Cow Creek Band of Umpqua Tribe of Indians
Traditional Territory
Cow Creek area, a tributary of the South Umpqua River, in what is now Oregon
Overview
The Cow Creek Band of Umpqua Tribe of Indians is a federally recognized tribe based in Roseburg, Oregon. The tribe is descended from several different historical tribal entities, including Upper Umpqua Targunsans, Milwaletas, Takelmas, and possibly some Southern Molallas. The tribe takes its name from Cow Creek, a tributary of the South Umpqua River.
Historical Notes
In October 1855, the Rogue River War erupted and the Cow Creek Band fled to the hills. In January 1856, the bulk of the band was moved to the Grand Ronde Reservation to the north, though some remained in the mountainous terrain near Canyonville and survived by intermarrying with Métis fur trappers.
Federal Recognition
The Cow Creek Band of Umpqua Tribe of Indians hold federal recognition from the United States government, administered through the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA). Federally recognized tribes have a government-to-government relationship with the United States and are eligible for services and protections under federal Indian law. There are currently 574 federally recognized tribal nations in the United States.
Indigenous peoples had inhabited North America for at least 15,000 years before European contact, developing complex societies across every region of the continent. The Mississippian culture, centered on the city of Cahokia near present-day St. Louis, reached its peak around 1100 AD with a population estimated at 10,000 to 20,000 — larger than contemporary London. The Ancestral Puebloans built multi-story stone complexes at Chaco Canyon and Mesa Verde between the 9th and 13th centuries. The Iroquois Confederacy, formed between roughly 1450 and 1600, united five nations under a constitution that influenced later American democratic thinking. Across the eastern woodlands, the Great Plains, the Pacific Coast, and the Southwest, hundreds of distinct nations maintained sophisticated trade networks, agricultural systems, and governance structures. European contact beginning in the late 15th century introduced epidemic disease — smallpox, measles, influenza — which devastated Indigenous populations by an estimated 50 to 90 percent within a century.
Content adapted from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. Source: Wikipedia.
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