A true team effort is bringing a story to life on Oregon’s South Coast. One that has been hundreds of years in the making.
The Coquille (Ko-Kwel) Indian Tribe has been awarded a $7,500 Oregon Heritage Grant to assist in a $15,000 project that will design and construct a permanent exhibit for a traditional dugout canoe fragment discovered near Sunset Bay State Park. The Coquille Indian Tribe worked closely with the Confederated Tribes of the Coos, Lower Umpqua and Siuslaw Indians, the Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians, the Oregon Department of State Lands, and South Slough National Estuarine Research Reserve are part of this cooperative project.
The artifact, believed to date from the 18th or 19th century, offers physical evidence of Indigenous life along Oregon’s southern coast and will be housed at the South Slough Reserve Visitor Center in Charleston.
Coquille Indian Tribe Chairman Brenda Meade said this is a great example of tribes working together to accomplish something of tremendous importance for all.