Walla Walla Council

The Walla Walla Council.

The Walla Walla Council (1855) was a meeting in the Pacific Northwest between the United States and sovereign tribal nations of the Cayuse, Nez Perce, Umatilla, Walla Walla, and Yakama.[1] The council occurred on May 29 – June 11;[2] the treaties signed at this council on June 9[3] were ratified by the U.S. Senate four years later in 1859.[4]

These treaties codified the constitutional relationship between the people living on the Nez Perce, Umatilla, and Yakama reservations; it was one of the earliest treaties obtained in the Pacific Northwest.

Washington Territory's first governor Isaac I. Stevens secured this treaty, allowing larger portions of the land to be given to the two largest and most powerful tribes: Yakama and Nez Perce; these reservations encompassed most of their traditional hunting grounds. The smaller tribes moved to the smaller of the three reservations. Stevens was able to acquire forty-five thousand square miles (120,000 km2) of land.[5]

The United States government later violated these treaties, first by failing to pay the agreed sum for the ceded land,[6] and later by reducing the Nez Perce reservation by 90% and forcibly removing the Nez Perce from their lands affirmed by the 1855 treaty.[7]

  1. ^ Trafzer, Clifford E. (Fall 2005). "Legacy of the Walla Walla Council, 1855". Oregon Historical Quarterly. 106 (3): 398–411. doi:10.1353/ohq.2005.0006. ISSN 0030-4727. S2CID 166019157.
  2. ^ "Walla Walla 2020 | Walla Walla Treaty Council of 1855". ww2020.net. Retrieved 14 December 2015.
  3. ^ "Umatilla Relationships with US - Making Treaties". www.trailtribes.org. Retrieved 14 December 2015.
  4. ^ United States Senate (1859). Journal of the Executive Proceedings of the Senate of the United States of America v.11. p. 82.
  5. ^ Schwantes, Carlos Arnaldo (1996). The Pacific Northwest. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press. ISBN 0-8032-4225-5.
  6. ^ Lapwai, Mailing Address: Nez Perce National Historical Park 39063 US Hwy 95; Us, ID 83540-9715 Phone: 208 843-7001 Contact. "Aftermath - Nez Perce National Historical Park (U.S. National Park Service)". www.nps.gov. Retrieved 15 June 2024.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  7. ^ "Treaty with the Nez Perces 1855". CRITFC. Retrieved 15 June 2024.