Chapter 14 - The Southwest Border: Tricultural Development

Native American Tribes of Oregon

There are 9 federally recognize Native American tribes in Oregon.  One of them, the Klamath Tribes consists of the Klamath, Modoc and the Yahooskin tribes and has about 3,500 members.  The tribes inhabited southern Oregon and northern California living of the plentiful land and salmon from the rivers but with the settlement and expansion of the United States they were forced onto the Klamath Reservation in 1864.

 In 1954, the US Congress terminated federal recognition of tribal sovereignty of the Klamath, with the plan to assimilate Native Americans into the mainstream population. During that time much of the land that belonged to the tribe and its individual members was lost or sold off.  In the late twentieth century there was a resurgence of Indian activism and, in 1986,  the Klamath Tribes regained federal recognition.  They are now in the planning stages of a new reservation and purchasing the land back.