Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly volume 23.djvu/25



RESERVATION POLICY PACIFIC NORTHWEST 15

of the Pacific Northwest except southwestern Washington, the Okanogan, Spokane, Coeur d'Alene region, and the Snake country. They were negotiated by Joel Palmer, superin- tendent of Indian Affairs for Oregon Territory, and Isaac I. Stevens, who held the same office, for Washington Territory. These treaties contained provisions for colonization and man- agement of the Indians. It is hardly necessary to consider the details of each treaty as the general character of all of them is the same. This can be shown by an enumeration of the provisions which the treaties had in common. All of the treaties included : a cession of lands ; payment for the cession in annuities of beneficial objects; assistance for the Indians in the form of buildings, mills, instructors, and physicians; a reservation which the Indians were to occupy within a year after the ratification of the treaty ; provision for the granting of the reservation lands to the Indians in severalty ; compensa- tion to the Indians for granting rights of way for roads or railroads through their reservations; the acknowledgment by the Indians of the jurisdiction of the Federal government over them ; the submission of disputes among the Indians of a band, or with other bands, or with the whites, to the Indian agent for settlement; the non-payment of the debts of individual Indians from the annuities ; and the reservation of fishing rights to the Indians. In addition to these, the following provisions were common to the treaties made with the Indians of the Puget Sound region: the prohibition of slavery; provisions for a central agency ; and the prohibition of trade with British Columbia.

The treaties were negotiated in the following order: three treaties were made by Palmer, west of the Cascade Mountains in Oregon, prior to June 1855 ; second, four were made by Stevens, west of the Cascade Mountains in Washington Ter- ritory, prior to June 1855 ; third, three treaties were made by Stevens and Palmer jointly, June 1855, east of the Cascade Mountains, the lands purchased lying partly in each territory ; fourth, two treaties were made by Stevens after June 1855, one east of the Cascade Mountains, and one west of those mountains in Washington Territory ; fifth, three treaties were