Participants began assembling outside of the tribe’s Bureau of Indian Affairs office in Mission, Oregon, early in the morning on June 13 to organize their floats for the 9 a.m. parade. Once it began, tribal citizens started gathering on the sidewalk to watch.
Colorfully decorated first responder vehicles and cars from local organizations drove through, throwing candy to children along the route. Some tribal citizens rode on horses, bells jingling as they trotted. Men in the back of a pickup truck formed in a circle to sing songs while playing the drum. Men and women in regalia proudly waved to each passerby as they rode on their floats.
While the parade was the main draw of the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation (CTUIR) Treaty Day, there were significant events throughout the celebration, including a Veteran’s Memorial Program, dignitary recognitions, lunch, exhibits and an official Treaty Day program featuring Jeanine Gordon, a citizen of the CTUIR and the special assistant to the president for Native American Outreach at Whitman College.
The CTUIR annual Treaty Day acknowledges the history of the Walla Walla Treaty of 1855; while land was lost as a result of signing this treaty, they were able to reserve fishing, hunting and other significant sovereign rights –– now using this annual event to celebrate the resilience of their people.
Gordon, who also served as the grand marshall for the parade, talked about her ancestral ties to the Cayuse, Walla Walla and the treaty signing.
“We can be proud of what we are doing today, and every tribal member and every community member, every advocate that we have is keeping the treaty alive today; we are the treaty,” said Gordon.
Her family traces back to Walla Walla Chief Piupiumaksmaks, whose name translates to Yellow Bird, and Nez Perce Old Chief Joseph. Both chiefs and two interpreters she is related to were present at the Walla Walla Treaty Council of 1855 and the Treaty with the Nez Perce.
The foresight those treaty signers had in negotiating protections, said Gordon, is what “we continue to do so now and for our future generations.”
Over 170 years ago, the Walla Walla Treaty was signed by the Walla Walla, Cayuse and Umatilla tribes on June 9, 1855. Thousands of tribal representatives and U.S. officials, including Isaac Stevens, governor and superintendent of Indian affairs in the territory of Washington and Joel Palmer, the Oregon superintendent of Indian affairs, observed the signing. The treaty resulted in the tribes ceding approximately 60,000 miles of their cultural homelands in Oregon and Washington state in exchange for a reservation, which is now known as the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation.
According to the treaty, the ceded land began at the mouth of the Tocannon River in Washington and extended to the eastern summit of the Blue Mountains. It included land south of the Nez Perce territory and east of the Shoshone, followed the waters of the Powder River to the headwaters of Willow Creek, encompassed the island known as Tomah-luke along the Yakama and Umatilla Rivers, and continued through the Columbia River to the point where the Columbia and Snake Rivers meet.
Other Pacific Northwest tribes made similar treaties with the United States in 1855, including the Treaty of Point Elliot, the Treaty of No Point, the Treaty of Neah Bay and the Treaty with the Nez Perce.
According to the CTUIR Treaty Day press release, the Umatilla Indian Reservation, the Yakama Indian Reservation and the Nez Perce Reservation were created during these negotiations. The U.S. government originally planned to put these tribes in the region on the Yakama Indian Reservation. However, the Umatilla, Walla Walla and Cayuse agreed to live on the Umatilla Indian Reservation and ceded 6.4 million acres to the United States while reserving rights for fishing, hunting, gathering foods and medicines and pasturing livestock. The Treaty was ratified on March 8, 1859.
Martina Gordon, Jeanine’s sister, is the CTUIR general council secretary, and reflected on the emotional toll that the treaty signers faced.
“I think about the sorrow that the treaty signers must have been feeling at that time to make this hard decision, when their lands were being stolen,” said Gordon. “And just like someone said today, they were just coming in droves, the non-natives, coming in droves taking over – yet they had the foresight to say, no, we don’t want this, but we have to do this.”
This was the first Treaty Day that the tribe participated in since 2023. Last year the Confederated Tribes canceled the annual event due to several deaths that occurred in the community.
Michael Johnson, CTUIR General Council Vice Chairman, wants people to know that they still exist.
“It’s a time to show that we’re still here,” he said. “We’re at the process of standing up, being proud of who we are, who our family are, who our bloodlines are and who we are as a people related to the ones that signed the treaty; those that stood themselves up because they were standing up for us today, to keep us in the federal recognition.”
Towards the end of the commemoration, tribal citizens took part in a round dance within the longhouse, and a closing ceremony officially concluded the program.
Johnson, Janinne and Martina Gordon all agreed that one of the takeaways from this event is for the younger generations to carry on cultural traditions and the importance of Treaty Day. Martina wants them “to hold the government accountable and to hold up the treaties,” to make sure that their treaty rights aren’t taken away.
“There’s so many policies that the government has put out since then to try to eradicate us,” said Martina Gordon. “We have to protect our treaty because that is what keeps us here and keeps us able to exercise our treaty rights such as fishing, hunting and picking berries on the lands that we were here in the beginning with.”
Johnson’s advice for the next generation is to hang onto tradition and to keep moving forward.
“Be proud of your people,” Johnson said. “Be proud of the language, the teachings that your elders taught you, the little few words, if they’ve shared anything with you growing up.”
Jeanine Gordon said that the CTUIR and other Pacific Northwest tribes who were also forced to sign treaties will forever remain connected by this experience.
“The treaty is alive,” she said. “It’s a document that was signed 170 years ago, but it has remained alive through all of those years, and it brings us together today.”
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