TheWalla Walla Council (1855) was a meeting in thePacific Northwest between theUnited States and sovereigntribal nations of theCayuse,Nez Perce,Umatilla,Walla Walla, andYakama.[1] The council occurred on May 29 – June 11;[2] the treaties signed at this council on June 9[3] were ratified by theU.S. Senate four years later in1859.[4]
These treaties codified the constitutional relationship between the people living on theNez Perce,Umatilla, andYakama reservations; it was one of the earliest treaties obtained in the Pacific Northwest.
Washington Territory's firstgovernorIsaac I. Stevens secured this treaty, allowing larger portions of the land to be given to the two largest and most powerful tribes: Yakama and Nez Perce; these reservations encompassed most of their traditional hunting grounds. The smaller tribes moved to the smaller of the three reservations. Stevens was able to acquire forty-five thousand square miles (120,000 km2) of land.[5]
The United States government laterviolated these treaties, first by failing to pay the agreed sum for the ceded land,[6] and later by reducing the Nez Perce reservation by 90% andforcibly removing the Nez Perce from their lands affirmed by the 1855 treaty.[7]
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