Home of a Siletz Indian, 1909. Built by Himself. Photo by his Neighbor, Oregon

THOMAS C. JACKSON

Home of a Siletz Indian, 1909. Built by Himself. Photo by his Neighbor, Oregon

1909

Coastal northern Oregon was the traditional territory of the Siletz Indians. In 1856, the U.S. government forced the Siletz to absorb at least twelve other Oregon tribes on the reservation created from their homeland. Within just fifty years, the population of twenty-five thousand had dwindled to fewer than five hundred, owing largely to drastic environmental degradation and disease introduced by white settlers. A 1934 census reported no Siletz Indians living on the reservation; the tribe had vanished. The subjects and photographer of the image displayed here could indeed be among the last surviving fully assimilated members of the now-extinct tribe. FRANK A. RINEHART (1861-1928)

Gelatin silver print

Princeton Collections of Western Americana, Department of Rare Books and Special Collections, Purchase, J. Monroe Thorington Fund.