They occupied marginal land, hunted, fished, trapped and tended small out-of-the-way gardens. Many married fur trappers.
In 1918, the Cow Creek Umpqua elders established a formal tribal government and began to lobby for federal services, especially for education for their children. They also sought justice and retribution from the Government for the land that was taken from them in the 1853 Treaty at the low price of two and a third cents per acre. At that time Land Donation Act settlers were paying the Government $1.25 per acre.
Between 1918 and 1932, several bills were introduced in Congress on behalf of Cow Creek Umpquas.
One bill that finally passed in 1932, was vetoed by President Hoover, who cited a lack of funds during the Great Depression. Ellen Furlong Crispen, mother of the present (1997) Tribal Chairman, Sue Crispen Shaffer, led this campaign. In 1929, Congress passed a special act that permitted Indian pursuit of land claims.
Between 1945 and 1951, the Indian Claims Commission had an obligation to notify every tribe of their right to bring claims forward. The Justice Department can find no record of its having notified the Cow Creek Umpquas of their rights to file claims.
It needs to be noted that the Justice Department certainly did not overlook the Cow Creek Umpquas when it came time to terminate western Oregon Indian tribes in 1954, when on August 13, Public Law 588 was passed that declared that there were no more Indians left in western Oregon. The Cow Creek Umpquas were named as a terminated tribe.
Years later, in 1982, when the "Recognition Law" was submitted to Congress that restored the Cow Creek Umpquas as a tribe, Secretary of Interior (the Bureau of Indian Affairs is included in the Interior Department) "Udall's report" commented on the naming of the Cow Creek Umpquas in the termination law.
"Even though they [Bureau of Indian Affairs] refused to acknowledge that the Cow Creek Tribe was a Federally-recognized tribe, out of an abundance of caution, the Bureau included the name of the Cow Creek Tribe in the legislation developed to terminate the small tribes of western Oregon."
Termination, in part, meant that the Indians had to start paying property taxes that they generally could not afford. By 1960, after over four years of being in arrears, county governments began selling off allotments for back taxes. In this way many Indians lost their allotted land.
