Many Walla Wallas live on the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation. Walla Wallas share land and a governmental structure with the Cayuse and the Umatilla tribes as part of the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla. The reservation is located in the area of Pendleton, Oregon, United States, near the Blue Mountains. Some Walla Wallas are also enrolled in the federally recognized Confederated Tribes and Bands of the Yakama Nation.
Walla Walla Tribe
The people are a Sahaptin-speaking tribe that traditionally inhabited the interior Columbia River region of present-day northwestern United States. For centuries before the coming of European settlers, the Walla Wallas, consisting of three principal bands, occupied the territory along the Walla Walla River and along the confluence of the Snake and Columbia River rivers in a territory that is now part of northern Oregon and southeastern Washington state. From this zone, the Walla Walla followed a similar pattern of seasonal subsistence practices to that of the Yakama, Palouse, Umatilla, and Wanapum tribes.[4]
The Walla Wallas eventually adopted maintaining cattle herds, going as far as New Helvetia in California during 1844 to secure additional livestock. An estimated 40 Walla Wallas, Nez Perce and Cayuse under Walla Walla chief Piupiumaksmaks went on the expedition south. En route the party gathered stray horses, not aware the strays were stolen. Negotiations at New Helvetia were held between one of Piupiumaksmaks' sons, Toayahnu, and an employee of Sutter. The two men entered a dispute, and Toayahnu was killed.[8] Despite fears of retribution among Sutter's staff by the Walla Wallas, Piupiumaksmaks returned with a small band of warriors and families in 1846 and declared peaceable intentions.[9] The returning party had members infected with measles, which began to spread across the Columbia Plateau, decimating indigenous populations.[10] Smallpox and other diseases were also introduced into the area, increasing the Walla Wallas' population decline. Despite this, the Walla Wallas then held extensive herds of horses, being the "principal wealth" of the tribe.[11]
The land now encompassing the city of Walla Walla has been home to the people of the Cayuse (Weyíiletpu), Umatilla (Imatalamłáma), and Walla Walla (Walúulapam) tribes since time immemorial. Their ancestral lands stretch from the lowlands of the Columbia River to the highlands of the Blue Mountains in present-day southeastern Washington and northeastern Oregon.
The Cayuse, Umatilla, and Walla Walla felt the impacts of non-indigenous colonialism on the continent by the mid-18th century as horses, disease, and trade goods affected the tribes. However, the first recorded contact with Euro-Americans occurred in 1805 as the Corps of Discovery, led by William Clark and Meriwether Lewis, noted the use of the Columbia River for travel for trade purposes.
In the 1830s, white Christian missionaries followed the traders and explorers and sought to convert local tribes to Christianity. Presbyterian missionaries Marcus and Narcissa Whitman established a mission at Waiilatpu (west of present-day College Place) in October 1836, which became a key stop on the Oregon Trail as settler-colonists traveled westward. By the time the Whitmans arrived, there were over a dozen log cabins in the Frenchtown area near the mission.
Tensions rose between the arriving Euro-Americans and the Cayuse, Umatilla, and Walla Walla tribes as the immigrants interfered with traditional tribal lifeways. Disease, likely carried by Euro-Americans, devastated the tribes, culminating in a measles epidemic in 1847. The conflict escalated and in late November 1847, a band of Cayuse attacked the Whitman Mission, killing the Whitmans and 12 others.
Congress established the Washington Territory from a portion of Oregon Territory in 1853; Walla Walla County formed in April 1854. On May 29, 1855, representatives of the U.S. government met with tribal representatives Niimíipuu (Nez Perce), Weyíiletpu, Walúulapam, Mámačatpam (Yakama), and Pelúucpuu (Palouse). The outcome of the Treaty of 1855 for the Cayuse, Umatilla, and Walla Walla tribes was the establishment of a reservation, ceding 6.4 million acres for a 510,000-acre reservation on Cayuse homeland.
CRITFC provides the tribes and the region with biological research, fisheries management, hydrology, climate change analysis, and other science to support the protection and restoration of Columbia Basin salmon, lamprey, and sturgeon.
