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Pacific NorthwestTreaty

Treaty of Medicine Creek, 1854

At Medicine Creek in 1854, Stevens obtained the first Puget Sound cession: about 2.5 million acres, small reservations and fishing rights.

Signed
December 26, 1854
Senate
Ratified March 3, 1855
Land given up
about 1.9 million acres
The land in this treaty’s record. Open on the map

What happened

On December 26, 1854, Governor Isaac Stevens signed the Treaty of Medicine Creek with chiefs and delegates of the Nisqually, Puyallup, Steilacoom, Squaxin Island and related bands. The tribes ceded their lands around the head of Puget Sound. Reserved were an island of about two sections and two tracts of 1,280 acres each. The treaty promised $32,500 over twenty years and secured "the right of taking fish, at all usual and accustomed grounds and stations" in common with citizens.

HistoryLink says Stevens had the treaty read and explained only in Chinook Jargon, a trade vocabulary of a few hundred words. Leaders such as Leschi objected that the Nisqually and Puyallup reservations lacked river access and farmland. HistoryLink concludes that "not all those named actually signed." The National Park Service says Stevens pressured Puget Sound tribes into signing treaties. The Senate ratified it on March 3, 1855.

HistoryLink says dissatisfaction led to armed conflict, and in 1856 Stevens agreed to larger Puyallup and Nisqually reservations. In Puyallup Tribe v. Department of Game (1968) and Washington v. Fishing Vessel Association (1979), the Supreme Court took up the treaty fishing rights.

Good to know. Estimates of the ceded area differ: HistoryLink says some 2.5 million acres, while another estimate is about 2.24 million acres.

Summarized with AI assistance from 5 sources and checked against their words; not yet reviewed by historians or by the nations. Report an error

What the sources say, and how this was checked

Supported by the sources below; some details rest on one source.

  1. the overwhelming historical evidence indicates that not all those named actually signed, largely because they objected to the inadequate reservations provided the Puyallup and Nisqually.Treaty of Medicine Creek, 1854 (HistoryLink Essay 5253)
  2. Stevens had Shaw read and explain the treaty only in the Chinook Jargon.South Puget Sound tribes sign Treaty of Medicine Creek on December 26, 1854 (HistoryLink Essay 5254)
  3. Stevens pressured Puget Sound tribes into signing treaties that confined them to reservationsWalla Walla Council (1855), National Park Service
  4. Treaty of Medicine Creek (10 Stat. 1132); Treaty of Point Elliott (12 Stat. 927); Treaty of Point No Point (12 Stat. 933)Washington v. Washington State Commercial Passenger Fishing Vessel Ass'n, 443 U.S. 658 (1979)
  5. a construction of the treaty of Medicine Creek made with the Puyallup and Nisqually Indians in 1854 (10 Stat. 1132)Puyallup Tribe v. Department of Game, 391 U.S. 392 (1968)

Research notes. Acreage estimates differ: HistoryLink says the ceded land encompassed some 2.5 million acres; other estimates are lower. The treaty reserved two 1,280-acre tracts and an island of about two sections. HistoryLink says Stevens agreed to larger Puyallup and Nisqually reservations in August 1856, and they were proclaimed on January 20, 1857.

What the treaty did to the land

About 1.9 million acres given up. Each shape is a numbered area in the federal government’s 1899 record of land cessions.

What happened next

Everything the record holds about this land and this treaty, in order: what earlier agreements said, what this one did, and what the United States, the courts and the nations did afterwards.

  1. 1854

    This treaty

    About 1.9 million acres ceded to the United States by the Niskwali, Puyallup and others. Land set aside as a reservation for the Niskwali, Puyallup and others

    At Medicine Creek in 1854, Stevens obtained the first Puget Sound cession: about 2.5 million acres, small reservations and fishing rights.

  2. 1854

    Promise broken

    Treaty of Medicine Creek (1854): small reservations, the Nisqually War, Leschi, and the Puyallup claims

    Medicine Creek treaty (1854) promised reservations, payments and fishing rights; reservations were seen as too small, war followed, and Leschi was hanged.

  3. 1855

    This treaty

    Ratified by the Senate

  4. 1900

    Promise broken

    Stevens treaty fishing rights: Boldt (1974) and Washington v. Fishing Vessel Ass'n (1979)

    Treaties guaranteed tribal fishing at usual places 'in common with' citizens; Washington limited it for decades until the 1974 Boldt ruling.

  5. 1968

    In court

    Puyallup Tribe v. Department of Game (Puyallup I)

    In 1968 the Supreme Court held Washington may regulate treaty fishing for conservation if its rules are appropriate and do not discriminate against Indians.

  6. 1974

    In court

    United States v. Washington (Boldt decision)

    In 1974 Judge Boldt held that "in common with" lets western Washington treaty tribes take up to half the harvestable fish.

  7. 1979

    In court

    Washington v. Washington State Commercial Passenger Fishing Vessel Ass'n

    In 1979 the Court held the 1850s treaties secure tribes a share of each fish run, divided in roughly equal shares.

  8. 1989

    Land returned

    Puyallup Tribe Land Claims Settlement

    Congress approved a negotiated settlement in 1989 giving the Puyallup Tribe in Washington State land in trust, cash funds and clarity on disputed claims.

  9. 2018

    In court

    Washington v. United States (culverts case)

    An equally divided Supreme Court in 2018 left in place a ruling that Washington must fix state culverts that violate tribal treaty fishing rights.

The law behind it

The legal ideas behind the decisions, and related records without a date. Court cases and laws with a date are in what happened next, above.

  • Legal doctrine

    preemption

    Federal law displaces state law in Indian country when state action conflicts with federal and tribal interests, under White Mountain Apache v. Bracker (1980).

  • Legal doctrine

    state jurisdiction

    The Supreme Court has swung between shielding reservations from state law in Worcester and Williams v. Lee, and allowing state prosecutions in Castro-Huerta.

  • Legal doctrine

    treaty fishing rights

    Treaties that reserved fishing rights have been read as rights the tribes kept, not gifts: Winans (1905), Fishing Vessel (1979) and Mille Lacs (1999).

  • Legal doctrine

    canons of construction

    Courts read ambiguous treaties in favor of tribes and as the Indians would have understood them, rules the Supreme Court has repeated for more than a century.

  • Legal doctrine

    reserved rights

    Treaties are 'a grant of right from' tribes, not to them: reserved hunting and fishing rights survived cessions, statehood and even termination.

Who is doing the work today

The nations connected to this treaty come first, then groups returning land and defending treaty rights. Support goes directly to them.

This history belongs to living nations. Start with them:

Working with these nations

Native legal and land defense, nationally

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Sources

  1. digitreaties.org/treaties/treaty/12013179reference work
Research notes

Acreage per Wikipedia (pointer); Kappler page. First of the Stevens treaties. Basis of the Boldt decision (United States v. Washington, 384 F. Supp. 312 (W.D. Wash. 1974)). Ratification detail: 1855-03-03 (Senate resolution; verified in 10 Stat. 1132 by V2); President ratified 1855-04-10

Shapes are approximate and are not legal descriptions of land, title or jurisdiction.