Celebrate Indigenous Peoples' Day with us! Our office will be closed tomorrow, Monday, October 12, to honor the rich history, culture, and enduring contributions of Indigenous communities.
While our doors are closed, we encourage everyone to take this time to learn more about the first caretakers of the land we work, live, and gather on.
Locally, our community is shaped by the vibrant heritage, ancestral homelands, and active service areas of several sovereign tribal nations across Coos and Curry counties:
Confederated Tribes of Coos, Lower Umpqua and Siuslaw Indians; their ancestral homelands span from the Oregon coastal range to the Pacific shorelines, including Coos, Curry, Lincoln, Douglas, and Lane counties.
🌐 https://ctclusi.org/history/
The Coquille Tribe; their ancestral territory encompasses over one million acres across southwestern Oregon, centered around the Coquille River watershed, Coos Bay, and coastal Curry County.
🌐 https://www.coquilletribe.org/our-heritage/
Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians; this diverse confederation represents 27 ancestral bands, spanning over 20 million acres across western Oregon, southwest Washington, and northern California, from the Pacific Coast to the Cascade Range.
🌐 https://ctsi.nsn.us/heritage/
Tolowa Dee-ni' Nation; their ancestral homelands extend northward across southern Curry County to the Rogue River basin,encompass approximately 2.87 million acres spanning the Pacific Northwest coast, continuing a rich history of cultural stewardship and support for tribal citizens in our region.
🌐 https://www.tolowa.gov/248/TOLOWA-CULTURE
We also wish to highlight and express gratitude for the vital local work of the Northwest American Indian Coalition (NAIC). The NAIC is a Native-led and inter-tribal nonprofit organization based on the ancestral homelands of the Southern Oregon Coast. NAIC is dedicated to cultural revitalization, language preservation, Traditional Ecological Knowledge, food sovereignty, and Missing and Murdered Indigenous People (MMIP) advocacy across the Southern Oregon Coast. See the comments of this post for information on a local and Indigenous fire-themed art show October 17th! 🔥
🌐 https://nwaic.org/about
To experience the rich tribal history and art firsthand, we also encourage folks to visit regional cultural centers like the Coos History Museum & Maritime Collections in Coos Bay, featuring collaborative exhibits on local tribal heritage and language revitalization, and the rotating Indigenous art showcases at the Coos Art Museum, alongside historical artifacts preserved at the Bandon Historical Society Museum and the Curry Historical Museum in Gold Beach.
For more information check out their websites below:
🖼️ Coos Art Museum
coosart.org
🖼️ Coos History Museum cooshistory.org
🖼️ Bandon History Museum bandonhistoricalmuseum.org
🖼️ Curry Historical Society Museum curryhistory.com