rich history in southern Oregon that reflects hard work, perseverance and the desire to be self-reliant. The Cow Creek Tribe never received the reservation their Treaty promised. Even without a reservation, the people remained in their homelands. The Tribal Government Office, located in Roseburg, Oregon, houses not only the Tribal Government body and programs, but also the Cow Creek Tribal Gaming Commission and the Cow Creek Health and Wellness Center.

Cow Creek Band of Umpqua Tribe of Indians

The Coquille Tribe has more than 1,100 members and has regained more than 10,000 acres of their ancestral homeland. Comprising a people whose ancestors lived in the lands of the Coquille River watershed and lower Coos Bay, the Coquille Indian Tribe’s service area covers 15,603 square miles of Coos, Curry, Douglas, Jackson and Lane counties. Approximately 350 Tribal members live in Coos County. After the United States reinstituted federal recognition to the Tribe and restored its full sovereignty rights in 1989, the Coquille Tribal government created an administrative program that now provides housing, health care, education, elder care, law enforcement and judicial services to its members.

Coquille Indian Tribe

The Klamath Tribes consists of the Klamath, Modoc and Yahooskin Peoples. The present-day Klamath Indian Reservation consists of 12 small, non-contiguous parcels of land in Klamath County. These fragments are generally located in and near the communities of Chiloquin and Klamath Falls. The Tribes have established comprehensive unity by fostering the enhancement of spiritual and cultural values through a government whose function is to protect human and cultural resources and treaty rights, and to provide for the development and delivery of social and economic opportunities. There are over 5,700 enrolled members in the Klamath Tribes, with the government headquarters centered in Klamath County, Oregon.

Klamath Tribes