The Siletz (pronounced SIGH-lets) were the southernmost of several divisions of the Tillamook people speaking a distinct dialect; the other dialect-divisions were: ''Salmon River'' on the

river A river is a natural flowing watercourse, usually freshwater, flowing towards an ocean, sea, lake or another river. In some cases, a river flows into the ground and becomes dry at the end of its course without reaching another body of ...

of that name, ''Nestucca'' on Little and

Nestucca River The Nestucca River flows for about through forests near the Pacific coast of northwest Oregon in the United States. It drains a timber-producing area of the Northern Oregon Coast Range west of Portland. Rising in the mountains of western Yamhil ...

and

Nestucca Bay Nestucca Bay is a bay formed by the confluence of the Nestucca River and the Pacific Ocean in northwest Oregon in the United States. It is near the town of Pacific City, which is in southwestern Tillamook County, about south of Cape Lookout. ...

, ''

Tillamook Bay Tillamook Bay is a small inlet of the Pacific Ocean, approximately 6 mi (10 km) long and 2 mi (3 km) wide, on the northwest coast of the U.S. state of Oregon. It is located just north of Cape Meares in western Tillamook Cou ...

'' on the

bay A bay is a recessed, coastal body of water that directly connects to a larger main body of water, such as an ocean, a lake, or another bay. A large bay is usually called a gulf, sea, sound, or bight. A cove is a small, circular bay with a na ...

of that name and the mouths of the Kilchis, Wilson, Trask and Tillamook rivers, and '' Nehalem'' on

Nehalem River The Nehalem River is a river on the Pacific coast of northwest Oregon in the United States, approximately long. It drains part of the Northern Oregon Coast Range northwest of Portland, originating on the east side of the mountains and flowing i ...

. The name "Siletz" comes from the name of the

Siletz River The Siletz River flows about to the Pacific Ocean through coastal mountains in the U.S. state of Oregon. Formed by the confluence of its north and south forks near Valsetz in Polk County, it winds through the Central Oregon Coast Range. The ri ...

on which they live. The origin of the name is unknown (perhaps Oregon Athabaskan? variants: Salǽˑtʃʼɪtʃʽ, Sai-lĕtc-́ĭc qûn-nĕ, and Sii-lee-ch'ish) Their eastern neighbors the Central Kalapuya tribes called them Tsä Shnádsh amím. In Chasta Costa and Euchre Creek-Tututni and Chetco-Tolowa they were known as Shii-lee-ch'ish, the Naltunne-Tututni name was Sai-lĕtc-́ĭc me-́t̟ûn-nĕ (all with reference to the Siletz River) and the Upper Coquille-Tututni name ʃɪllǽˑttʃʼɪʃmæ̽-dɜnhæ or Sii-lee-ch'ish- dv-ne ("Siletz River People").ILDA - Indigenous Languages Digital Archive
/ref> Today they are a constituent band of the Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians, and the group from which the confederation received its name. In 1856 following the

Rogue River Wars The Rogue River Wars were an armed conflict in 1855–1856 between the U.S. Army, local militias and volunteers, and the Native American tribes commonly grouped under the designation of Rogue River Indians, in the Rogue River Valley area ...

in southern Oregon, people from among more than 27 Native Tribes and Bands, speaking 10 distinct languages: Alsea/Yaquina, chinuk wawa (a.k.a. Chinook Jargon), Coos, Kalapuya, Molala, Shasta, Siuslaw/Lower Umpqua, Takelma, Tillamook, and a broad group of Athapascans speaking groups of SW Oregon, including Upper Umpqua, Coquille, Tututni, Chetco, Tolowa, Galice and Applegate River peoples who by treaty agreements and force were removed by the United States to the

Coast Indian Reservation The Coast Indian Reservation is a former Indian reservation in the U.S. state of Oregon, established in 1855. It was gradually reduced in size and in the 21st century is known as the present-day Siletz Reservation. History The Coast Reservation wa ...

, later known as the

Siletz Reservation The Siletz Reservation is a 5.852 sq mi (15.157 km²) Indian reservation in Lincoln County, Oregon, United States, owned by the Confederated Tribes of Siletz. The reservation is made up of numerous non-contiguous parcels of land in east-centr ...

. Over generations the Siletz people have faced brutal federal policies which resulted their 1.1 million acre reservation being illegally taken from them. Then Congress passed the Western Oregon Termination Act, ending the government to government relationship with the Siletz Tribes. The Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians was successful in lobbying Congress to repeal the Termination Act as applied to the Siletz and again was federally recognized as of Nov. 18, 1977. Today their members are enrolled in the

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

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 ...

The only native language still spoken on the reservation is Siletz Dee-ni, which is a combination of all Athbaskan dialectic variant vocabularies spoken by several of the original reservation tribes. In cooperation with the National Geographic Society and the Living Tongues Institute for Endangered Languages, the tribe produced a "talking dictionary" of Siletz Dee-ni in 2007 to aid in preservation and teaching.

History

Traditionally, the Siletz were believed to be a

Salishan The Salishan (also Salish) languages are a family of languages of the Pacific Northwest in North America (the Canadian province of British Columbia and the American states of Washington, Oregon, Idaho and Montana). They are characterised by ...

