OREGON STATE UNIVERSITY
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Oregon State University recognizes the impact that its land grant history had on Indigenous communities in Oregon. Through the Morrill Act of 1862, which established land grant universities in the United States, the federal government seized nearly 11 million acres of land from 250 sovereign tribal nations, with little or no compensation.
In 1868, the state legislature designated Corvallis College as Oregon’s land grant institution. Soon after, Oregon received 90,000 acres of federal lands — taken from the Klamath, Coos, Lower Umpqua, Siuslaw and Coquille people — to be sold to create an endowment supporting the growth of the new college, which would become Oregon State University.
Oregon State University - Cascades in Bend, Oregon is located within the traditional homelands of the Wasq'u (Wasco) and Tana'nma (Warm Springs) people who legally retain customary hunting, fishing and gathering rights to the region, and who have been stewards of this land since time immemorial. Numu (Paiute) peoples were forcibly relocated to this region from the area of Lake, Harney, and Malheur counties in Oregon. Today, the living descendants of these people are a part of the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs. It is OSU-Cascades' intent and responsibility to work with tribes to recognize Indigenous rights in the region. Indigenous people are valued, contributing members of the Oregon State community and represent multiple sovereign tribes among students, faculty, staff and alumni.
Oregon State University accepts its responsibility for understanding the continuing impact of that history on these communities. Oregon State is committed — in the spirit of self-reflection, learning, reconciliation, and partnership — to ensure that this institution of higher learning will be of enduring benefit, not only to the state of Oregon, but also to the people on whose ancestral lands it is now located.