Treaty with the Klamath, Modoc and Yahooskin Band of Snake, 1864
The 1864 treaty ceded Klamath, Modoc and Yahooskin lands for a reservation and annuities; the Supreme Court later read its hunting terms.
- Signed
- October 14, 1864
- Senate
- Ratified July 2, 1866
- Land given up
- about 14 million acres
- Land set aside for the nations
- about 1.2 million acres
What happened
What happened
On October 14, 1864, at Klamath Lake, Oregon, J. W. Perit Huntington and William Logan signed with chiefs and headmen of the Klamath, Modoc and Yahooskin band of Snake. The tribes ceded all the country they claimed, described by boundaries beginning at the 44th parallel on the Cascade summit. A reservation on the east shore of the middle Klamath Lake was set apart, and the tribes agreed to move there immediately after ratification.
White people could not live on it. The tribes kept the exclusive right to fish its streams and lakes and gather roots, seeds and berries. The United States reserved rights of way for roads and railroads. Payments were $8,000 a year for five years, then $5,000, then $3,000, plus $35,000 more. The Senate ratified in 1866, and the treaty was proclaimed in 1870.
In Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife v. Klamath Indian Tribe (1985), the Supreme Court said the treaty ceded aboriginal title and secured the right to fish within the reservation. It held that a 1901 agreement diminished the reservation, so the tribe's treaty right to hunt and fish free of state rules did not carry over to the lands it gave up in 1901, outside the smaller reservation.
Good to know. Sources conflict on the size of the cession, so no acreage is given.
Summarized with AI assistance from 2 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.
the exclusive right of taking fish in the streams and lakes, included in said reservation, and of gathering edible roots, seeds, and berries
Tribal Treaties Database (Oklahoma State University): Treaty with the Klamath, etc., 1864certain Indian Tribes (now collectively known as respondent Klamath Indian Tribe) ceded their aboriginal title to certain lands in Oregon to the United States
Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife v. Klamath Indian Tribe, 473 U.S. 753 (1985) (Cornell LII)
Research notes. Neither the treaty text nor the 1985 opinion gives an acreage for the 1864 cession, and published figures conflict, so none is stated. Later federal termination of the tribe is not covered by the sources cited here. The Klamath Tribes' own account is not quoted.
What the treaty did to the land
About 14 million acres given up. about 1.2 million 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.
ceded to the United Statesabout 14 million acres
Land of the Klamath, Modok and others in California and Oregon, ceded 1864 (area 462)
Ceded by the Klamath, Modok and Yahooskin band of Snake Indians in the 1864 Klamath Lake treaty, land in Oregon and California.
set aside as a reservationabout 1.2 million acres
Reservation of the Klamath, Modok and others in Oregon (area 463)
Kept by the Klamath, Modok and Yahooskin band of Snake Indians as the Klamath reservation in the 1864 treaty; not a cession.
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.
- 1864
This treaty
About 14 million acres ceded to the United States by the Klamath, Modok and others. About 1.2 million acres set aside as a reservation for the Klamath, Modok and others
The 1864 treaty ceded Klamath, Modoc and Yahooskin lands for a reservation and annuities; the Supreme Court later read its hunting terms.
- 1866
This treaty
Ratified by the Senate
- 1953
Related history
House Concurrent Resolution 108 (termination policy)
House Concurrent Resolution 108 in 1953 declared Congress's sense that named tribes should be freed from federal supervision at the earliest possible time.
- 1953
Related history
Public Law 280
Public Law 280 (1953) gave six states criminal and civil jurisdiction in Indian country; a 1968 law later required tribal consent for new assumptions.
- 1953
Related history
Termination policy: House Concurrent Resolution 108 (1953) and Public Law 280
In 1953 Congress adopted House Concurrent Resolution 108, calling for an end to federal ties with tribes, and Public Law 280, extending state jurisdiction.
- 1954
Law
Klamath Termination Act
Congress ended federal supervision of the Klamath Tribes in 1954, then restored federal recognition in 1986.
- 1954
Promise broken
Klamath, Modoc and Yahooskin: the 1864 treaty and termination (1954-1961)
The 1864 Klamath treaty kept the tribes' fishing rights on a reservation; Congress ended federal recognition in 1954.
- 1968
Related history
Menominee Tribe of Indians v. United States
Menominee hunting and fishing rights under the 1854 Treaty of Wolf River survived the 1954 Termination Act, the Court held in 1968.
- 1985
In court
Oregon Dept. of Fish & Wildlife v. Klamath Indian Tribe
The Klamath Tribe's 1901 cession ended its special right to hunt and fish free of Oregon's rules on ceded land, the Court held.
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
abrogation
Abrogation is Congress overriding a treaty: Lone Wolf (1903) allowed it, but modern courts require clear evidence Congress chose to break the treaty.
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
termination
Congress moved in 1953 to end federal supervision of tribes; the Supreme Court later held the Menominee Termination Act left treaty hunting rights intact.
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.
Who is doing the work
This history belongs to living nations. Start with them:
Native legal and land defense, nationally
- Native American Rights Fund (NARF) Native-led Litigation and legal advocacy for tribal sovereignty, treaty rights, land and resources Give on their site Website
- NDN Collective (LANDBACK Campaign) Native-led LANDBACK campaign (launched 2020; Mount Rushmore closure and return of Black Hills public lands), Indigenous… Give on their site Website
- Indian Land Tenure Foundation (ILTF) Native-led Land recovery and control by tribes and individual Indian landowners Website
- Decolonizing Wealth Project (Indigenous Earth Fund; California Tribal Land Return) Native-led Reparative philanthropy Give on their site Website
Gifts go straight to each organization; this atlas takes nothing. Listing is not endorsement: how organizations are listed.
Sources
Sources
- digitreaties.org/treaties/treaty/178907837reference work
Research notes
Stat. page per Stat. vol. 16 OCR index (listed there as an 'agreement' entry); acreage and Kappler page. Klamath Termination Act 1954. Ratification detail: 1866-07-02 (Senate consent (with amendments); read from the Stat. margin by V2).
Shapes are approximate and are not legal descriptions of land, title or jurisdiction.