Land area
Land of the Klamath, Modok and others in California and Oregon, ceded 1864 (area 462)
- 1864
Ceded to the United States
By Treaty with the Klamath, Modoc and Yahooskin Band of Snake, 1864
In the record
Ceded by the Klamath, Modok and Yahooskin band of Snake Indians in the 1864 Klamath Lake treaty, land in Oregon and California. The area covers about 14 million acres in what is now California and Oregon.
The 1899 record names Klamath and Yahooskin Band of Snake as the people of this land.
How it was taken: a treaty or agreement. The treaty text records a negotiated cession for annuities and a reservation; none of the sources describe coercion.
Today, Klamath Tribes carries the history of the people named here.
Written from the records linked here; open any of them for its sources.
Shapes come from C. C. Royce’s 1899 maps as georeferenced by the US Forest Service. They are approximate and are not legal descriptions of land. Royce recorded land the United States treated as ceded; the shape does not show a nation’s territory.
Who is doing the work
This history belongs to living nations. Start with them:
Land return and Native-led work nearby
- InterTribal Sinkyone Wilderness Council Nation government Land conservation and return of coastal Sinkyone lands to tribal stewardship (nearly 5,000 acres protected) Give on their site Website
- Koy'o Land Conservancy (Colfax-Todds Valley Consolidated Tribe) Nation government Restoring traditional homelands to tribal members Website
- Kumeyaay Diegueno Land Conservancy (KDLC) Nation government Acquiring and preserving sacred and culturally sensitive lands in Kumeyaay aboriginal territory Give on their site Website
- Mechoopda Indian Tribe of Chico Rancheria Nation government 450 acres (2026), first ancestral land return in the Big Chico Creek watershed
Native legal and land defense, nationally
- Native American Rights Fund (NARF) Native-led Litigation and legal advocacy for tribal sovereignty, treaty rights, land and resources Give on their site Website
- NDN Collective (LANDBACK Campaign) Native-led LANDBACK campaign (launched 2020; Mount Rushmore closure and return of Black Hills public lands), Indigenous… Give on their site Website
- Indian Land Tenure Foundation (ILTF) Native-led Land recovery and control by tribes and individual Indian landowners Website
- Decolonizing Wealth Project (Indigenous Earth Fund; California Tribal Land Return) Native-led Reparative philanthropy Give on their site Website
Gifts go straight to each organization; this atlas takes nothing. Listing is not endorsement: how organizations are listed.
Connections
Links marked “suggested” were matched automatically by name or date and have not yet been reviewed by a person.
Nations named for this land 4
- Klamathas named in the 1899 recordsuggested
- Klamath Tribesmatched by the Forest Service, under reviewsuggested
- Modocmatched by the Forest Service, under reviewsuggested
- Yahooskin Band of Snakeas named in the 1899 recordsuggested
Located in 2
Agreements recorded for this land 1
Sources
- Royce, Indian Land Cessions (1899), Schedule entry dated 1864-10-14primary record
- Kappler, Indian Affairs: Laws and Treaties, text for 1864-10-14primary record
- Royce’s map sheet: Oregon 1 (Library of Congress)primary record
- Royce’s map sheet: California 2 (Library of Congress)primary record
- USDA Forest Service, Tribal Lands Ceded to the United States (digitized Royce maps)reference work
The record’s fields
- Area number in the 1899 record
- 462
- Dates in the 1899 record
- 1864-10-14
- Kind of instrument
- Treaty or agreement
- Peoples as named in the 1899 record
- Klamath; Modok; Snake Indians, Yahooskin band
- States
- CA; OR
- Counties
- Crook; Deschutes; Grant; Harney; Jackson; Klamath; Lake; Modoc; Siskiyou
- Map sheets in the 1899 record
- Oregon 1; California 2
- Geometry
- Approximate shape from Royce’s 1899 maps
Research notes
geometry_role is 'cession' for every USFS feature: no field in the source distinguishes cessions from reservations.
- Kind
- Land area
- Confidence
- Medium