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Pacific NorthwestTreaty

Treaty of Olympia / Quinault River (Quinault, Quileute), 1855-56

The Treaty of Olympia obtained the Olympic coast from the Quinault and Quileute for $25,000 and reservations to be chosen later.

Signed
July 1, 1855
Senate
Ratified March 8, 1859
Land given up
about 1.1 million acres
Land set aside for the nations
about 166,000 acres
The land in this treaty’s record. Open on the map

What happened

Governor Isaac Stevens signed the Treaty of Olympia with chiefs, headmen and delegates of the Quinault and Quileute. HistoryLink says the Quinault signed on July 1, 1855, and the Hoh and Quileute on January 25, 1856. The tribes ceded the coast between the Makah lands and the Chehalis-Quinault ridge. Article 2 provided that tracts "sufficient for their wants" would be selected by the President and surveyed later, and that the tribes would move there within a year of ratification. The United States promised $25,000 in declining payments and secured fishing at "usual and accustomed grounds and stations."

The treaty did not name a reservation. HistoryLink reports Congress ratified it in 1859. The National Park Service says Stevens pressured Puget Sound tribes into signing treaties in 1854 and 1855, and the Supreme Court's 1979 opinion notes that the interpreter used a "chinook jargon" with a simple 300-word vocabulary.

The treaty's fishing clause was among those at issue in Washington v. Fishing Vessel Association (1979).

Good to know. HistoryLink says the Quinault signed on July 1, 1855, and the Hoh and Quileute on January 25, 1856.

Summarized with AI assistance from 4 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. The Treaty of Olympia was signed by representatives of the United States government and the Quinault Indian tribe on July 1, 1855Treaty of Olympia, 1856 (HistoryLink Essay 9791)
  2. a tract or tracts of land sufficient for their wants within the Territory of WashingtonTreaty with the Quinaielt, etc., 1855 (Oklahoma State University Tribal Treaties Database)
  3. Stevens pressured Puget Sound tribes into signing treaties that confined them to reservationsWalla Walla Council (1855), National Park Service
  4. Treaty of Neah Bay (12 Stat. 939); Treaty with the Yakamas (12 Stat. 951); and Treaty of Olympia (12 Stat. 971)Washington v. Washington State Commercial Passenger Fishing Vessel Ass'n, 443 U.S. 658 (1979)

Research notes. The treaty was signed in two sessions: the Quinault on July 1, 1855, and the Hoh and Quileute on January 25, 1856. It was ratified March 8, 1859, and proclaimed April 11, 1859. Because the treaty left the choice of reservation to the President, the Quinault Reservation itself was set apart later and is not covered here. This account does not draw on the Quinault, Quileute or Hoh nations' own published histories.

What the treaty did to the land

About 1.1 million acres given up. about 166,000 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 1.1 million acres ceded to the United States by the Quil-leh-ute and Qui-nai-elt. About 166,000 acres set aside as a reservation for the Quillehute, Quinaielt and others

    The Treaty of Olympia obtained the Olympic coast from the Quinault and Quileute for $25,000 and reservations to be chosen later.

  2. 1859

    This treaty

    Ratified by the Senate

  3. 1873

    Land kept

    About 166,000 acres set aside as a reservation for the Quillehute and Quinaielt

    The 1899 record: “President sets apart enlargement to reserve provided for in treaty of July 1, 1855”

    area 551

  4. 1873

    Land record

    Earlier terms confirmed for the land of the Quil-leh-ute and Qui-nai-elt

    The 1899 record: “"Quinaielt" reserve set apart by Executive order of Nov. 4, 1873, extending the boundaries of the original reserve”

    area 372

  5. 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.

  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. 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

    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.

  • 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-quinaielt-etc-1855-0719reference work
    Ratified Mar. 8, 1859. | Proclaimed, Apr. 11, 1859.
  2. digitreaties.org/treaties/treaty/187804901reference work

Corrections to this record

  • date ratified was listed as “”; corrected from treaties.okstate.eduRatified Mar. 8, 1859. | Proclaimed, Apr. 11, 1859.
Research notes

Stat. page agrees with Stat. vol. 12 OCR index; Kappler page. Signed in two sessions 1855-07-01 (Olympia) and 1856-01-25 (Quinault River).

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