Tribal Relations
As stewards of National Forest Lands, the USDA Forest Service is committed to strengthening relationships with American Indian Tribes that have lived in the Pacific Northwest since time immemorial.
We actively collaborate with Tribes to make effective land and resource management decisions, from fuels reduction to the preservation of sacred sites, to conserve resources for generations to come. View our national Tribal Relations Action Plan.
Based on their ancestral ties to the forest, the Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest maintains special relationships with the following Tribes:
- Confederated Tribes of Coos, Lower Umpqua, and Siuslaw
- Confederated Tribes of the Grand Ronde Community
- Confederated Tribes of the Siletz Indians
- Coquille Indian Tribe
- Cow Creek Band of Umpqua Tribe of Indians
- Quartz Valley Indian Reservation
- Smith River Rancheria
- The Klamath Tribes
More About Tribal Governments
Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest maintains a government-to-government relationship with each federally-recognized tribe having traditional lands within the Forest. Each of the eight tribes is a sovereign entity and has its own distinct culture and traditional values.
Land and resources hold a special and unique meaning in the daily ways of many Native Americans. Our relationships with the tribes are not simply to fulfill our trust obligations, but because we respect tribal cultural values and consider these values an important part of management of the Forest.
Tribes have collaborated with the Forest on numerous partnerships, including vegetation management to enhance production of certain plant species, Passport in Time projects, prosecution of archaeological site looters, and public interpretation of historic and prehistoric sites.