Coquelle Thompson (ca. 1848–1946) was aCoquille Indian from theU.S. state ofOregon who was a cultural and linguistic consultant to at least six important anthropologists over the course of his long life. Born the son of a chief of the Upper Coquille Indians, and his Hanis Coos wife, he was among the several hundred Indians from southwestern Oregon who were removed by ship fromPort Orford to theCoast or Siletz Indian Reservation in June 1856. His is an Indian eye-witness account of that removal. He grew up and lived on theSiletz Reservation, serving for decades as a member of the tribal police force.^[1]

In 1873, Coquelle Thompson attended a version of theGhost Dance of 1870 held atCorvallis, Oregon, and later he attended a dance of the Warm House at Upper Farm, Siletz Reservation. He soon became a convert to a version of the Ghost Dance known at Siletz as the Warm House Dance, and proselytized along theOregon Coast as far south asCoos Bay. His version became known as the Thompson Warm House Dance.^[2]

He was married three times and had eleven children, all of whom died before adulthood except two, who married and have descendants to the present day among theConfederated Tribes of Siletz Indians.^[3]

• Nathan Douthit.Uncertain Encounters: Indians and Whites at Peace and War in Southern Oregon 1820s–1860s.Oregon State University Press, 2002.

• 1840s births
• 1946 deaths
• 19th-century Native Americans
• 20th-century Native Americans
• Indigenous people of the Pacific Northwest
• People from Coos County, Oregon
• People from Lincoln County, Oregon

• Year of birth uncertain