It would take 35 more years before the Coquille Restoration Act opened a new chapter, designating a handful of counties in Oregon as part of the service area where lands could be acquired through the fee-into-trust process.

Fish and Wildlife Serviceįor Meade’s people, the promise means the restoration of land the tribe lost when its nation-to-nation relationship with the United States was terminated by an act of Congress in 1954. The tribe named the Ni-les’tun Marsh, meaning “small fish dam in the river.” Photo: Roy W. “Keep your promise - for once - to the Coquille people.”Ĭitizens of the Coquille Tribe paddle a ceremonial canoe in the Ni-les’tun Marsh within the Bandon Marsh National Wildlife Refuge in Oregon. “Allow us the process that we are allowed by Congress,” Meade said. “I went through the Obama administration, the Trump administration and now the Biden administration,” Chairperson Brenda Meade said in an interview. presidents - including one that canceled work on it altogether for unclear reasons. The lengthy effort has stretched through three U.S.

The Biden administration is promising to make it easier for tribes to restore their homelands and for one Indian nation in the Pacific Northwest, the initiative couldn’t come soon enough.įor more than eight years, the Coquille Tribe has been waiting for an answer on its fee-to-trust application in Oregon.

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