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Treaty

Snake (Woll-pah-pe) at Sprague River Valley, Oregon (1865)

In 1865 the Woll-pah-pe band of Snake Indians ceded their country in Oregon and agreed to move to the Klamath reservation.

Signed
August 12, 1865
Senate
Ratified
Land given up
about 421,000 acres
The land in this treaty’s record. Open on the map

What happened

On August 12, 1865, in the Sprague River Valley in Oregon, J. W. Perit Huntington, the superintendent of Indian affairs in Oregon, signed with chiefs and headmen of the Woll-pah-pe tribe of Snake Indians. The tribe ceded and relinquished the country it occupied. The treaty describes it as running from Snow Peak in the Blue Mountain range, near the heads of the Grande Ronde River and the north fork of the John Day River, south to Crooked River and Harney Lake.

The tribe agreed to "remove forthwith" to the reservation set up by the October 1864 treaty with the Klamath, Modoc and Yahooskin Snake. No member could leave the reservation for any purpose without the written consent of the agent or superintendent. The tribe also agreed not to sell arms or ammunition to any tribe hostile to the United States.

The United States agreed to spend $5,000 to fence, break up and cultivate land, and to supply seeds, tools, animals and first-year subsistence. It also promised $2,000 a year for five years and then $1,200 a year for ten years, and the use of the physician, mechanics, farmers, teachers, mills and schools provided under the 1864 treaty. The treaty calls for allotments to each family when the President judges the time right. The sources here give no historical context and do not trace later events.

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 said tribe agree to remove forthwith to the reservation designated by the treaty concluded on the 14th [15th] of October, 1864Tribal Treaties Database (Oklahoma State University): Treaty with the Snake, 1865
  2. no member of said tribe shall leave said reservation for any purpose without the written consent of the agent or superintendentTribal Treaties Database (Oklahoma State University): Treaty with the Snake, 1865
  3. the sum of five thousand dollars to enable the Indians to fence, break up, and cultivate a sufficient quantity of landTribal Treaties Database (Oklahoma State University): Treaty with the Snake, 1865
  4. Beginning at the Snow Peak in the summit of the Blue Mountain rangeTribal Treaties Database (Oklahoma State University): Treaty with the Snake, 1865

Research notes. This account covers the signed terms only; the treaty text does not say why the United States sought it or what happened afterward. The treaty itself gives the 1864 treaty date as '14th [15th] of October'.

What the treaty did to the land

About 421,000 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.

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-snake-1865-0876reference work
    Treaty with the Snake, 1865 Aug. 12, 1865. | 14 Stat., 683.

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