YACHATS —  In 1864, blood from her torn feet marked the trail to the coastal reservation that many considered a death camp.

Now, a segment of the path that led Amanda, an elderly Coos Indian woman, and many others of her kind to the Alsea Sub-agency at Yachats has been transformed into a hiking trail and living memorial.

On Sunday, about 200 people gathered in a sunny clearing near the head of Amanda's Trail in Yachats, to take part in a dedication of a hiking path. Thirty-five years in the making, the trail honors the harsh, 80-mile journey the Coos, Siuslaw and Lower Umpqua Indians endured when they walked from North Bend to near Cape Perpetua.

"It's 150 years overdue and time for us to really honor those who gave so much," said Lauralee Svendsgaard, the new chairwoman of the Yachats trails committee. "I think of greatest significance for all of us in the Yachats community is the fact that the Confederated Tribes of the Coos, Lower Umpqua and Siuslaw Indians agreed to be part of this today."

Set at the south end of Yachats Ocean Road, the 2.5-mile trail serves as a gateway from the community into the U.S. Forest Service property at Cape Perpetua, Svendsgaard said. Its completion fills a gap in the more than 300-mile Oregon Coast Trail.

Sunday's speakers included Chief Warren Brainard of the Confederated Tribes, who gave prayers of dedication for the trail, and Wendy Williford, a tribal council member of the Confederated Tribes, who shared the story of Amanda.

A descendant of a Hanis Coos woman, Williford said completion of the trail may ease the pain of visiting the area where so many of her people suffered.

"Thank you for honoring Amanda and our ancestors with this trail, and may it serve as a reminder of the past so we do not repeat our mistakes," Williford told the group.

She explained that in the 1850s, tensions grew between natives and settlers due to the Rogue River War and Congress' failure to ratify a treaty providing goods and services on reservations. In 1860, the Army forced Coos and the Lower Umpqua Indians to march to the Alsea Sub-agency. Many died on the hike, and even more perished from starvation and  disease at the Yachats reservation.

Soldiers caught Amanda in the North Bend area in 1864. Separated from her daughter, Julia, she hiked up the coast, "blind and stumbling —  her feet cut from the rocks —  leaving a trail of blood in her wake," Williford said.

Carolina Slyter, a tribal elder and council member, was pleased that Amanda's tale is being shared.

"We have never had this story told before," Slyter said. "If you wait long enough it will come to you."

The idea to create the trail in Amanda's honor came from Loyd Collett, former director of Cape Perpetua. While trying to expand some trails in the area in the 1980s, Collett learned the story of the Coos Indian woman and was moved by her determination to survive.

"Every time I reread it, I got misty eyed," Collett said

Now 76, Collett said he views the trail as a form of reconciliation with the past.

"It's just something I couldn't avoid doing, giving it that name of Amanda," Collett said. "I'm proud to have been involved in it. ... A very small idea on my part got added to and expanded into something very significant."

Svendsgaard explained said planning and building the trail was a long process because organizers needed property owners' permission. They also had to safeguard native plant and animal species and areas of historic significance.

Although she didn't speak at the dedication, Joanne Kittel helped Collett realize his dream by donating part of her land, an act she described as "the right thing to do."

"This property is so precious, so that I didn't really feel like an owner, I felt like a steward," Kittel said.