History of the Yakama Nation of the Pacific Northwest from the Yakama People's Point of View

1850

US Army Post set up at the Dalles

U.S. Congress passes the Donation Act, prematurely opening Northwest land for settlement.

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1855

Yakama War begins in October

Audio transcript: “In sensitive times when my grandfather spoke very seriously, at times he would cry. And I wondered about that. Why is a a big man like him crying? But there are so much pressure in his mind that he was remembering when he was a young boy and the the changes that he had gone through, watching his people being battled by the United States Army, and the pressures that was being made to the people. Many people died. Many people died. And he pointed, he would point those out to me and says ‘so and so was buried here, that was my brother. So and so was buried here, that was my mother’.”

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1856

Ft. Simcoe established by U.S. Army in Yakima Country

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1858

Yakama War ends

Chief Kamiakin flees North To British Columbia

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1859

Treaty ratified

Treaties that established Yakima reservation ratified, the affected had one year to abandon their off- reservation homes and move within its confines.

Military withdraws from Ft. Simcoe; Yakima Affairs agency takes over.

Follow this link to view the treaty on the Yakama nation website: https://www.yakama.com/about/treaty/

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1863

Enrollment Act enacted

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1878

The Bannock War

In 1879, 543 N. Paiute Pows were brought to Yakima Reservation for confinement after the Bannock War ends.

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1883

Northern Pacific Railroad begins operating through Yakima valley, bringing tide of settlement

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1887

Dawes Act enacted

With the passing of the Dawes Act, also known as the General Allotment Act, it gave the President the power to divide up land that tribes held collectivley and allot them to individuals and families. This act however, also gave the President the power to buy some of the land, if it had been deemed that there was an excess after allotment. This caused 90 million acres of land to be lost by tribes over the years of allotment. Read more about the Dawes Act from the Indian Land Tenure Foundation.

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1889

Washington Territory becomes a state

Washington becomes the 42nd state of the United States of America.

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1905

U.S. v. Winans Fishing Rights Case

U.S. v. Winans, 198 U.S. 371 (1905), was a U.S. Supreme Court case that held that the Treaty with the Yakima of 1855, negotiated and signed at the Walla Walla Council of 1855, as well as treaties similar to it, protected the Indians' rights to fishing, hunting and other privileges

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1906-1907

Townsites of Toppenish, Wapato, and Parker established on allotments sold to whites.

Leasing of trust lands at Yakima begins.

Violent conflict occurs over sale of allotted lands

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1921

Tribal leaders lobby the legislature for the Treaty rights promised to them in 1855 regarding fishing rights at Prosser Falls

During this time period tribal members were arrested and fined for fishing in areas that had been used for generations and promised to them in the 1855 treaty signed by Governor Isaac Stevens. Federal courts would not order respect of these treaty rights until the 1974 "Boldt Decision" and convictions were not cleared until a bill passed in 2014.

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1944

Yakamas adopt Indian Reorganization Act

General Council and Tribal Council of 15 elected “chiefs” is established.

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1957

Dalles Dam is built, flooding nearby villages and forcing thousands of Yakama out of their ancestral homes.

"There was a lot of little villages... and all those people had to relocate"

Audio Transcript: “Because of the flooding of the village, you know because of the flooding of the fishing areas, there was a lot of smaller villages along the river across from Celilo, all of from not just there you know, the John Day Dam you gotta consider that. There was villages all up and down the river, and those little families that had to- around the mouth of the Deschutes there was a lot of little villages everywhere, and all of those people had to relocate. And those numbers weren't at that time that I'm aware of weren't written down, because then you know back then it was just you were told to move”

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1963

English only language school

"I also remember him talking Indian and getting spanked for it..."

Audio Transcript: "But then going to school in [name omitted], yea, those were the time periods that I would say it was kinda difficult at times. I remember my cousin [name omitted] coming in there. He just barely learned how to speak english and he came to school. He started school probably about 2 or 3 years later in the 3rd grade; this would be in 1963, and he came to school in braids, and I remember that they made him cut his hair. In 1963 he had to cut his braids off, and when he came to school the next day you know all of us, we already had our hair short. I remember we laughed about it, you know, cuz we thought it was funny you know. But as adults now looking upon that you see that it was wrong, you know? You know, it was wrong. And like I say, we're talking 1963."

"In a public school."

"In a public school."

"In a decade of long hair really."

"yea, and they cut his- He was forced to cut his hair."

"I also remember him talking Indian and him getting spanked for it, you know, in that period of time.”

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1972

Indian Education Act grants Title IV funds for Indian education programs.

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1975

Indian Independence Act passed

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1977

Columbia River Inter-tribal Fish Commission established

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1978

American Indian Religious Freedom Act passed.

This act "protects the rights of Native Americans to exercise their traditional religions by ensuring access to sites, use and possession of sacred objects, and the freedom to worship through ceremonials and traditional rites."

For more information view the act here on the Congress website

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1980

Mt. St. Helens Erupts

"In 1980 I drove into the ash..."

Audio Transcript: “In nineteen eighty I drove into the ash. I was officiating a funeral. When the mountain exploded my dad and I, we watched it from a distance from [name omitted], and we knew we had to come up and conduct a funeral. So we met the ash.”

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1987

Yakama Nation & Salmonscam

Yakama Nation jury acquits Salmonscam defendants. For more information on Salmonscam, see this article from The Yakima Herald.

In 1982, David Sohappy and his son David, Jr. were among 75 people arrested for illegal fishing in a federal sting operation called Salmon Scam. They were sentenced to five years in prison in 1983 and were released in 1988 after pressure from activists and federal officials.

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1994

Yakima name redesignated to Confederated Tribes and Bands of the Yakama Indian Nation

The former spelling of the Confederated Tribes and Bands of the Yakama Indian nation was changed to more acurately represent the pronounciation of how the Yakama people would say it themselves.

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2014

Law to overturn tribal fishing convictions passes.

The Washington Legislature passes a law allowing pre-1975 convictions of tribal members for fishing in traditional locations to be vacated upon petition. George Meninock's wrongful conviction from 1916 is the first to be cleared, nearly 100 years later.

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2022

The Supreme Court confirms that Tract D is owned by the Confederated Bands and Tribes of the Yakama Nation

The U.S. Surpreme Court refused to hear a case, brought by Klickitat County that asks a prior ruling to be overturned. The land in question is known as Tract D, spanning 125,000 acres and covering the eastern half of Mt. Adams. Yakama Tribal Council Chairman at the time, Delano Saluskin stated "The Supreme Court's decision once again validates the continuing strength of our Treaty rights under the United States Constitution".

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2024

Annual Ichishkíin Pápawilalaakwt (Language Competition) held at Wapato High School.

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