"They Weren't Going to Let Us Have the Good Farmland"
The geographic dichotomy between the farmlands of the Palouse Slope and the rugged Colville Indian Reservation
I took this photo this past weekend on my flight home from work, this was on the Spokane-Seattle leg looking north towards the Colville Indian Reservation.
The Columbia River is the body of water that runs from right (east) to left (west)- Grand Coulee Dam is on the very left edge of my photo and Lake Roosevelt is the what formed when Grand Coulee was built in the 1940s. The rugged lands north of the Columbia/Lake Roosevelt is the Colville Reservation, the farmland south is the north edge of the Palouse Slope, the relatively flat part of the Columbia Basin and a major agricultural region of the Pacific Northwest.
In the center there is a snow-capped mountain, that's Moses Mountain, the highest point in the Reservation, named for Chief Moses of the Sinkiuse-Columbia, one of the twelve tribes of the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation.
I had an older patient who remarked to me "They weren't going to let us have the good farmland." As my photo shows, the rugged and rocky topography of the Okanogan Highlands where the Reservation is located isn't terribly amenable to large scale farming like the Palouse Slope to the south.
In 1878, a white settler couple was killed by rogue Bannock and Paiute Indians- the US military, however, pinned the blame on Chief Moses and he had to stand trial in Yakima. Though acquitted of the murder charges, he was summoned to Washington DC where the offer to dismiss all further legal proceedings against him if he were to cede the Columbia Basin to the federal government. He reluctantly agreed.
In 1879, President Rutherford B. Hayes established the Columbia Reservation which was just to the west of the Colville Reservation. The terrain was rugged as it was west of the Columbia River and not the flat basin land the Sinkiuse-Columbia had long lived. Lead and silver ore were discovered on the Reservation and soon an influx of settlers and miners arrived, disregarding the Reservation boundaries.
Chief Moses complained about this matter and the Bureau of Indian Affairs (part of the Department of the Interior) tried to purchase the lands of white settlers to get them to leave the Reservation. The BIA determined only seven settlers moved in after the Reservation was created which of course was ridiculous. The remaining settlers and miners then began a campaign to get the Columbia Reservation abolished.
Things came to a head in 1883 when the white settlers went on a rampage destroying Indian settlements. The US Army set up camp near the southern end of Lake Chelan to "restore order"- fearing an Indian uprising, the Sinkiuse-Columbia tribe were expelled from the area and relocated to the Colville Reservation.
President Chester A. Arthur signed an executive order that abolished the Columbia Reservation. The Sinkiuse-Columbia were given a choice of moving to the Colville Reservation or if they stayed, they would get 1 square mile parcel of land. Most elected to move to the Colville Reservation.
Chief Moses died in 1889 and is buried in Nespelem, not far from our Indian Health Service clinic. Along with Chief Joseph of the Nez Perce, we have a portrait of him in our waiting area.
History guides Native American activism and I have met many patients who may not take an active role in the asserting tribal rights and sovereignty, but they are well aware of their history from family and tribal oral traditions. There are people my age who were told stories by their grandparents how their parents were kicked out of the Columbia Basin after living there for thousands of years.