For any Native American tribe, reckoning with history means reckoning with pain, greed and misinformation. Lies about our humanity enabled policies designed to eliminate our culture. Lies about our presence led to termination and dispossession of our homelands and lifeways.
These painful memories cut even more deeply as we honored last week the 35th anniversary of the Coquille Indian Tribe’s restoration and our decades-long fight for dignity and recognition. Although some things have improved for us, ignorance still leads to ongoing attacks on our rights and sovereignty.
Sadly, such attacks can come even from other tribes.
Recently, a handful of tribes in California and Oregon who oppose the Coquille Indian Tribe’s plan to build a new casino in Medford have claimed we are “reservation shopping.”
