“AN ANXIOUS DESIRE OF SELF PRESERVATION”: COLONIALISM, TRANSITION, AND IDENTITY ON THE UMATILLA INDIAN RESERVATION, 1860-1910 by PATRICK STEPHEN LOZAR A THESIS Presented to the Department of History and the Graduate School of the University of Oregon in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts June 2013 THESIS APPROVAL PAGE Student: Patrick Stephen Lozar Title: “An Anxious Desire of Self Preservation”: Colonialism, Transition, and Identity on the Umatilla Indian Reservation, 1860-1910 This thesis has been accepted and approved in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Master of Arts degree in the Department of History by: Dr. Jeffrey Ostler Chair Dr. Marsha Weisiger Member Dr. Theresa O’Nell Member and Kimberly Andrews Espy Vice President for Research & Innovation; Dean of the Graduate School Original approval signatures are on file with the University of Oregon Graduate School. Degree awarded June 2013 ii © 2013 Patrick Stephen Lozar iii THESIS ABSTRACT Patrick Stephen Lozar Master of Arts Department of History June 2013 Title: “An Anxious Desire of Self Preservation”: Colonialism, Transition, and Identity on the Umatilla Indian Reservation, 1860-1910 In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the United States government, in its relations with Native Americans, implemented a policy of assimilation designed to detribalize Indian peoples and absorb them into the dominant society. Subjected to this colonial agenda, the Cayuse, Walla Walla, and Umatilla tribes of Oregon’s Umatilla Indian Reservation, as a matter of survival, endeavored to maintain community cohesion and retain their indigenous identity. In this context, I argue that the tribes confronted federal initiatives with a strategy of adaptive resistance that allowed them to approach these onerous impositions on their own terms. This study examines their diverse responses to assimilation and colonialism, specifically accommodation, adaptation, and diplomacy. Employing the investigative frameworks of education, religion, and economics reveals the variety of tactics applied within these categories, which range from incorporation to evasion. Through these actions and reactions, the tribes reaffirmed their capacity to assert native agency. iv CURRICULUM VITAE NAME OF AUTHOR: Patrick Stephen Lozar GRADUATE AND UNDERGRADUATE SCHOOLS ATTENDED: University of Oregon, Eugene, Oregon Montana State University, Bozeman, Montana DEGREES AWARDED: Master of Arts, History, 2013, University of Oregon Bachelor of Arts, History, 2009, Montana State University AREAS OF SPECIAL INTEREST: Indigenous History and Identity Settler Colonialism American West PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE: Graduate Teaching Fellow, Department of History, University of Oregon, Eugene, 2012-2013 Essayist, Tribal Legacies Project, University of Oregon Libraries, Eugene, 2012 Essayist, Oregon Historical Newspapers Project, University of Oregon Libraries, Eugene, 2012 GRANTS, AWARDS, AND HONORS: Oregon Heritage Fellowship, 2012 Graduate Teaching Fellowship, 2012-2013 Promising Scholar Award, 2011-2012 Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes Higher Education Scholarship, 2011- 2013 PUBLICATIONS: Tribal Legacies Project Catalog. Edited by Karen Estlund. Eugene: University of Oregon Press, 2013. *forthcoming v ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS There are many individuals at the University of Oregon I wish to thank for supporting me in researching and writing this Master’s thesis. First and foremost, my intrepid advisor, Jeffrey Ostler, helped guide my research and aided me in formulating my ideas into a coherent narrative. Dr. Ostler’s insightful comments on my writing and suggestions for improvement greatly enhanced my scholarship. I am also indebted to Marsha Weisiger for her guidance and advice in navigating the field of Native American history and for graciously serving on my thesis committee. I would also like to thank Glenn May who provided important feedback in the early stages of the writing process and Terry O’Nell for organizing the “Working With Oregon Tribes” course from which I gained a stronger sense of tribal priorities and perspectives. I am also grateful to those at the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation who directly or indirectly contributed to this project. Jennifer Karson in the Cultural Resources Protection Program was especially helpful in organizing my meetings with tribal consultants. Conversations with elders Antone Minthorn, Gerald Reed, and Ron Pond provided an indispensable tribal perspective of the historical record. Thank you to Ron Pond in particular for reading and screening several drafts of my work and to Bobbie Conner for allowing us access to the Tamastslikt Cultural Institute. Additionally, I wanted to thank those organizations who granted financial support for my education and project research. The Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes and the University of Oregon Graduate School and History Department provided crucial funding towards my education. Also, the Oregon Heritage Commission’s research vi fellowship was vital for financing my visits to the various archives where I conducted my work. The “graduate student enterprise” played an important role in the development of this project. Many friends and colleagues read pieces of my work and provided perceptive and constructive comments that encouraged me to become a better writer and historian. Regan Watjus, Josh Fitzgerald, and John Bedan were especially helpful in this process as were all those who reviewed sections of my thesis in Grad Lab. Finally, I would also like to acknowledge my family for their unwavering support. My mother, father, and brothers’ encouragement sustained my resolve through graduate school and my sister and brother in-law put me up while on trips to the National Archives in Seattle. I could not have had any success in this project without the constant, tireless support of my wife, Joanna. Joanna’s emotional reassurance, help in archival research, and accompanying me on research trips throughout the Northwest made all this possible. vii To mom, dad, Joanna, and Danley. \ viii TABLE OF CONTENTS Chapter Page I. INTRODUCTION .................................................................................................... 1 II. “I BEG YOU WILL LEAVE ME IN THIS WAY”: TRADITION, CONTACT, AND CHANGE, ORIGINS TO 1860 .......................................................................... 13 Forging an Existence on the Land ......................................................................... 13 Contacts and the Fur Trade .................................................................................... 22 Spiritual Interludes ................................................................................................. 28 American Conquest and Natiitayt Resistance ........................................................ 35 III. “WHAT THE WHITES HAVE TRIED TO SHOW ME”: MITIGATING AN EMERGING RESERVATION POLICY, 1860-1880 ................................................. 43 The Limits of Colonial Education .......................................................................... 50 Religious Vicissitudes ............................................................................................ 61 Digging Stick and Steel Plow: Reservation Economics ........................................ 72 Conclusion ............................................................................................................. 82 VI. “ADAPTING THEMSELVES TO THE NEW ORDER OF THINGS”: INTERVENTIONS AND READJUSTMENTS, 1880-1890 ...................................... 84 Religious Restrictions and Expansions .................................................................. 91 Contested Educations ............................................................................................. 102 Farm to Market: The Changing Economy ............................................................. 114 Conclusion ............................................................................................................. 126 V. “WE HAVE LEARNED AND ADOPTED BETTER WAYS”: REFINING STRATEGIES FOR INDIGENOUS SURVIVAL, 1890-1910................................... 128 Allotment, Labor, and Indigenous Priorities.......................................................... 134 ix Chapter Page Family and Student Agency in Education ............................................................. 147 Religion: Suppression and Resurgence .................................................................. 159 Conclusion ............................................................................................................. 170 VI. CONCLUSION: ROUNDING UP ........................................................................ 172 APPENDICES ............................................................................................................. 180 A. WALLA WALLA TREATY – 1855 ................................................................ 180 B. COMMISSIONER FELIX BRUNOT COUNCIL WITH UMATILLA LEADERS – 1871............................................................................................. 187 REFERENCES CITED ................................................................................................ 189 x CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION Young Chief, a Cayuse headman, came from a strong tradition of tribal warriors, hunters, gatherers, and spiritual practitioners. By the 1870s however, something about this tradition had changed. In an 1871 council speech near the Umatilla Indian Reservation