Post by Okwes on Sept 24, 2007 8:59:02 GMT -5
Burns-Paiute Tribe
Part 1 of 2
"Paiute Wadatika Ma-Ni-Pu-Neen"
The Burns Paiute Reservation is located north of Burns, Oregon in Harney County. The current tribal members are primarily the descendants of the "Wadatika" band of Paiute Indians that roamed in central and southern Oregon.
History and Cultural Background of the Burns Paiute Tribe
Nine thousand years ago the northern Great Basin, which is now desert, was probably a series of very large lakes. The ancestors of the Burns Paiute people lived in caves near their shores. Horses, camels, mammoths, bison, elk and deer roamed the hills. These people used the fibers of the tule plant, willow, Indian hemp, and sagebrush bark to make woven sandals, coiled and twined baskets, and rope. They also made duck decoys, fish nets, and traps for small game with these fibrous plants. A beautiful soft blanket woven from the furs of rabbits and child's sandals made from sagebrush fibers were found preserved for close to 10,000 years in a cool, dry cave. Archeologists also found clothing made from deer, animal and bird hides. Their diet included a wide variety of items, such as fish (including a great deal of salmon), birds, deer, small animals, plants and seeds.
During the next one to 2,000 years, the climate slowly became drier and warmer. The lakes began drying up and food sources were less readily available. By 7,500 years ago, large mammals such as horses, camels and mammoth were extinct. People began seasonal migrations to take advantage of plants and animals in certain areas. Small family groups would travel separately collecting seeds, berries, roots, hunting small animals, deer, mountain sheep, elk and fish.
These smaller groups came together to harvest, socialize and intermarry with other Paiutes, as well as other Indian tribes. Spring offered roots to be gathered on the sunny hillsides and meadows, and fishing for salmon during the salmon runs. During the summer, berries and fruit were collected as food and stored for winter use. By late summer and early fall, seeds were the main resource to be gathered. Families also came together during this time of the year for communal antelope and rabbit drives. Late fall was the time to collect plant material to make items such as sandals, baskets, and clothing during the long winter months. By November, the families had gathered the cached goods they had put away during the months of harvesting. Materials were then gathered from the area (sagebrush in the desert or tules near the lakes) and they built houses near springs in which to live out the winter. The Paiutes lived in this manner for thousands of years.
The Paiute people believe that the Paiutes have lived in this area since before the Cascade Mountains were formed as they have learned from their stories and legends. Recent researchers, on the other hand, believe that about 1,000 years ago an influx of Paiute-speaking people came from the south and migrated throughout the Great Basin. They brought with them not only their language but also certain types of atlatl and spear points, and brownware pottery. Pottery was not found in the Great Basin before this time. However, the people of the Burns Paiute Tribe were basket makers and did not make pottery. According to the researchers, the language spoken here before the arrival of the Paiute is unknown. This, however, contradicts the Paiute stories and legends that are handed down from generation to generation which tell of the Paiute people living in the Great Basin for thousands and thousands of years.
The Burns Paiute Tribe descended from the Wadatika band, named after the wada seeds they collected near the shores of Malheur Lake to use as food. Bands were usually named after an important food source in their area. The Wadatika's territory included approximately 5,250 square miles between the Cascade Mountain Range in central Oregon and the Payette Valley north of Boise, Idaho, and from southern parts of the Blue Mountains near the headwaters of the Powder River north of John Day, to the desert south of Steens Mountain.
The Appearance of the 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 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.)
Part 1 of 2
"Paiute Wadatika Ma-Ni-Pu-Neen"
The Burns Paiute Reservation is located north of Burns, Oregon in Harney County. The current tribal members are primarily the descendants of the "Wadatika" band of Paiute Indians that roamed in central and southern Oregon.
History and Cultural Background of the Burns Paiute Tribe
Nine thousand years ago the northern Great Basin, which is now desert, was probably a series of very large lakes. The ancestors of the Burns Paiute people lived in caves near their shores. Horses, camels, mammoths, bison, elk and deer roamed the hills. These people used the fibers of the tule plant, willow, Indian hemp, and sagebrush bark to make woven sandals, coiled and twined baskets, and rope. They also made duck decoys, fish nets, and traps for small game with these fibrous plants. A beautiful soft blanket woven from the furs of rabbits and child's sandals made from sagebrush fibers were found preserved for close to 10,000 years in a cool, dry cave. Archeologists also found clothing made from deer, animal and bird hides. Their diet included a wide variety of items, such as fish (including a great deal of salmon), birds, deer, small animals, plants and seeds.
During the next one to 2,000 years, the climate slowly became drier and warmer. The lakes began drying up and food sources were less readily available. By 7,500 years ago, large mammals such as horses, camels and mammoth were extinct. People began seasonal migrations to take advantage of plants and animals in certain areas. Small family groups would travel separately collecting seeds, berries, roots, hunting small animals, deer, mountain sheep, elk and fish.
These smaller groups came together to harvest, socialize and intermarry with other Paiutes, as well as other Indian tribes. Spring offered roots to be gathered on the sunny hillsides and meadows, and fishing for salmon during the salmon runs. During the summer, berries and fruit were collected as food and stored for winter use. By late summer and early fall, seeds were the main resource to be gathered. Families also came together during this time of the year for communal antelope and rabbit drives. Late fall was the time to collect plant material to make items such as sandals, baskets, and clothing during the long winter months. By November, the families had gathered the cached goods they had put away during the months of harvesting. Materials were then gathered from the area (sagebrush in the desert or tules near the lakes) and they built houses near springs in which to live out the winter. The Paiutes lived in this manner for thousands of years.
The Paiute people believe that the Paiutes have lived in this area since before the Cascade Mountains were formed as they have learned from their stories and legends. Recent researchers, on the other hand, believe that about 1,000 years ago an influx of Paiute-speaking people came from the south and migrated throughout the Great Basin. They brought with them not only their language but also certain types of atlatl and spear points, and brownware pottery. Pottery was not found in the Great Basin before this time. However, the people of the Burns Paiute Tribe were basket makers and did not make pottery. According to the researchers, the language spoken here before the arrival of the Paiute is unknown. This, however, contradicts the Paiute stories and legends that are handed down from generation to generation which tell of the Paiute people living in the Great Basin for thousands and thousands of years.
The Burns Paiute Tribe descended from the Wadatika band, named after the wada seeds they collected near the shores of Malheur Lake to use as food. Bands were usually named after an important food source in their area. The Wadatika's territory included approximately 5,250 square miles between the Cascade Mountain Range in central Oregon and the Payette Valley north of Boise, Idaho, and from southern parts of the Blue Mountains near the headwaters of the Powder River north of John Day, to the desert south of Steens Mountain.
The Appearance of the 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 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.)