page_title: Rogue River Wars
section_title: Mining in the Rogue River valley
hierarchical_section_title: Rogue River Wars / History / Mining in the Rogue River valley
caption_attribution_description: Joel Palmer English: Oregon pioneer Joel Palmer
context_page_description: 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. 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 people 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 people 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.
context_section_description: Miners began prospecting for gold in the watershed, including a Bear Creek tributary called Jackson Creek, where they established a mining camp in 1851 at the site of what later became Jacksonville. Indian attacks on miners that year led to U.S. Army intervention and fighting near Table Rock between Indians and the combined forces of professional soldiers and volunteer miner militias. John P. Gaines, the new territorial governor, negotiated a new treaty with some but not all of the Indian bands, removing them from Bear Creek and other tributaries on the south side of the main stem. At about the same time, more white emigrants, including families with women and children, were settling in the region. By 1852, about 28 donation land claims had been filed in the Rogue Valley.
  Further clashes in 1853 led to the Treaty with the Rogue River that established the Table Rock Indian Reservation across the river from the federal Fort Lane. As the white population increased and Indian losses of land, food sources, and personal safety mounted, bouts of violence upstream and down continued through 1854–1855.
caption: Joel Palmer, Oregon Superintendent of Indian Affairs
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