Latgawa were a Native American people that lived in the Rogue Valley of interior southwest Oregon. In their own language "Latgawa" means "those living in the uplands," though they were also known as the Walumskni by the neighboring Klamath tribe. Together with the Takelma tribe, the Latgawa spoke Takelma.
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The Latgawa were located in the upper Rogue River valley eastward to the former Table Rock Indian Reservation and Bear Creek and in the neighborhood of Jacksonville, Oregon. Together with other tribes along the Rogue River, they were grouped as the Rogue River Tribe, but after the Rogue River Wars in 1856, bands of the Rogue River were split between the Confederated Tribes of Siletz and the Confederated Tribes of the Grand Ronde Community of Oregon, relocating to either the Siletz Indian Reservation north of the tribe's traditional lands or to the Grand Ronde Indian Reservation. Some of the tribal members were never captured and were forced to wander.
In the era of the Rogue Indian Wars, Rogue Valley Indians were killed or captured, while many of the Latgawa escaped and survived with the help of Tribes such as the Klamath, Blackfoot, Nez Percé and Suquamish, and from Chief Seattle and others. Wandering as far away as Colorado, up into Canada, and returning to their aboriginal lands in Southern Oregon and Northern California.
The Latgawa are thought to been pushed into extinction in the late 20th century, although there is a group currently not recognized by the Bureau of Indian Affairs as a tribe, known as The Latgawa Native American Indian Tribe. The Latgawa Native American Indian Tribe, they claim, was never captured or terminated, and has full jurisdiction of historical Latgawa tribe's people, lands and in their relationship with the Federal Government as a "Domestic Sovereign" Indian Nation. This group works as the "Original Land Stewards" in conservation and environmental areas in the lands set forth in the Rogue Valley Indians Treaties of 1853 and 1854.