Learn More About the Coquille Tribe
Coquille people flourished in the bountiful forests, rivers, and beaches of Southwestern Oregon for thousands of years. Their ancestral territory encompassed more than 750,000 acres. But unfulfilled treaties, westward expansion, and government policies nearly erased the Coquille people from their lands.
In 1954, the federal government terminated its recognition of the Coquille Tribe along with more than 60 other Western Oregon tribes. But the Coquille people endured, and Congress restored the Tribe’s government-to-government relationship with the United States in 1989.
Today, the tribe has more than 1,100 members and has regained more than 10,000 acres of its ancestral homeland. The tribe provides education assistance, health care, elder services, and (where needed) housing assistance to its people while contributing substantially to the economies of its neighboring communities.
The Coquille Tribe successfully maintains business ventures in sustainable forestry, gaming, hospitality, recreation, communications technology, architecture and engineering, construction and financial/administrative services.
Through it all, the Coquille people never lost the Spirit of the Potlatch – a tradition of sharing with neighbors and guests long practiced by the original inhabitants of the Pacific Northwest Coast. This spirit helped guide the partnership between the Coquille Tribe and Margaritaville and their shared commitment to making visitors feel at home.
What’s in a name?
Despite the spelling, the Tribe’s name is pronounced kō-kwĕl. According to the experts, the name comes from a native word scoquel which was the name for the lamprey, an important food staple of the Coquille people. Soon, fur traders used the word Coquell or Coquelle for the river and the people living along its banks. Early treaties identified the Tribe as Coquille, spelled like the French word for shell.
We are a proud, powerful, and resilient people, a sovereign nation, whose binding thread is our Coquille identity. In the footsteps of our ancestors, we celebrate.
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