Beach"), Yaa~-shuu-chit-yan'-ne ("Village at Gold Beach") History The Chetco are believed to have come to coastal Oregon between 3000 and 1000 years ago. They had nine villages on the lower of the Chetco River, with their principal villages at the mouth, where the river flows into the Pacific Ocean. The Chetco territory extended a short distance on either side of the river, along the Pacific coast from Pistol River in the north to the Winchuck River in the south. They were the most populous of the 12 coastal tribes in southern Oregon. The Chetco were hunter-gatherers with a diet based on hunting deer and elk, gathering acorns and mussels, and fishing. They used dugout canoes on the ocean and river and worked with stone tools. The Chetco cooked on open fires or with simple pots, and were culturally very similar to the Tolowa tribe to the south, "who shared the same customs regulating social relationships and frequently intermarried". The tribe is thought to have had perhaps one thousand members at its peak, but its numbers declined after European-American settlers came into contact with the Chetco in the 19th century. Settlers destroyed the Chetco villages in 1853 and the surviving members of the tribe were forcibly removed to the Siletz Reservation in Tillamook County, Oregon (in 1879 the land the reservation is on became part of Lincoln County). In 1854 there were 241 members of the tribe on the reservation: 83 women, 117 men, and 41 children. By 1861 there were 262 on the reservation: 96 women, 62 men, and 104 children; by 1871 the total on the reservation had dropped to 63. Lucy Dick, who died in 1940 was "the last known full-blooded Chetco"; as of 2009. Notes Native American tribes in California Native American tribes in Oregon Curry County, Oregon Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians