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Pacific NorthwestTreaty

Treaty with the Tribes of Middle Oregon (Warm Springs), 1855

In June 1855 the Warm Springs and Wasco bands ceded their Columbia River country for a reservation, now 644,000 acres.

Signed
June 25, 1855
Senate
Ratified March 8, 1859
Land given up
about 10 million acres
Land set aside for the nations
about 630,000 acres
The land in this treaty’s record. Open on the map

What happened

On June 25, 1855, at Wasco near The Dalles, Superintendent Joel Palmer signed a treaty with the chiefs and head men of the confederated bands of the Walla Walla and the Wasco, living in Middle Oregon. They ceded their country, bounded by the Columbia River, the Cascade crest, the 44th parallel and the Blue Mountains. A reservation was set apart "until otherwise directed by the President." The treaty secured the exclusive right to fish in streams on the reservation and fishing at other "usual and accustomed stations" in common with citizens. The United States promised annual payments falling from $8,000 to $2,000 over twenty years.

The Oregon Blue Book says the tribes ceded ten million acres while reserving rights to fish, hunt, gather berries and dig roots, and that the Warm Springs Reservation is now 644,000 acres.

A 2019 Senate report says that in 1865 a supplemental treaty restricted off-reservation rights, and it recommended a bill to nullify the 1865 treaty and leave the 1855 treaty intact. The OSU treaty database lists ratification on March 8, 1859.

Good to know. The 644,000 acres is the reservation's present size, as the Oregon Blue Book gives it; the treaty itself states no acreage. The treaty was ratified March 8, 1859, and proclaimed April 18, 1859.

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. shall, until otherwise directed by the President of the United States, be set apart as a residence for said IndiansTreaty with the Tribes of Middle Oregon, 1855 (Oklahoma State University Tribal Treaties Database)
  2. the Tribes ceded to the U.S. ten million acres of their ancestral homeland in OregonConfederated Tribes of Warm Springs Reservation, Oregon Blue Book
  3. thereby leaving the 1855 Treaty intactSenate Report 116-45, To nullify the Supplemental Treaty with the Confederated Tribes of the Warm Springs Reservation

Research notes. The Oregon Blue Book calls the 644,000-acre reservation 'established' by the 1855 treaty, but that is its present size; the treaty reserved a tract 'until otherwise directed' and gives no acreage. The Blue Book says the tribes ceded ten million acres. The 2019 Senate report recommended a bill (S. 832) to nullify the 1865 supplemental treaty; the report itself does not say whether it became law.

What the treaty did to the land

About 10 million acres given up. about 630,000 acres recognized, kept or set aside for the nations. 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. 1855

    This treaty

    About 10 million acres ceded to the United States by the Confederated Tribes of middle Oregon. About 630,000 acres set aside as a reservation for the Confederated Tribes of middle Oregon

    In June 1855 the Warm Springs and Wasco bands ceded their Columbia River country for a reservation, now 644,000 acres.

  2. 1859

    This treaty

    Ratified by the Senate

  3. 1894

    Land record

    Earlier terms confirmed for the land of the Confederated Tribes of middle Oregon

    The 1899 record: “Declares the northern boundary of the Warm Springs reservation to be that part of the line run and surveyed by T. B. Handley, in the year 1871”

    area 370

  4. 1969

    In court

    Sohappy v. Smith (Belloni decision)

    A 1969 federal ruling limited Oregon's regulation of Columbia River treaty fishing and said the tribes were owed a fair share.

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

    reserved rights

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

  • 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).

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:

Native legal and land defense, nationally

Gifts go straight to each organization; this atlas takes nothing. Listing is not endorsement: how organizations are listed.

Sources

  1. treaties.okstate.edu/treaties/treaty-with-the-tribes-of-middle-oregon-1855-0714reference work
    Ratified Mar. 8, 1859. | Proclaimed Apr. 18, 1859.
  2. digitreaties.org/treaties/treaty/101784625reference work

Corrections to this record

  • date ratified was listed as “”; corrected from treaties.okstate.eduRatified Mar. 8, 1859. | Proclaimed Apr. 18, 1859.
Research notes

Stat./Kappler.

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