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The appearance of white settlers
The first Europeans with whom the Wadatika had contact were trappers who explored the area looking for beaver in the 1820's, 30's and 40's. By the late 1840's, the relations between the Indians and the Whites were already strained. By that time many Whites were moving through the area on the Oregon Trail on their way to western Oregon and the coast. Epidemics of smallpox, cholera, and other diseases brought into the area by Europeans had swept through the tribe in the 1830's and 1840's. The diseases killed many Indians, especially the young and the elderly tribal members.
Settlers first moved into what is now Harney County as late as 1862, years after settlers poured into western Oregon. Cattlemen then quickly began to take land or buy up homesteads to run their huge herds of livestock over the land. The limits of the native ecology were severely stressed due to the grazing of livestock by the expanding foreign population and the increase in hunting and fishing by those same people. Resources depended upon by the Paiute people were depleted or destroyed. But, as the Paiutes noticed, the settlers brought with them resources of their own--those very livestock and horses that were eating and trampling the Wadatika's food supplies. Raiding wagon trains and camps increased as more outsiders came through the Wadatika's territory and destroyed their livelihood. By the 1840's the northern Paiute bands had acquired horses and guns, and such raids became an important way for the Wadatika people to defend themselves and survive. In response, the U.S. Army set up its first military outpost, Camp Alvord, in 1864. By 1867 Fort Harney was established.
While the tribes to the north (the Cayuse, Umatilla, Wallawalla, Wasco, John Day, Deschutes and Tygh) were confined to the Umatilla and Warm Springs reservations by 1856, the northern Paiutes continued their seasonal migrations for another decade. During these years the fighting between the Indians and the encroaching Whites became bitter, with the raids on wagon trains and army surveyors increasing. Punishing parties were sent out by the Whites to kill any Indian seen, whether man, woman or child. The Indians were fighting for their land, culture and their very lives.
Treaties
Treaties and Reservations Created |
In 1866, General Crook was appointed to the area to squash the resistance of the northern Paiute bands and to force them onto a reservation. For the next two years, he carried out a devastating and relentless campaign. He broke their usual circular migration pattern and harassed and killed them during the winter, their usual season of rest. By spring of 1868, the Indians had suffered a terrible winter, losing half their total population to starvation, freezing and fighting. General Crook then made an offer of "Peace or Death." That year Paiute Chiefs We-You-We-Wa, Gsha-Nee, Po-Nee, Chow-Wat-Na-Nee, E-He-Gant (Egan), Ow-Its (oits), and Tash-E-Go signed a treaty guaranteeing them a reservation in their homeland. Included were promises that raiding and hostilities toward the Whites would cease in return for army protection from the hostile, encroaching settlers. Unfortunately, the cutoff date for signing Indian treaties was passed before the treaty went before Congress, therefore, Congress never ratified this treaty.
Several attempts were made in the next four years to move and confine the various northern Paiute tribes to reservations outside their territory. Finally, however, the President signed into law the Malheur Reservation, taken from the larger area of Oregon's entire southeastern corner, which was the first set aside for that purpose. The 1,778,560 acres of reservation land included Castle Rock, Strawberry Butte, the Silvies River, Malheur Lake and the North and South Forks of the Malheur River within its boundaries. This area was reserved for all bands of Indians still "wandering" in eastern Oregon. Samuel Parrish was appointed Special Indian Agent in 1873. He was well liked by the Indians, treated them fairly, and went into debt in order to provide the food, shelter, education, and resources needed to begin farming. This did not make him popular with the local Whites, and he was replaced by Harrison Linville the next year. There was a great deal of corruption while Linville was in charge--rations were sold rather than handed over to the Indian people for whom they were intended. Finally, in July of 1874 Parrish was reinstated after Linville left fearing for his life.
