Our Lands

The Place Where We Belong

The Coquille people’s history and culture are inseparable from the forests, meadows and beaches of southwestern Oregon. In the millennia before Euro-American settlement, the Coquille Tribe roamed more than 1 million acres, managing the resources to promote healthy ecosystems and prosperous communities.

The settlement era’s onslaught of disease, violence and injustice scattered our ancestors and stripped them of their homeland. After forced relocation in the 19th century, many of our cousins were forced to become permanent members of reservation communities elsewhere in Oregon.

Since the Tribe’s 1989 Restoration to federal recognition, we have regained ownership of about 10,000 acres. Though a mere fraction of our ancestral territory, these restored homelands are a priceless legacy. As members of the present-day Coquille Indian Tribe, we feel uniquely blessed to be stewards of these lands we call home.

(Click here for a Natural Resources Conservation Service video describing the Coquille Tribe’s land management success.)