Malheur Reservation

The Malheur Reservation was an Indian reservation in the U.S. state of Oregon from 1872 to 1879.

Establishment

On September 12, 1872, a presidential order set aside the Malheur Indian Reservation in Eastern Oregon for the Northern Paiute. It was intended for "all the roving and straggling bands in Eastern and Southeastern Oregon, which can be induced to settle there." There were then about 800 Northern Paiutes in settlements and at Forts Harney and Klamath in Southern Oregon, Fort Bidwell in northeastern California, and Fort McDermitt in northern Nevada.^[1]

The reservation covered roughly the area drained by the South, Middle and North Forks of the Malheur River. It comprised approximately 2,285 square miles (5,920 km²) or 1,778,560 acres (7,197.6 km²). At that time, salmon still ran up the Columbia and the Snake rivers into the North Fork from the Pacific Ocean.^[1]

Reductions and Incursions

Almost immediately, European settlers began requesting changes to the boundaries of the reservation. In 1876, settlers asked for the exclusion of the Silvies River Valley and the Harney Lake Basin on the southwest edge of the reservation. In January of that year, President Grant, under pressure from settlers, ordered the northern shores of Malheur Lake open for settlement. This was a blow to the Paiutes, because that was an area important to the tribe for wada (Suaeda calceoliformis) seeds.^[2] (The Paiutes around Malheur Lake were known as the Wadatika: the "wada-seed-eaters".^[3]) Settlers along Willow Creek Valley on the eastern edge of the reservation also protested the boundaries.

In addition, the reservation straddled trails between then northern Grant County, where Chief Joseph of the Nez Perce had received orders to move with his people to Idaho, and southern Grant County. Cattle ranchers in the former Nez Perce lands had begun to drive herds along those trails to Central Pacific railheads in northern Nevada for shipment. In the high desert country of Eastern Oregon, the streams and pastures along those trails became more valuable for sustaining the cattle on the drives.^[4]

Bannock War

The outbreak of the Bannock War in May 1878 led the Paiutes to abandon the Malheur Reservation and take refuge on Steens Mountain to the south of the Harney Basin. Steens Mountain is a large block-fault formation, and its eastern escarpment rises almost straight up from the Alvord Desert, making it relatively easy to defend. They were joined there by the Bannocks coming west from Idaho. When U. S. Army units under the command of General Oliver O. Howard began moving towards their positions, the united Paiutes and Bannocks decided to flee into the Blue Mountains to the north of the Harney Basin. They raided isolated ranches as they fled northward, killing some settlers, and taking horses and cattle.^[5][6] In engagements with the Army, both Paiutes and soldiers were killed.^[7]

Near the Umatilla Agency on the Columbia River, the Umatillas saw that the Paiutes and Bannocks were not going to prevail against the U. S. Army. The Umatillas allied themselves with the Army, and under the guise of negotiation, entered an encampment of Paiutes and Bannocks, where they killed one of the principal Paiute war leaders, Egan, and a number of his followers.^[8] After that point, having lost their leader, scattered bands of Paiutes took refuge in the mountains, and the Bannocks tried to return to Idaho. Ultimately, most Paiutes surrendered, and were interned at the Malheur Reservation.

Removal and Discontinuation

In November 1878, General Howard received orders to move about 543 Paiute and Bannock prisoners from the Malheur Reservation to the Yakima Reservation, in Washington, 350 miles (560 km) to the north.^[4] Other Paiutes and Bannocks were scattered about Eastern Oregon, northeastern California and northern Nevada, working for settlers or engaged in subsistence hunting and gathering. More than a year after the war, most had not moved back onto the reservation as the U. S. government had urged. Still others were interned at Vancouver Barracks in Washington. Ranchers and settlers had started to graze their herds on the best meadowlands of the reservation, and the U. S. Army had been reluctant to remove the trespassers. In his annual report in August 1879, Agent W. V. Rinehart, who had fought in the West under General Crook and held negative views of the native people, opined that the reservation should be discontinued, in part because the support for all agencies in Oregon was spread too thin to be effective. In October of that year, the Commissioner of Indian Affairs discontinued the agency.^[4][9]

Burns Paiute Indian Reservation

Today a small group of Paiutes lives on a small allotment of 760 acres (3.1 km²) called the Burns Paiute Indian Reservation (or the Burns Paiute Colony) along the Silvies River, just north of Burns, Oregon.^[10]

See also

• Fort McDermitt Indian Reservation
• Harney Basin
• List of Indian reservations in Oregon

References

1. ^ ^{a b} Brimlow, George Francis. Harney County and Its Range Land, 1951, Binfords & Mort, Portland, Oregon, pp. 90-1.
2. ^ http://www.burnspaiute-nsn.gov/Treaties.htm Tribal History. Retrieved March 2, 2008.
3. ^ http://ohs.org/education/oregonhistory/historical_records/dspDocument.cfm?doc_ID=05241B7B-BC83-3FA3-847CAD7A21FEE685 Paiute Storytelling of The Oregon Historical Project. Retrieved March 2, 2008.
4. ^ ^{a b c} Brimlow, George Francis. Harney County and Its Range Land, 1951, Binfords & Mort, Portland, Oregon, pp. 81-130 passim.
5. ^ http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9C02EFDB1E3FE63BBC4C53DFB0668383669FDE New York Times, The Bannock War, June 4, 1878 (.PDF download).
6. ^ http://www.idahohistory.net/Reference%20Series/0474.pdf BANNOCK WAR AT CAMAS PRAIRIE from IDAHO STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY REFERENCE SERIES.
7. ^ http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/ops/bannock-war.htm Bannock War (mistakenly titled Rogue River War on the page).
8. ^ http://www.essortment.com/all/bannockwarindi_rfjo.htm Native American History: The Bannock War.
9. ^ http://www.ohs.org/education/oregonhistory/narratives/subtopic.cfm?subtopic_ID=462 Settling Up the Country: Social Costs of the Cattlemen's Era in The Oregon History Project.
10. ^ http://www.burnspaiute-nsn.gov/LandFight.htm The Fight to Regain the Land from Tribal History. Retrieved March 2, 2008.

External links

• Malheur Indian Reservation (includes map) from Oregon Historical Society
• Paiutes