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Treaty

Kalapuya and Others (Confederated Bands of the Willamette Valley) at Dayton, Oregon Territory (1855)

In 1855 Willamette Valley chiefs ceded their country between the Columbia River and the Calapooia Mountains for annuities and a promised home.

Signed
January 22, 1855
Senate
Ratified

What happened

The Willamette Valley treaty was made at Dayton, Oregon Territory, between Superintendent Joel Palmer and chiefs of the confederated bands of Kalapuya (Calapooias) and others. Palmer and the first chiefs signed on January 4, 1855; more bands added their assent on January 9, 10 and 22.

Article 1 has the bands cede "all their right, title, and claim to all and every part of the country" inside boundaries running from the Columbia River south, west to the Coast Range summit, along the Calapooia Mountains and back north along the Cascade summit. They could stay inside the ceded country on temporary reserves until a permanent home was designated, and then agreed to vacate and move to it.

Article 2 promised annual payments that decline over twenty years: $10,000 a year for five years, then $8,000, $6,500 and $5,500. It added $50,000 for goods, stock, tools, mills, shops, schools and removal costs. Article 3 added a physician, school-teacher, blacksmith and farming superintendent for five years after removal.

Article 4 let the President survey the permanent home into lots of twenty to eighty or more acres by family size and issue patents that could not be sold or leased for more than two years. Ratified March 3, 1855, proclaimed April 10, 1855.

Good to know. Palmer and the first chiefs signed on January 4, 1855; further bands assented on January 9 and 10, and the Santiam bands on January 22, the date the treaty is usually given.

Summarized with AI assistance from 3 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

Well supported by the sources below.

  1. cede to the United States all their right, title, and claim to all and every part of the country included in the following boundariesTribal Treaties Database (Oklahoma State University): Kalapuya and Others (Confederated Bands of the Willamette Valley) at Dayton, Oregon Territory (1855)
  2. Ten thousand dollars per annum for the first five years, commencing on the first day of September, 1855.Tribal Treaties Database (Oklahoma State University): Kalapuya and Others (Confederated Bands of the Willamette Valley) at Dayton, Oregon Territory (1855)
  3. the tract shall not be aliened or leased for a longer time than two years, and shall be exempt from levy, sale, or forfeitureTribal Treaties Database (Oklahoma State University): Kalapuya and Others (Confederated Bands of the Willamette Valley) at Dayton, Oregon Territory (1855)

Research notes. This account is based on the treaty text alone, so it describes the signed terms, not what happened afterward. The treaty was signed in stages: January 4, 1855, with assents on January 9, 10 and 22 (the Santiam bands).

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.

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.

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Sources

  1. treaties.okstate.edu/treaties/treaty-with-the-kalapuya-etc-1855-0665reference work
    Treaty with the Kalapuya, etc., 1855 Jan. 22, 1855. | 10 Stats., 1143.

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