This section contains the treaties and executive orders pertinent to the Columbia Basin tribes. In the following treaties Indian tribes reserved many rights, including the right to fish, and in return, relinquished hundreds of thousands of acres of their land to the United States government. These treaties are the foundation of the legal decisions which uphold Indian fishing rights archived in the legal documents section.
TREATIES
- Indian Council in the Valley of the Walla Walla, by Lawrence Kip, 1855
- Their plumes fluttered about [the Nez Perce], while below, skins and trinkets of all kinds of fantastic embellishments flaunted in the sunshine. Trained from early childhood almost to live upon horseback, they sat upon their fine animals as if they were centaurs. Their horses, too, were arrayed in the most glaring finery. They were painted with such colors as formed the greatest contrast; the white being smeared with crimson in fantastic figures, and the dark colored streaked with white clay. Bead and fringes of gaudy colors were hanging from the bridles, while the plumes of eagle feathers interwoven with the mane and tail, fluttered as the breeze swept over them, and completed, their wild and fantastic appearance.
- Yakima Treaty, 1855
- The exclusive right of taking fish in all the streams, where running through or bordering said reservation, is further secured to said confederated tribes and bands of Indians, as also the right of taking fish at all usual and accustomed places, in common with the citizens of the Territory, and of erecting temporary buildings for curing them; together with the privilege of hunting, gathering roots and berries, and pasturing their horses and cattle upon open and unclaimed land.
- Tribes of Middle Oregon Treaty, 1855
- Provided, also, that the exclusive right of taking fish in the streams running through and bordering said reservation is hereby secured to said Indians; and at all other usual and accustomed stations, in common with citizens of the United States, and of erecting suitable houses for curing the same; also the privilege of hunting, gathering roots and berries, and pasturing their stock on unclaimed lands, in common with citizens, is secured to them.
- Cayuse, Umatilla, and Walla Walla Treaty, 1855
- The exclusive right of taking fish in the streams running through and bordering said reservation is hereby secured to said Indians, and at all other usual and accustomed stations in common with citizens of the United States, and of erecting suitable buildings for curing the same; the privilege of hunting, gathering roots and berries and pasturing their stock on unclaimed lands in common with citizens, is also secured to them.
- Hell Gate Treaty, 1855
- The exclusive right of taking fish in all the streams running through or bordering said reservation is further secured to said Indians; as also the right of taking fish at all usual and accustomed places, in common with citizens of the Territory, and of erecting temporary buildings for curing; together with the privilege of hunting, gathering roots and berries, and pasturing their horses and cattle upon open and unclaimed land.
- Blackfeet Treaty of Fort Benton, 1855
- The Blackfoot Nation consent and agree that all that portion of the country recognized and defined by the treaty of Laramie as Blackfoot territory, lying within lines drawn from the Hell Gate or Medicine Rock Passes in the main range of the Rocky Mountains, in an easterly direction to the nearest source of the Muscle Shell River, thence to the mouth of Twenty-five Yard Creek, thence up the Yellowstone River to its northern source, and thence along the main range of the Rocky Mountains, in a northerly direction, to the point of beginning, shall be a common hunting-ground for ninety-nine years, where all the nations, tribes and bands of Indians, parties to this treaty, may enjoy equal and uninterupted privileges of hunting, fishing and gathering fruit, grazing animals, curing meat and dressing robes.
- Nez Perce Treaty, 1855
- The exclusive right of taking fish in all the streams where running through or bordering said reservation is further secured to said Indians: as also the right of taking fish at all usual and accustomed places in common with citizens of the territory, and of erecting temporary buildings for curing, together with the privilege of hunting, gathering roots and berries, and pasturing their horses and cattle upon open and unclaimed land.
- Nez Perce Treaty, 1863 (Diminished)
- The said Nez Perce tribe agree to relinquish, and do hereby relinquish, to the United States the lands heretofore reserved for the use and occupation of the said tribe, saving and excepting so much thereof as is described in article II. for a new reservation.
- Nez Perce Treaty, 1868 (Amendment to the 1863 treaty)
- Peace Treaty between the Spokane and the United States, 1858
- Hostilities shall cease between the United States and the Spokane Nation of Indians from and after this date.
- Treaty of Ruby Valley, 1864
- Shoshone Bannock Treaty, 1868
- They shall have the right to hunt on the unoccupied lands of the United States so long as game may be found there on, and so long as peace subsists among the whites and Indians, on the borders of the hunting districts.
- Columbia Treaty with Chief Joseph, 1883 (Chief Moses agrees to move to the Colville Reservation
- All this on condition that Chief Moses shall remove to the Colville Reservation and relinquish all claim upon the Government for any land situated elsewhere.
EXECUTIVE ORDERS
Columbia Reservation, 1873 (Diminished)
Moses Reservation, 1885 (Abolished)
