Exhibits, Wx 1 - Wx 58

File — Box: 417

Staff Only

Scope and Contents

In 1996 Richard Hart was hired by the Colville Tribes to work on Wenatchi fishing rights. The Wenatchi, one of the twelve tribes of the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation, were party to the 1855 Walla Walla Treaty, but did not move to the Yakima Reservation. Article 10 of the treaty established a small reservation for them at the juncture of the Wenatchi and Icicle Rivers, the location of one of the region’s great salmon fisheries. The United States failed to survey the reservation or remove it from the public domain. When the Great Northern Railroad came through the area in 1894, a dishonest Yakima Indian agent had the reservation surveyed as being high in the mountains, where the Indians could not live in winter. He talked the Yakima Indians into ceding the Wentachi reservation with the stipulation that Wenatchis would continue to have fishing rights and would be granted land where they lived. Eventually the Wenatchi were moved to the Colville Reservation, and it was decided in U. S. v. Oregon that the Wenatchi had forfeited their fishing rights when they did not move to the Yakima Reservation. The research undertaken by Hart was instrumental in making a case that the Wenatchi were promised fishing rights under the 1894 agreement with the Yakima, an agreement that had been ratified by Congress. The resulting litigation was resolved in 2008, when a federal judge ruled that the Wenatchi do have fishing rights under the 1894 agreement. This addendum contains Hart’s research files, notes, correspondence, reports, and various court documents. This body of material is a valuable archive on the Wenatchi. Boxes 417-426 contain exhibits prepared by E. Richard Hart, who testified on behalf of the Wenatchi. A printed list of exhibits is in Box 417, Fd 1.

Dates

1664-2021

Conditions Governing Access

Twenty-four hour advanced notice encouraged. Materials must be used on-site. Access to parts of this collection may be restricted under provisions of state or federal law.