The ability to gather food, medicines and natural resources from the land is critical to the vitality of Indigenous cultures. Two Native nations in Oregon lack those rights: The Confederated Tribe of Siletz Indians and the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde.
Twin bills proposed by Oregon lawmakers in the U.S. House of Representatives and U.S. Senate would remove long-standing legal barriers severely limiting tribal members’ ability to hunt, gather, fish and trap in their ancestral homelands. Siletz and Grande Ronde are the only federally recognized tribes in the United States under such restrictions.
Rep. Val Hoyle, D-OR, proposed the U.S. House versions of the bills, and Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-OR, proposed identical versions of the bills in the Senate.
Bills advancing
House Bill 2839, the bill addressing the Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians, advanced by unanimous vote through the U.S. House Committee on Natural Resources on July 19. The Senate version of the bill, Senate Bill 1286, passed through the U.S. Senate Committee on Indian Affairs the same day.
Hoyle, whose district includes parts of Lane, Curry, Benton, Coos and Lincoln counties, applauded the legislation’s progress in a July 19 statement.
“The Siletz Tribe never should have been forced to give up their sovereign right to hunt and fish on their ancestral lands,” Hoyle said. “Passing this bill in committee is one step closer to getting a vote on the House floor and eventually being signed into law. As a member of the Natural Resources Committee, we have a responsibility to right this historic wrong and ensure the Siletz are treated as other Tribes are. I’m grateful to have had this opportunity.”
Merkley expressed similar optimism towards the new legislation as it advanced out of the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs on July 19.
“The Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians were forced to give up their traditional ability to hunt, fish, and gather on Tribal land as the price to restore their homelands,” Merkley said. “This historic injustice has stood for far too long. Committee passage was a critical first step toward finally giving the Tribes the legal ability to renegotiate the restrictive agreement, and I will continue working alongside Representative Hoyle to bring justice to the Siletz community.”
History of restrictions
In the 1950s, the U.S. government “terminated” the federal recognition of seven of the nine federally recognized tribes in Oregon, including Grande Ronde and Siletz.
The U.S. government effectively determined it no longer had trust or treaty obligations to tribes it terminated. Affected tribes’ reservations ceased to exist, and tribal communities scattered and suffered without government services.
Nearly 30 years later, the U.S. government began to restore tribes’ recognition. The U.S. government re-recognized the Confederated Tribe of Siletz Indians in 1977 and Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde in 1983.
However, when the U.S. government restored affected tribes’ federal recognition, it did not restore tribal land or reservations. Without a reservation, tribes were landless.
Tribal governments fought to reobtain land for their citizens but faced significant, often racist, pushback from surrounding white communities. Concerns about the effects of tribal fishers and hunters were among the concerns voiced by white communities opposed to tribes’ efforts.
To obtain land for their citizens, Siletz and Grand Ronde tribal governments were required to sign consent decrees in the 1980s giving away their tribal fishing and hunting rights.
Tribal leaders have since said they felt they had no real choice but to sign the consent decree.
Cheryle A. Kennedy, Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde chairwoman, was on the Grande Ronde Tribal Council when the council signed the consent decree in 1986. Kennedy testified before the U.S. Senate Committee on Indian Affairs about the restrictions the consent decree imposes in March 2021.
“I was on the Tribal Council during this time, and I agreed with other tribal members who believed that this bargain with the state was one made with ‘a gun to our head,’” Kennedy testified.
The 1980s regulations severely limit the tribes’ ability to fish, hunt and gather. Siletz citizens are permitted a mere 200 salmon per year under the agreement that can only be gathered at three sites along the Siletz River during the fall. The regulations prohibit tribal harvest of steelhead and other species.
Grand Ronde citizens can only hunt and fish within their reservation or designated nearby areas, which is a fraction of the size of the Grand Ronde reservation before termination. The decree also prevents Grand Ronde citizens from fishing in culturally significant areas, like Southern Oregon.
Grand Ronde hunters and fishers also advocate overturning the decree negatively impacting them.
Reyn Leno, a Grand Ronde tribal member and hunter, said the consent decree forced his community to learn how to hunt again because the designated areas the government assigned for Grand Ronde members to hunt were not their traditional hunting grounds.
“This is not just John Doe public, just an extra fish or an extra tag; this is a way of life, this is food for us,” Leno said in a video posted to Grand Ronde’s website. “It ain’t horns hanging on the wall; it’s meat in the freezer. This is for family gatherings. This is teaching our young ones to continue this culture. We’re not asking for anything extra; we’re asking for us to be made complete.”
Both consent decrees significantly restrict the manner and amount of animals tribal hunters and fishers can harvest.
For Siletz, the regulations allow the entirety of the nation to harvest a combined 400 deer and elk per year, with a maximum of 25 elk, and severely limit the locations where tribal members can hunt.
The decree gives “no special trapping rights.” Siletz tribal members can harvest fresh-water mussels, lamprey and seaweed within Lincoln County for non-commercial purposes. They must obtain a special permit from the county if they would like to gather any other species for cultural purposes.
Critically, the decree removed Siletz and Grand Ronde’s ability to further challenge or negotiate for tribal fishing and hunting rights. The Siletz and Grand Ronde are the only federally recognized tribes with consent decrees that removed their ability to negotiate for tribal fishing and hunting rights.
The legislation moving through the House and Senate would allow the Siletz and Grand Ronde to appeal to a federal court to amend or terminate the consent decree.
State-level progress
Hoyle and Merkley’s legislation is necessary to advance a historic step for tribal sovereignty made in June — the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, or ODFW, announced it made an agreement with Siletz and the Confederated Tribes of Coos, Lower Umpqua and Siuslaw Indians, or CLUSI, to allow the tribe’s government to issue hunting and fishing licenses to its citizens, rather than being forced to use ODFW-issued licenses and permits.
ODFW reached a co-management agreement with Grand Ronde on Aug. 4. Amid ongoing objections from the Confederated Tribes of Umatilla Indian Reservation and Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs about the impacts of tribal fishing rights at Willamette Falls for Grand Ronde. Warm Springs warned of a legal challenge over the new agreement between ODFW and Grand Ronde.
Five tribes — Grand Ronde, Siletz, CLUSI, Coquille Indian Tribe and Cow Creek Band of Umpqua — now operate under similar agreements.
However, under the current consent decrees Siletz and Grand Ronde operate under, all hunting and fishing are managed by the state of Oregon.
For Siletz and Grand Ronde’s new arrangements with ODFW to move forward the consent decrees classifying tribal hunting and fishing under permanent state control need to be amended or terminated.
Dee Pigsley, Confederated Tribe of Siletz Indians chairman, praised the proposed legislation in a July 17 statement.
“The Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians is extremely grateful to Rep. Hoyle for introducing this legislation,” Pigsley said. “It reverses a historic wrong against the Siletz people and removes an unconscionable restriction to fish, hunt and gather foods in our ancestral homelands.”
Both chambers of Congress still need to vote on both bills.
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