Rogue River Indians are a conglomeration of many tribal groups in the Rogue River Valley area, belonging to three language families: Athabascan, Takelma, and Shastan.
The principal tribes grouped under the name Rogue River Indians were:
The total estimated population of these tribes in 1850 was about 9,500. The French Canadian employees of the Hudson's Bay Company called them all "coquins", meaning "Rogues", where the designation Rogue River comes from.
After the Rogue River Wars in 1856, bands of the Rogue River Indians were split between the Confederated Tribes of Siletz and the Confederated Tribes of the Grand Ronde Community of Oregon, relocating to either the Siletz Indian Reservation north of the tribe's traditional lands or to the Grand Ronde Indian Reservation.[1] [2] Some of the tribal members were never captured and were forced to wander.