A Relationship with Indigenous Lands

We call the portion of the Oregon Coast where we are active in conserving land our “service area.” It extends roughly from the crest of the Coast Range west to the ocean shore and from the lower Columbia River south to the mouth of Siletz Bay.

Those service area boundaries are among many boundaries layered onto this landscape by colonists—who arrived here beginning in the early 19th century—and their descendants.

However, these lands were fully inhabited since time immemorial and are the homeland of coastal Indigenous peoples of the Clatsop, Chinook, Cathlamet, Nehalem, Nestucca, Salmon River, Tillamook, Siletz and Grand Ronde tribes. Many tribes came through for ceremony, trade, rest, food and to foster family bonds among the thriving Canoe and Salmon Culture; they continue these relationships today.

Colonization brought disease, raids, seizures and forcible relocation that moved members of tribes to distant reservations, followed by the theft of their homeland by white settlers, largely as a result of broken treaties. This history gave way to settler colonialism, as well as the creation of land ownership; the buying and selling of land; the use of land for individual gain, including extraction of precious natural resources; and a breaking of human connection and caretaking for the life source of the lands and water.

The cultural values held by the Indigenous people of the Oregon Coast are values that NCLC embraces: viewing the lands and waters, plants, and animals differently than the settler-colonial view and respecting that they are inextricably connected to our own well-being. They are not to be taken from, but rather to be cared for, shared, and used for collective purposes in ways that guarantee all life has what they need now and for generations to come.

Indigenous culture holds respect and reverence for the Earth as central. These values are cultivated and shared through caretaking, family, ancestry, wisdom, song, craft, art, food and medicine. Tribes care for and use the gifts of the land and sea in a reciprocal relationship rooted in gratitude for the bounty that the Creator, the Earth, provides.

North Coast Land Conservancy relates deeply to these values, aspires to learn from tribal members, and is listening and looking for ways to support healing of the lands, the waters and people through reestablished connections. We are following opportunities to support tribal rights through increased access to ancestral homelands currently in NCLC ownership and seeking restoration of lands to the original peoples through land return and facilitating new acquisitions for tribal ownership.

As council members of the Oregon Land Justice Project, we participate in Land Justice locally as well as across the state. The Oregon Land Justice Project is a program of the Coalition of Oregon Land Trusts (COLT), implemented in partnership with First Light Learning Journey, and Tributaries Network.  The project organizes land trusts in Oregon to use their individual organizational strengths and assets collectively in service to Indigenous people and communities in Oregon. We contribute a portion of our annual fundraising efforts to the Indigenous Land Relationship Fund, and encourage our supporters to contribute directly as well.

And we must do more as we continue to learn, re-learn, and take increasingly more action toward Land Justice.