The tribes did not have contact with Europeans until 1792. In 1828, Lower Umpqua (Kuitsh) people massacred members of the
Jedediah Smith Party and attacked the
Hudson's Bay Company's fort in 1838. Most of their population died in the epidemics which followed European contact. In 1860 the remnants of these and other tribes were forced onto the
Siletz Reservation. The reservation was split into three parts, with one section being opened to non-native settlement and another becoming the Alsea Reservation, which was opened to non-native settlement in 1875. The Confederated Tribes of Coos, Lower Umpqua and Siuslaw formally organized in 1916. and ratified their current constitution in 1987. ==Notes==