The numbers of Indians on the reservation grew under Parrish as groups came down from the hills. By the fall of that year, there were over 800 on the rolls. Unfortunately, funds were not increased with the increase in population and they were having great difficulty surviving on the scarce resources, both federal and natural, available to them. Parrish wrote several letters to the President pleading for money and resources. He argued that this was a critical time for the tribe as they were eager to become self-sufficient. They only needed a bit of capital to start a cattle herd and other industries. |
| Treaties Broken |
During the same period, the stockmen and ranchers were pressuring the government to turn over reservation lands for settlement and grazing of cattle. They were not even waiting for a federal mandate but began to run their livestock and even build ranch homes on the reservation. A particular area of dissention was the valley southeast of Fort Harney, an area important to the tribe for gathering camas. Ranchers fenced this location in order to run cattle there and did not allow Indians in. In January of 1876 President Grant, under pressure from settlers, ordered the northern shores of Malheur Lake open for settlement, an area important to the tribe for wada seeds. This was a blow to the Indians, as was the replacement of Agent Samuel Parrish that summer due to the urging of the settlers. His replacement, William Rinehart, had fought under General Crook and his derogatory attitudes toward Indians had not changed since the war.
Under Agent Rinehart, hostile settlers continued to invade reservation land and appropriations dwindled. Chief Egan gave an eloquent speech against Rinehart and the taking of the reservation by Whites. He said,
"Did the government tell you to come here and drive us off this reservation? Did the Big Father say, go and kill us all off, so you can have our land? Did he tell you to pull our children's ears off, and put handcuffs on them, and carry a pistol to shoot us with? We want to know how the government came by this land. Is the government mightier than our Spirit-Father, or is he our Spirit-Father? Oh, what have we done that he is to take all from us that he has given us? His white children have come and taken all our mountains, and all our valleys, and all our rivers; and now, because he has given us this little place without our asking him for it, he sends you here to tell us to go away. Do you see that high mountain away off there? There is nothing but rocks there. Is that where the Big Father wants me to go? If you scattered your seed and it should fall there, it would not grow, for it is all rocks there." (Hopkins, Life Among the Piutes, pages 133-34.)
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The Bannock Indian War
The Indians began to leave the reservation fleeing the worsening conditions. By June of 1878 tensions came to a head. The deprivations suffered from lack of rations and supplies during the winter and the lack of support from their government agent set the stage for revolt. Then, too, the news came in that an Indian village in the hills had been destroyed by soldiers. Forty-six Bannocks looking for allies against the Whites visited the Malheur Reservation and brought news of the Bannock uprising at Fort Hall. Some Paiutes became increasingly convinced that war was the only effective way to bring attention to their plight. They understood the hopelessness of such a war, but they preferred to fight rather than to starve to death.
The Bannock Indian War, as it was later called, consisted of few actual battles, but a resurgence of raiding by the Indians and killing of Indians by the Whites. By mid-July the army got the help of Umatilla Indian scouts to the north in a scheme to kill Chief Egan. The Paiutes believed the Umatillas to be friendly and were hoping to find allies at the meeting. Instead, they walked into an ambush. The scheme succeeded, and Chief Egan was killed. With the last of their leaders dead, the Bannocks and Paiutes surrendered. The northern Paiutes, who had numbered close to 2,000 ten years before, had lost two-thirds of their people.
Trail of Tears
All Indians were then rounded up and held as hostages at Fort Harney, regardless of who sided with the Whites or those who fought against them. Many of the Indians did not understand why they were being rounded up and brought to Fort Harney. In the coldest time of year, January 1879, over 500 Paiutes were loaded into wagons or ordered to walk under heavy armed guard to Fort Simcoe on the Yakima Reservation and Fort Vancouver in Washington state. In knee-deep snow the men were forced to march, shackled two by two, while the women and children were later taken to Fort Boise. The fate of yet another group is unknown. Perhaps they were massacred by the soldiers, or maybe they faded into the hills and disappeared. The tribe suffered great loss of life due to this forced abandonment of their home. It was the Paiutes' own "Trail of Tears."
The majority of those who survived the journey to Yakima found little welcome there and did not stay long. After approximately five years, the Wadatika people were allowed to make their long way back home. Many had not survived the experience; others chose to stay with the Yakima; while still others left to live with relatives on reservations of neighboring tribes. The ones who chose to made the long, difficult journey to Burns. They would travel in small groups or individually. Swimming the Columbia River holding onto their horse's tail, and walking the long miles through the mountains, they eventually arrived in Harney Valley. None returned to the empty reservation still staffed by Agent Rinehart. They were considered outlaws, so they lived on what they could find hunting and gathering in the hills, and quietly working for local ranchers.
