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The Siletz Reservation is a 5.852 sq mi (15.157 km²) Indian reservation in Lincoln County, Oregon, United States, owned by the Confederated Tribes of Siletz. The reservation lies on numerous non-contiguous parcels of land in east-central Lincoln County, mostly east of the city of Siletz, between it and the Polk County line. (The city is located at 44°43′19″N 123°54′59″W (44.721812, -123.916316)).
Establishment
In November 1855 President of the United States Franklin Pierce issued an executive order creating a reservation for the relocation of the indigenous peoples of the coastal region of the Oregon Territory. A 120-mile-long strip of land was designated for this "Coast" or "Siletz" Reservation. This reservation extended from Cape Lookout in Tillamook County on the North coast extending all the way down to the Siltcoos River, near Florence in the South.
As Oregon's population grew, the federal government opened up reservation lands for settlement by white newcomers, who displaced the indigenous peoples. Tribal groups reestablished a presence in isolated portions of their traditional homelands. Under the Dawes Act of 1887, communal tribal lands were divided for distribution of individual plots to households of tribal members; any remaining acreage was classified as "surplus" and sold to non-natives. This break-up of communal lands accelerated the process of atomization of the state's indigenous peoples.