-speaking group; they inhabited an area along the central coast of Oregon near the

until the middle of the 19th century. The tribe was considered the southernmost group of the larger

Coast Salish The Coast Salish is a group of ethnically and linguistically related Indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest Coast, living in the Canadian province of British Columbia and the U.S. states of Washington and Oregon. They speak one of the Coa ...

culture, which was centered near the

Strait of Georgia The Strait of Georgia (french: Détroit de Géorgie) or the Georgia Strait is an arm of the Salish Sea between Vancouver Island and the extreme southwestern mainland coast of British Columbia, Canada and the extreme northwestern mainland coast ...

and

Puget Sound Puget Sound ( ) is a sound of the Pacific Northwest, an inlet of the Pacific Ocean, and part of the Salish Sea. It is located along the northwestern coast of the U.S. state of Washington. It is a complex estuarine system of interconnected m ...

in what are now

British Columbia British Columbia (commonly abbreviated as BC) is the westernmost province of Canada, situated between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains. It has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that include rocky coastlines, sandy beaches, for ...

, Canada, and

Washington Washington commonly refers to: * Washington (state), United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A metonym for the federal government of the United States ** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered o ...

, United States. The Siletz were closely related in language and culture to the Tillamook tribe to their north 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 Colum ...

. During or after the

of 1855–1856, which extended to areas of northern California, members of the tribe were moved by the United States government to the

, later called the

. The Tillamook and peoples of more than 20 other small tribes, including the

Tolowa people The Tolowa people or Taa-laa-wa Dee-ni’ are a Native American people of the Athabaskan-speaking ethno-linguistic group. Two rancherias (Smith River and Elk Valley) still reside in their traditional territory in northwestern California. Tho ...

of northern California, were also removed to the reservation. It is located along the

in the

Central Oregon Coast Range The Central Oregon Coast Range is the middle section of the Oregon Coast Range, in the Pacific Coast Ranges physiographic region, and located in the west-central portion of the state of Oregon, United States roughly between the Salmon River and ...

, 15 miles northeast of Newport, which is on the coast in Lincoln County.

Population

Language

The Siletz are believed to have spoken the "Siletz dialect" or "Southern Tillamook" of the Tillamook (Hutyéyu) language, which was part of the Coast Salish languages. Tillamook was declared extinct when its last native speaker died in 1970. What is now known as the Siletz Dee-ni language was restricted historically to speakers in "a small area on the central Oregon coast." Linguists have concluded that Siletz is not related to Tillamook at all, but is a form of Tolowa, an

Athabaskan language Athabaskan (also spelled ''Athabascan'', ''Athapaskan'' or ''Athapascan'', and also known as Dene) is a large family of indigenous languages of North America, located in western North America in three areal language groups: Northern, Pacific C ...

rather than a Salishan language. The

were one of the 20 Native American groups whose descendants comprise the Confederated Tribes of Siletz. In the 21st century, Siletz Dee-ni was the only native language still spoken on the reservation. Realizing that their language was endangered, the Consolidated Siletz tribe have taken actions to preserve and teach it. Also called Tolowa Dee-ni, the language has been studied by several groups (see books about the language below). Members of the tribe have worked with a variety of linguists to document the language. As they say, their work is "a comprehensive attempt to include the similarities and the differences of the known dialects of the Southwest Oregon / Northwestern California Athabaskan Language.""Guide to using the Siletz Dictionary" by Amy Smolek, in Anderson, Gregory D.S. and K. David Harrison. (2007) ''Siletz Talking Dictionary,'' Living Tongues Institute for Endangered Languages; accessed 25 November 2016
/ref> The Siletz have also taken part in an international effort by the

National Geographic Society The National Geographic Society (NGS), headquartered in Washington, D.C., United States, is one of the largest non-profit scientific and educational organizations in the world. Founded in 1888, its interests include geography, archaeology, ...

, the Living Tongues Institute for Endangered Languages, and linguists such as K. David Harrison of

Swarthmore College Swarthmore College ( , ) is a private liberal arts college in Swarthmore, Pennsylvania. Founded in 1864, with its first classes held in 1869, Swarthmore is one of the earliest coeducational colleges in the United States. It was established as ...

to save languages that are threatened with extinction. Alfred "Bud" Lane, among the last fluent native speakers of Siletz on the reservation, has recorded 14,000 words of the Siletz Dee-ni language. Lane and other Siletz had decided they wanted to work to preserve and revive the language. Lane's work was used to help produce a Siletz talking dictionary, one of eight dictionaries produced for endangered languages in this project, as reported at the annual meeting in 2012 of the

American Association for the Advancement of Science The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) is an American international non-profit organization with the stated goals of promoting cooperation among scientists, defending scientific freedom, encouraging scientific respons ...

(AAAS). The bi-lingual dictionary, in English and Siletz Dee-ni, with illustrations, will be used to teach the dialect to tribal members in the Siletz Valley. Such digital tools and social media can help small groups communicate. Professor Harrison said, "... a positive effect of globalisation is that you can have a language that is spoken by only five or 50 people in one remote location, and now through digital technology that language can achieve a global voice and a global audience."

References

External links

Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians
official site
Siletz Language Project
University of Oregon

California State University San Marcos {{authority control Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians Indigenous peoples of the Northwest Plateau Native American tribes in Oregon

History

Population

Language

References

Further reading

External links