In January of 1883 the reservation was made into public domain, open for settlers to claim under the Homestead Act. As Peter Teeman, a 90 year old elder, testified in 1948 at the Warm Springs Reservation:
"The Bannocks kept their reservation but we, the Paiutes, who remained friends with the soldiers, lost our reservation and were taken to Yakima and turned over to our enemies. We did not give up our reservation." (Burns Paiute Colony: Its History, Population and Economy, p. 19)
The federal government then gave out 160 acre parcels of marginal land in the Rye Grass area to anyone who had lived on the Malheur Reservation. Only 115 parcels were ever given out, although many more of the Wadatika survived. Distrust and fear of the government were running high and more than a few tribal members thought this new offer to be a trick.
Many Indian families camped near the towns of Burns and Drewsey in tule or gunnysack "wickiups" or lived on their allotment. The men found seasonal work with ranchers. Women washed clothes and made buckskin gloves to trade occasionally for flour, sugar and coffee. After the Edward Hines Lumber Mill opened in 1928 in Hines and later near Seneca when the mill opened there, more jobs were available to the Indians.
Problems finally addressed
During the beginning of this century, some attention was brought at last to the Burns Paiute Tribe. A Cherokee Indian came to visit the tribe during a hard winter in 1923. He must have taken word of the desperate conditions under which the tribe was living to the proper authority, for the following spring a superintendent from the Warm Springs Agency came to Burns. Soon after, army tents were brought in and set up where the Burns Cemetery is now located. In 1928, the local Egan Land Company gave the Burns Paiute 10 acres of land just outside the city of Burns. The land was the old city dump which the Indians cleaned and drilled a well to make ready for the houses. Twenty two-room homes, a small school and a community center were built by the Bureau of Indian Affairs. A small church was built by the local Catholic Church in 1932. The school, church and community center were moved to the new reservation after it was established.
Schooling was a problem for the tribe. The public school for many years would not accept Indian students for health reasons since many children had tuberculosis and trachoma. A school opened on the reservation in 1934. However, some families continued to send their children to boarding schools far from home on reservations such as Fort Bidwell Indian School, Fort Bidwell, California. Health care for the Indians did improve and in 1949 Burns' public schools were finally opened to the Indian children.
| Christianity is Introduced |
| Father Heuel, a Catholic priest, who was the first to meet the spiritual needs of the tribe, came to the area in 1927. Before this the tribe had no Catholic or Christian religious leader. The earliest visit of a priest to the Burns Paiute people was mentioned by Peter Teeman. He said that a Chinese priest, Father Chan, stopped by on his way to Canyon City in 1861. Today, many tribal members follow a Christian faith. |
The fight to regain the land
Father Heuel was a friend to the Burns Paiute people. He encouraged the tribe to seek payment for Malheur Reservation that was taken from them without their agreement. The case dragged on for 35 years. In 1969, after enormous legal fees were subtracted from the total settlement, 850 Paiute people received as little as $741 each for the loss of their land. This was because the price of the land was set at 1890 prices, approximately .28 to .45 cents per acre.
In 1935, 760 acres of homestead and submarginal land was purchased with a loan provided by the National Industrial Recovery Act. The tribe repaid the loan with money earned from leasing the small arable farmland of the new property. This land is held in trust by the U.S. government for the Burns Paiute Tribe. In 1938 the Bureau of Indian Affairs built 27 two-bedroom homes on the new land.
Under the Indian Reorganization Act of 1936, tribal elections were held for the first time. This early government consisted of a five-member governing body, elected by position. It was not until 1968, however, that the Constitution and Bylaws for the tribe were written and approved. This formalized and made operational the current tribal government. The tribe was then able to receive government contracts and grants which are the basis of the tribal administration today. Finally, on October 13, 1972 the Burns Paiute were recognized as an independent Indian Tribe.
