The Chetco people are the earliest known inhabitants of the Brookings-Harbor area. The Athabaskan-speaking people of Chit-xu and eight other Chetco group villages originally lived along this river and on the adjacent coast between the Winchuck River and Whaleshead. When forcibly removed to the Siletz Reservation in 1856, the residents of the nine villages became Chetco people based on affiliation with this main village site. Following a tsunami in March 2011, repair work at the Port of Brookings-Harbor prompted archaeological testing nearby, which confirmed the location of Chit-xu village. This historic site at the mouth of the Chetco River is an important place to tell the story of the Chetco people, whose ancestors have lived on this river for thousands of years.