The move to reservations was a form of genocide. These people’s relationship with their land is so linked that to move them is to remove non-trivial portions of their identity.
Each of their landscapes, each of their geographic areas dictated their traditions, dictated their technologies, decided their relationships with others. … Each of the tribes are defined by a particular place in the world. Don Ivy Chief, Coquille Indian Tribe
The pope, Pope Alexander VI, sanctioned these sorts of activity with his Doctrine of Discovery, which discussed how to “discover” new land.
By the authority of God … We appoint you lords over them with full and free power, authority and jurisdiction of every kind.
They were giving the land away before any treaties were signed.
The Oregon Donation Land Act was passed in 1850, offering 320-acre parcels to thousands of white immigrants. In five years’ time, settlers would claim 2.8 million acres of Indian land.
“Every time you killed one of their pony soldiers, they just reached into their vast numbers on the East Coast and replaced them … One of our warriors killed — it took many years to train another warrior up-and-coming to fill that place.”
Chuck Sams Interim Deputy Executive Director, Confederated Tribes Of The Umatilla Indian Reservation
They were also not negotiating in good faith.
“What happened to the tribes quite often is that they thought they had a binding agreement. … They perhaps moved to the restricted area they had agreed too. And then money never came from the Congress because the treaty was not ratified.”
Robert J. Miller Law Professor (Lewis & Clark College), Tribal Judge and Author
“The treaties weren’t negotiation. It was essentially Indian people being compelled to sign this with a promise that no harm will come your way. Don’t sign it and all bets are off.”
Don Ivy Chief, Coquille Indian Tribe
They then parlayed that treachery into large financial gain.
“[Settlers] went before their congressional delegation and got the support to reduce our land mass. By reducing our land mass down from a half a million acres to 157,000 acres, they were able to get access to that prime real estate for farming, and they were able to then build out the city of Pendleton.”
Chuck Sams Interim Deputy Executive Director, The Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation