Federal government findings

In 1969 and 1971, after extensive study, the Indian Claims Commission (ICC) published findings that established the range of the Cowlitz Tribe’s aboriginal lands as they were in the mid-1800s. The Commission determined that they did not include land south of the mouth of the Kalama River in Cowlitz County—north of Clark County.

In 2002, the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) acknowledged the Cowlitz as a federally recognized tribe. But after five years of intense study, BIA researchers concluded that the Cowlitz Tribe had no significant historic or modern connection with Clark County.

Read excerpts from these findings.

The Cowlitz Tribe’s own application for federal acknowledgment placed its historic villages along the Cowlitz River. The southernmost village was at the site of modern-day Kelso, Wash., 25 miles north of the proposed casino site.

<<Back to "What is reservation shopping?"