CRITFC employs lawyers, policy analysts, and fisheries enforcement officers who work to ensure that tribal treaty rights are protected. All of these activities are done in careful coordination with and under the direction of our member tribes.
When the leaders of the three tribes signed a treaty with the United States in 1855, they ceded 6.4 million acres of homeland in what is now northeastern Oregon and southeastern Washington. The 172,000-acre Umatilla Indian Reservation, almost half of which is owned by non-Indians, includes significant portions of the Umatilla River watershed.
Articles of agreement and convention made and concluded at the treatyground, Camp Stevens, in the Walla-Walla Valley, this ninth day of June, in the year one thousand eight hundred and fifty-five, by and between Isaac I. Stevens, governor and superintendent of Indian affairs for the Territory of Washington, and Joel Palmer, superintendent of Indian affairs for Oregon Territory, on the part of the United States, and the undersigned chiefs, head-men, and delegates of the Walla-Wallas, Cayuses, and Umatilla tribes, and bands of Indians, occupying lands partly in Washington and partly in Oregon Territories, and who, for the purposes of this treaty, are to be regarded as one nation acting for and in behalf of their respective bands and tribes, they being duly authorized thereto; it being understood that Superintendent I. I. Stevens assumes to treat with that portion of the above-named bands and tribes residing within the Territory of Washington, and Superintendent Palmer with those residing within Oregon.
The above-named confederated bands of Indians cede to the United States all their right, title, and claim to all and every part of the country claimed by them included in the following boundaries, to wit: Commencing at the mouth of the Tocannon River, in Washington Territory, running thence up said river to its source; thence easterly along the summit of the Blue Mountains, and on the southern boundaries of the purchase made of the Nez Perces Indians, and
easterly along that boundary to the western limits of the country claimed by the Shoshonees or Snake Indians; thence southerly along that boundary (being the waters of Powder River) to the source of Powder River, thence to the head-waters of Willow Creek, thence down Willow Creek to the Columbia River, thence up the channel of the
Columbia River to the lower end of a large island below the mouth of Umatilla River, thence northerly to a point on the Yakama River, called Tomah-luke, thence to Le Lac, thence to the White Banks on the Columbia below Priest's Rapids, thence down the Columbia River to the junction of the Columbia and Snake Rivers, thence up the Snake River to the place of beginning: Provided, however, That so much of the country described above as is contained in the following boundaries shall be set apart as a residence for said Indians, which tract for the purposes
contemplated shall be held and regarded as an Indian reservation; to wit: Commencing in the middle of the channel of Umatilla River opposite the mouth of Wild Horse Creek, thence up the middle of the channel of said creek to its source, thence southerly to a point in the Blue Mountains, known as Lee's Encampment, thence in a line to the
head-waters of Howtome Creek, thence west to the divide between Howtome and Birch Creeks, thence northerly along said divide to a point due west of the southwest corner of William C. McKay's land-claim, thence
east along his line to his southeast corner, thence in a line to the place of beginning; all of which tract shall be set apart and, so far as necessary, surveyed and marked out for their exclusive use; nor shall any white person be permitted to reside upon the same without permission of the agent and superintendent. The said tribes and bands
agree to remove to and settle upon the same within one year after the ratification of this treaty, without any additional expense to the Government other than is provided by this treaty, and until the expiration of the time specified, the said bands shall be permitted to occupy and reside upon the tracts now possessed by them, guaranteeing
to all citizen(s) of the United States, the right to enter upon and occupy as settlers any lands not actually enclosed by said Indians: 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 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. And provided, also, That if any band or bands of Indians, residing in and claiming any portion or portions of the country described in this article, shall not accede to the terms of this treaty, then the bands becoming parties hereunto agree to reserve such part of the several and other payments herein named, as a consideration for the entire country described as aforesaid, as shall be in the proportion that their aggregate number may have to the whole number of Indians residing in and claiming the entire country aforesaid, as consideration and payment in full for the tracts in said country claimed by them. And provided, also, That when substantial improvements have been made by any member of the bands being parties to this treaty, who are compelled to abandon them in consequence of said treaty, (they) shall be valued under the direction of the President of the United States, and payment made therefor.
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