An estimated 17 small villages of the Alsi people once dotted the shores and sloughs of their namesake bay and river. They lived in dugout houses with cedar-planked walls and roofs, and thrived on fish, birds, shellfish, berries, ferns, and roots. The area was so inaccessible the Alsi had little contact with early explorers or inland inhabitants, but did trade with the Yacana to the north and the Yachats to the south. In 1855 their land was subsumed within the vast Coast Indian Reservation, which stretched over 100 miles north-to-south, from Cape Lookout to the Siltcoos River, and reached 20 miles inland to the crest of the Coast Range. By 1875, it was opened to white settlement, and the few surviving Indians were moved to the last fragment of the reservation on the Siletz River.