At that time, the 760 acres bought in 1934 plus the 10 original acres of land were established as the Burns Paiute Reservation. The jurisdiction for this reservation was placed in the Bureau of Indian Affairs in Warm Springs, 191 miles northwest of Burns. Individual tribal members still own over 11,000 acres of allotment lands scattered over four townships east of the reservation. Local ranchers lease these allotments for grazing cattle. Allotment lands are also held federally so that they are exempt from taxes, but unlike the reservation, they are within county jurisdiction.
Burns Paiute Tribal Administration today
The Constitution and Bylaws of the Burns Paiute Colony, adopted May 16, 1968, delineates the objectives, membership, powers of the General Council, and bill of rights of the Burns Paiute Tribe. the Constitution and Bylaws were revised in 1988 changing the five-member Business Council to the seven-member Tribal Council of today. This was necessary to avoid conflict between the two governing bodies, the Tribal Council and the General Council. Now the Tribal Council is directly responsible to the General Council.
The Constitution and Bylaws of the Tribe also outline the format of the governing body, elections, and duties of officers. The governing body, or General Council, consists of all qualified voters. To qualified to vote one must be a tribal member 18 years of age or older who lives on the reservation, or be an absentee voter. The General Council meets twice a year to discuss and vote on important matters.
The standard business of the tribe is conducted by the seven-member Tribal Council, which includes a chairperson and a vice-chairperson. Each member of the Tribal Council is nominated and elected to a three-year term by the General Council. The Tribal Council meets several times a month, overseeing the tribal government and carrying out the decisions of the General Council.
The tribal government includes nine departments and various committees. The departments provide essential services to the community and uphold tribal interests when working with state and federal agencies. For example, the tribal administration takes care of day to day management and accounting of the tribal government. They also assist in the formation and implementation of plans for community development and the administering of federal and state grants and contracts. The Education Department, on the other hand, works to help students of all ages stay in school, while the Health Department provides the community with health care and social services. Other departments cover such areas as environmental and energy issues, lease compliance for all the allotments and tribal lands, mitigation for fish and wildlife, cultural preservation and enhancement, law enforcement, and maintenance.
Whereas the departments are made up of tribal employees, the committees are small groups of community members appointed by Tribal Council. These committees advise, oversee, and are responsible for some of the important aspects of the tribe's organization. A five-member Election Committee organizes and runs any elections held and any recalls or initiatives called for by the tribe. The incorporated Farmland Board contracts out for hay to be produced on the farmland and puts any funds received from the selling of the hay back into supplies and production. The Parent Committee works as an advisory board tot he Education Specialist. There are also committees on culture, housing, social services, and the annual Mother's Day Pow Wow, among others. Some tribal members also are involved in committees in the nearby community of Burns.
Wadatika today
Tribal members continue to hunt and gather traditional foods. Roots such as camas, bitterroot, and biscuitroot are dug in the spring. In late summer chokecherries and berries are gathered. People also gather willow and tule for making baskets and cradleboards. Other crafts traditional to the Burns Paiute, which are practiced in the community, include beadwork and drum-making. The hunting of elk, deer, quail and groundhog as supplemental food sources continue as well.
A yearly celebration and gathering of tribal members and neighboring tribes is the recently started annual Burns Paiute Reservation Day Pow Wow, which occurs in October. This was declared a tribal holiday in honor of the day the land held in trust for the tribe became a reservation. The Pow Wow includes traditional dancing and drumming, dance contests, a raffle, and crafts and food booths. This is a continuation of a tradition of dance in the community. During the 1950's there was a vigorous boys dance group. Later in the 1960's and 1970's, a girls dance group was active.
Today there are 341 members of the tribe, less than 35.5% of which reside permanently on the reservation. Both the small numbers and the relatively recent formation of the tribal government and reservation have added challenges and difficulties in starting the economic and social programs that other Oregon tribes already have in place. Nonetheless, the Burns Paiute Tribe is proud of its history and culture. The tribe is currently working to gain a greater understanding of their culture, and preserve what knowledge they have of their past, all the while looking toward the future and developing a stronger, healthier community to pass on to the next generation. |
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