Tututni

The Tututni were a group of Athabascan-speaking Native American peoples of southwestern Oregon, the principal of the Lower Rogue River tribes. Their villages stood along the Rogue River and its tributaries on the Pacific coast, between the Coquille River to the north and the Chetco to the south.

Their Lower Rogue River language, also called Tututni, belongs to the Oregon Athabascan branch of the Na-Dené family, with a distinct dialect for each band. British, Spanish and American ships began exploring their coast in the late eighteenth century.

In the spring of 1792 Tututni villagers met the expedition of Captain George Vancouver; merchants soon followed to buy sea otter pelts. The same contact era brought smallpox, measles and other new diseases, which carried off between three-quarters and nine-tenths of many Oregon coastal populations.