Treaty with the Yakama

Treaty with the Yakama
Name	Treaty with the Yakama
Date signed	1855
Location signed	Walla Walla
Parties	United States; Yakama Nation
Language	English
Ratified	1859

Treaty with the Yakama is an 1855 agreement between the United States and leaders of the Yakama Nation that established reservation boundaries and ceded lands in the Columbia River plateau. The treaty was negotiated during a period of expanding Oregon Territory settlement, concurrent with multiple 1850s Pacific Northwest treaties that reshaped relations among United States Indian agents, territorial officials, and Indigenous nations. It remains a focal point in contemporary disputes over fishing, hunting, land, and water rights involving federal courts and tribal governments.

Background

In the early 1850s, tensions on the Columbia River and Snake River corridors increased as settlers from Oregon Trail migrations, California Gold Rush prospectors, and Hudson's Bay Company traders encroached on ancestral Yakama lands. Territorial officials including Isaac Stevens and military officers such as Joel Palmer and George Wright pursued treaties to open land for Washington Territory settlement and railroad routes, while navigating conflicts sparked by incidents like the Yakima War and the Whitman Massacre. Missionary activities by figures linked to Missionaries in Oregon and trading posts at Fort Vancouver and Fort Simcoe had altered Indigenous economies and alliances among groups like the Walla Walla people, Umatilla people, Nez Perce, and Cayuse. Federal Indian policy under presidents including Franklin Pierce and administrators from the Bureau of Indian Affairs set the framework for Stevens' treaty expeditions across the Pacific Northwest.

Negotiation and Signing

Negotiations convened at Walla Walla with Isaac Ingalls Stevens representing the United States and a council of Yakama leaders including prominent headmen such as Yakama chiefs from bands of the Klickitat, Palouse, and Wasco-affiliated groups. Stevens orchestrated multiple 1855 treaty councils alongside concurrent treaties with the Umatilla and Walla Walla nations, invoking Indian Removal era precedents and offering annuities administered by the Bureau of Indian Affairs. Interpreters, military escorts from units tied to Fort Colvile and Fort Walla Walla, and settlers from towns like The Dalles observed the signing. The document was signed in June 1855 and later presented to the United States Senate for ratification amid debates in the Congress of the United States.

Terms and Provisions

The treaty established a reservation for the Yakama along parts of the Yakama River basin and ceded large tracts of territory east of the Cascade Range to the United States. It guaranteed hunting and fishing rights "in common" on open and unoccupied lands, obligating United States officials to provide annuities, agricultural tools, and schools administered through the Bureau of Indian Affairs. The text included provisions about reservation boundaries, allotment of land parcels to individual Yakama households, and mechanisms for dispute resolution via federal Indian agents and federal courts such as the United States District Court for the District of Oregon and later the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Washington. Ratification required the Senate and signature by the President of the United States.

Immediate Aftermath and Implementation

After ratification, federal and territorial agents implemented the treaty through actions at posts like Fort Simcoe and Fort Walla Walla, while settler migration accelerated along routes such as the Oregon Trail and proposed Northern Pacific Railway corridors. Conflicts over access to traditional fishing sites on the Columbia River and Yakima River led to enforcement actions by territorial militias and interventions by military leaders tied to Department of the Pacific commands. The Bureau of Indian Affairs distributed annuities and attempted to establish schools influenced by models from the Indian boarding school movement, and land surveys by United States General Land Office agents delineated reservation parcels, often provoking disputes with Yakama leaders and allied peoples like the Palouse and Nez Perce.

Legal Disputes and Treaty Rights

Throughout the 20th century, legal battles invoked the treaty's language on reserved rights, leading to landmark litigation in courts including the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit and the Supreme Court of the United States. Cases and administrative actions referenced precedents from earlier treaty litigation such as McGirt v. Oklahoma-era doctrines and invoked statutes like the Nonintercourse Act. Fisheries litigation involved parties including the State of Washington and tribes represented by entities like the Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission, yielding decisions that reaffirmed tribal fishing rights and led to co-management regimes exemplified by rulings in the era of United States v. Washington and subsequent consent decrees. Water rights adjudications drew on principles from Winters v. United States and state adjudication systems overseen by tribunals such as the Washington State Supreme Court.

Impact on the Yakama People

The treaty reshaped Yakama social, economic, and political life by concentrating populations onto the reservation and altering patterns of seasonal round subsistence tied to salmon runs on the Columbia River Basin. Disruptions from settler land claims, timber exploitation by companies such as those operating in the Pacific Northwest timber industry, and infrastructure projects including Bonneville Dam and other Columbia River Treaty-era developments affected fish populations and access to cultural sites. Yakama leaders, councils, and institutions including the contemporary Yakama Nation government mobilized legal, political, and cultural strategies involving advocacy before entities like the United Nations forums, regional environmental organizations, and federal agencies to defend treaty rights, preserve language, and sustain traditional practices. Social effects paralleled those in other Indigenous nations confronted by allotment policies like the Dawes Act.

Legacy and Commemoration

The treaty's legacy persists in contemporary law, policy, and public memory, commemorated at sites such as Fort Walla Walla Museum and discussed in curriculum at institutions including Washington State University and Whitman College. Interpretations of the treaty inform resource co-management between the Yakama Nation and agencies like the National Park Service and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and have influenced broader Indigenous rights movements connected to cases before the Supreme Court of the United States. Annual observances by the Yakama and partner tribes, commemorative markers, and interdisciplinary scholarship involving historians from University of Washington and legal scholars from Harvard Law School contribute to ongoing reassessment of the treaty's meaning in contexts ranging from environmental law to Indigenous sovereignty debates.

Category:Yakama Nation treaties Category:1855 treaties Category:Washington Territory history