We want to know how the government came by this land. Is the government mightier than our Spirit-Father or is he our Spirit-Father? Oh, what have we done that he is to take all from us that he gave us? His White children have come and taken all our mountains, and all our valleys, and all our rivers; and now, because he has given us this little place without our asking him for it, he sends you here to tell us to go away.
— Chief Egan as quoted in “Paiute Wadatika, Ma-Ni-Pu-Neen: The History and Cultural Background of the Burns Paiute Tribe,” provided by the Burns Paiute.
The Northern Paiute fished, gathered roots and berries, and hunted in the Columbia-Snake River drainage. They fished all along the Columbia and Snake Rivers, joining Plateau people in netting and harpooning salmon, sturgeon and lamprey eels. Their relationship with the neighboring Plateau people extended beyond simply sharing resources to trading them at marts such as The Dalles.
During the white settlement of Oregon, Northern Paiute resisted removal. The Paiute remained in Warner and Harney valleys and continued their traditional subsistence patterns until Congress established the Malheur Reservation in 1872. Originally intended for all the bands in southeastern Oregon, the federal government abandoned the reservation and opened it for white settlement in 1878 after most Indians refused to move there. Many Northern Paiutes fought in the Bannock War of 1878. The government removed bands to the Yakima, Umatilla, and Warm Springs Reservations after they surrendered. Some Paiutes stayed in the Malheur district. Finally, in 1933, the government purchased thirty-three acres and established the Burns Colony of the Northern Paiute. Dams on the Columbia River like Bonneville and The Dalles have significantly altered the traditional fishing practices of the Northern Paiute.
