Rogue River Wars

Rogue River War
Part of American Indian Wars
Rogue River Valley in the state of Oregon
Date October 8, 1855 to June, 1856 Location Southern Oregon, United States Result United States Victory
Belligerents
United States U.S. Army local militias and volunteers	Rogue River Indians
Commanders and leaders
Andrew Jackson Smith Robert C. Buchanan	Tecumtum
Casualties and losses
33 volunteers killed 17 regulars killed 44 civilians killed[1]	around 100+ killed[1]

The Rogue River Wars were an armed conflict in 1855–1856 between the U.S. Army, local militias and volunteers, and the Native American tribes commonly grouped under the designation of Rogue River Indians, in the Rogue River Valley area of what today is southern Oregon.^[2] The conflict designation usually includes only the hostilities that took place during 1855–1856, but there had been numerous previous skirmishes, as early as the 1830s, between European American settlers and the Native Americans, over territory and resources.

Following conclusion of the war, the United States removed the Tolowa and other tribes to reservations in Oregon and California.

In central coastal Oregon, the Tillamook, Siletz, and about 20 other tribes were placed with Tolowa at the Coast Indian Reservation. It is now known as the Siletz Reservation, located on land along the Siletz River in the Central Coastal Range, about 15 miles northeast of Newport, Oregon. While the tribes originally spoke 10 distinct languages here, the surviving native language in the 21st century is Siletz Deen-ni, an Athabaskan language related to Tolowa.