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Treaty

Molala (Molel) at Dayton, Oregon Territory (1855)

In December 1855 the Molala ceded their Cascade foothills country and agreed to move to a reservation, with the rights promised to the Umpqua and Kalapuya.

Signed
December 21, 1855
Senate
Ratified
Land given up
about 1.0 million acres
The land in this treaty’s record. Open on the map

What happened

On December 21, 1855, at Dayton, Oregon Territory, Joel Palmer signed an agreement with the chiefs and head men of the Molala (Molel) tribe. The Molala ceded their claim to a tract of Oregon Territory that began at Scott's Peak and ran along the eastern edge of the lands bought in 1853 and 1854 from the Cow Creek, the Umpqua and Calapooia, and the Chasta, Scoton and Grave Creek bands, up to the Cascade crest. Article 3 provides that the Indians would remove to a reservation. The United States agreed to bear the expense of removal and to give rations.

Article 2 secured to the Molala the rights and privileges promised by treaty to the Umpqua and Calapooia. Article 6 set aside $12,000 to buy out white settlers' titles and improvements in the Grand Round Valley, where the Indians were to be encamped. The OSU treaty database lists ratification on March 8, 1859.

The Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians' history says the ancestors of its members were forced to sign seven treaties and that in January 1856 Palmer removed the Umpquas, Kalapuyas and Molallas to a temporary camp on the south fork of the Yamhill River, now Grand Ronde. That tribal history ties the removal policy to a plan to confederate scattered tribes on one reservation away from settlers.

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

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

  1. hereby cede to the United States all their right, title, interest and claim to all that part of Oregon TerritoryTreaty with the Molala, 1855 (Oklahoma State University Tribal Treaties Database)
  2. Joel Palmer organized a removal of the Umpquas, Kalapuyas and Molallas to the temporary camp on the south fork of the Yamhill RiverThe End of Wars & Removal, Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians
  3. our ancestors would be forced to sign a total of seven treatiesThe Western Oregon Treaties of 1853-1855, Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians

Research notes. The Siletz history is a tribal source for the western Oregon peoples as a group; it does not describe the Molala negotiation itself. Article 3 itself ties the removal to the hostilities then under way in southern Oregon. The $12,000 in Article 6 was for buying out settlers' land claims in the Grand Round Valley, not a payment to the Molala. The treaty states no acreage.

What the treaty did to the land

About 1.0 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.

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-molala-1855-0740reference work
    Treaty with the Molala, 1855 Dec. 21, 1855. | 12 Stat., 981.

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