history

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The history of a place is important for the identity of its people. There was a time in the history of Yachats when the connection between past and present had vanished, and the experiences of the First People who lived here were missing. White Americans had settled the area less than 200 years ago, and their records and accounts were the history that was known and passed along to the generations that followed. Joanne Kittel and Suzanne Curtis changed all of that when they published The Yachats Indians, Origins of the Yachats Name, and the Prison Camp Years in 1996 under tribal supervision. While Kittel and Curtis studied the lives of the past inhabitants of Yachats, stories from the Native ancestors of the First People living in the area was ascertained from ethologists’ and linguists’ publications and additional facts were found in archeological site investigations, all included in the narrative. The connection between the first inhabitants was restored to the Yachats community, and over the years the history of Native People of the area became recognized and celebrated. 

Prior to European interaction and settlement, Native Americans of the Oregon Coast had been living in and around present-day Yachats for at least 6000 years, and perhaps for thousands of years longer. The First People of this area were southern villages of the Alsea who had their summer and winter homes in the immediate area following the circles of the seasons.  For generations, these early inhabitants hunted, fished, forage for and farmed edible plants, and gathered shellfish along the coastline between the Coastal Mountains and the Pacific Ocean, with many summer village sites located in what is now Yachats. Robert Kentta, Cultural Resources Manager for the Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians, explained that Yahaic, Yahatc, Yahach (Coos language), and Ya ‘Xaik are all Native names that mean “where the trail leaves the beach” and could have been early names of what is now Yachats.  Horrifically as with all the Indigenes in the western hemisphere, the introduction of Europeans also came diseases. By the late 1700’s to early 1800’s 90% of the coastal Natives died from smallpox, tuberculosis and influenza. All the Southern Alsea died, and if a few survived may have reunited with their Alsea cousins to the north. 

British sailors were the first recorded White people to interact with the coastal tribes when their schooner entered Coos Bay near the end of the 18th century, and again when fur traders from the Hudson Bay Company travelled overland to meet the Natives in the 1820s. By 1853, White immigrants had settled Empire City in what is now Coos Bay and hired local Natives to work in the logging, milling, and shipbuilding industries. Although the relationships between Whites and Natives were at times peaceful in Empire City, it was not generally true. Due to white settlers and trappers stealing their land and food sources and raping Native women, the Rogue River War ensued. That War frightened Whites in the area and local Coos Natives were forced by the US Army to relocate to the mouth of the Umpqua River to live with the Tribes of the Lower Umpqua in 1856. Of the nearly 450 members of the combined tribes that were moved to the sand dunes on the Umpqua River, nearly half died of exposure, starvation, and disease within the next few years. 

The Coos, Lower Umpqua and a percentage of the Siuslaw People who survived the inhuman conditions on the Umpqua River were again forcibly removed in 1860 and marched up the north coast to present-day Yachats, where the Alsea Sub-Agency of the Coast/Siletz Reservation was located. In 1865 when the Coast Reservation was cut in half opening to homesteading, the Alsea People to the north were forcibly relocated south. The signed Treaties were never ratified by Congress and thereover, none of the promised goods, supplies and services were sent to re-establish their lives. Conditions were extremely harsh. As a result of government sponsored genocidal polices, over 60% of the Natives died of starvation exposure, disease, abuse and depression of spirits in the first 12 years as also occurred at the Siletz and Grand Ronde prison camp locations. From 1872-75, two agents who were competent and compassionate, allowed the survivors to return to all of their traditional practices of hunting and food gathering and allowed farming to be established up the river.  These hardworking Native survivors re-established a new homeland against incredible odds.  Due to the success of being able to farm the land, in 1875 in violation of its own laws the government opened the Yachats area up to White settlement, and the Natives who lived here were again forcibly removed. The sub-agency was subsequently open for homesteading.  Army came and forcibly removed who they found to Coast Reservation in Siletz. Others escaped south and became refugees in the own homeland.  

There is a true story that was written in a journal of an Army soldier.  In 1864 while the Army was rounding up Natives that had not been marched up earlier, Amanda DeCuis, a blind Coos woman was captured 80 miles south of Yachats and forced to walk to the Alsea Sub-Agency with other coastal Natives. Amanda was abandoned by the White man she had been living with and was forced to leave her young daughter. Her bare feet were cut so badly on the forced march that she left a blood trail that was noticed by others. Amanda’s story came to represent the injustices that had been done to the coastal Natives when they were forced into prison camps. There are many Trails of Tears throughout North America.

Due to the horrific history their ancestors suffered at the Alsea Subagency, many coastal Natives shunned Yachats for many decades until the truth was acknowledged and accepted by locals and a trail was built commemorating the genocide committed against their ancestors. Three-and-a-quarter mile Amanda Trail (part of the Oregon Coast Trail) has become a spiritual and solemn trail. Descendants of the survivors of the Alsea Subagency area returned as a result of this community’s acknowledgment and appreciation of such a painful part of their history. The trail leads to the Amanda statue located in a grotto at the base of Cape Perpetua, and over the years has become a place of healing and reconciliation between a previously divided people. Many visitors bring gifts to the Amanda statue. Coastal natives bring gifts and prayer songs to the Amanda statue to honor their ancestors remembering their struggles and adversity their ancestors endured. 

Readers are asked to celebrate the People of the Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians (includes the Alsea), the Confederated Tribes of Coos, Lower Umpqua and Siuslaw Indians, all nine recognized Tribes in Oregon and those tribal groups that are not yet recognized whose survivors’ courage and perseverance have resulted in their cultures and traditions being re-established and thriving today.  

To read more about the Yachats First Nation history and the two tribally supervised land acknowledgments, please go to www.viewthefuture.org both to its mission statement and to “View the Past” links. 

Discover the rich history of the area that made us who we are today and become a part of it! These are the stories of the people who lived here before, and how their lives were similar and different to the lives we lead today. Take our self-guided walking tour of Yachats to become familiar with all of the landmarks that define our past. From the middens left by Native tribes thousands of years ago, to our Little Log Church and Museum built in the 1920’s, there’s plenty of history here wherever you look!