In 1846 the United States acquired Oregon Territory, an area which stretched from the Pacific coast dto the Rocky Mountains and included the present-day states of Oregon and Washington, as well as parts of Idaho and Montana. In 1848, Congress passed the Oregon Organic Act which established Oregon Territory. At this time, of course, Indian nations theoretically held title to most of the land and were not consulted about this act. According to the Oregon Organic Act, lands were not to be taken from the Indians without their consent and the Act affirmed the rights of person and property for Indians. In 1853, Oregon Territory was divided into two territories: Washington and Oregon.
In 1855, it was decided that the Indians in Oregon Territory needed to be removed from their traditional homelands and settled on small reservations so that their lands could be given to non-Indians for farming, ranching, and development. According to the U.S. Constitution, American Indian tribes are considered sovereign nations—“domestic dependent nations” according to the Supreme Court—and therefore treaties were needed in which the Indians would formally give their lands to the United States. Joel Palmer, the Superintendent for the Oregon Territory, was given the task of negotiating (or, more accurately, imposing) the treaties.
In 1855, at a treaty council at Wasco, Oregon, near The Dalles, several western Columbia Sahaptin-speaking bands (Tygh, Wayampam, Tenino, John Day) and Upper Chinook-speaking bands (The Dalles, Ki-gal-twal-la, Hood River) signed a treaty in which they agreed to move to the Warm Springs Reservation. The tribes were given the rights to take fish from the streams running through and bordering the reservation; to hunt, gather roots and berries, and to pasture their stock on all unclaimed lands.
Shown above is a traditional Warm Springs dwelling in the Museum at Warm Springs.
Shown above is a Wasco plank house in the Museum at Warm Springs. The Wascos in the Mid-Columbia area used plank houses similar to those used by the Northwest Coast tribes.
Some of the tribes objected to the idea of confederating with the Wascos which the treaty required and others felt that the Warm Springs Reservation was too far from the Columbia River.
At the time of the treaty council, many of the Indians were away from the area preparing for the annual root harvest and the American negotiators had been informed that this was not a good time for the meeting. At the beginning of the council, one American—John Edwards—warned the Indians that the purpose of the council was to rob them of their land. He was arrested by the military and placed in the guardhouse.
At the council, Mark Chinook and William Chinook of The Dalles tribe and Iso and Stocketly of the Deschutes tribe strongly opposed the treaty.
At the council, the Americans told the Indians:
“We have found that the white man and Indians cannot long live together in peace, that it is better that lines should be drawn so that the white man will know where his land is and the Indian where his land is, we may then live without quarreling.”
The Americans told the Indians that the reservation designated for them contained good farming land and that it was close to their fishing stations on the Columbia River. Both statements were false. The negotiator then had the translators read the prepared treaty to the Indians. In his chapter in Indians, Superintendents, and Councils: Northwestern Indian Policy, 1850-1855, Bruce Wendt notes:
“Obviously, he came not so much to negotiate a fair and equitable treaty for both sides but to intimidate the Indians and force them to accept the dictates of the United States.”
In the treaty with the Wasco and Warm Springs tribes, signed on June 25, 1855, and ratified by the U.S. Senate on March 8, 1859, the tribes ceded about 10 million acres to the United States and retained a reservation of 464,000 acres. The tribes also retained their right to self-government as well as the right to fish and gather food on the ceded lands. With this treaty, traditional tribal lands were opened to non-Indian settlement.
More American Indian histories
Indians 101: The 1855 Walla Walla treaty council
Indians 101: The California treaties of 1851-1852
Indians 101: The 1863 Nez Perce treaty
Indians 201: American Indians and the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo
Indians 101: The 1851 Fort Laramie Treaty
Indians 201: First U.S. treaties with the Navajo
Indians 201: The 1854-1855 Western Washington Treaties
Indians 101: The 1837 Winnebago Treaty