Sold For $2,475
*Includes Buyers Premium
Partly-printed DS as president, one page, 8 x 10.5, April 18, 1859. President Buchanan directs the Secretary of State to affix the Seal of the United States to “the Ratification of the Treaty between the Yakama, Palouse and other tribes of Indians, and the United States.” Signed crisply at the conclusion by James Buchanan. In very good to fine condition, with some faint toning and light creasing.
The Yakama Treaty was signed on June 9, 1855, at Camp Stevens in the Walla Walla Valley by Territorial Governor Isaac I. Stevens and leaders of 14 tribes confederated as the ‘Yakama Nation,’ which included Yakama, Palouse, Pisquouse, Walla Walla, Umatilla, and Nez Perce. Although the Treaty was signed in the summer of 1855, it did not become valid until it was ratified on March 8, 1859, by the U.S. Senate and proclaimed law by President Buchanan on April 18, 1859.
Under the treaty, the Yakama Nation ceded an estimated 11–12 million acres of ancestral territory, which ran from the Canadian border to south of the Columbia River and covered about a quarter of present-day Washington state. In return, the Yakama received a 1.3‑million‑acre reservation, with defined boundaries in central Washington, and the government would pay $200,000 — approximately $6.85 million today — for the land, which would be paid out in annuities ‘for the use and benefit of the Indians.’
Less than two weeks after the treaty had been signed, Gov. Stevens opened much of the ceded land to white settlers despite his promise to wait two years to give the tribes time to settle on newly formed reservations. The move angered Kamiakin, leader of the confederation, and clashes erupted into an uprising known as the Yakama War, which lasted until 1858.
This item is Pre-Certified by PSA/DNA
Buy a third-party letter of authenticity for
$75.00
*This item has been pre-certified by a trusted third-party authentication service, and by placing a bid on this item, you agree to accept the opinion of this authentication service. If you wish to have an opinion rendered by a different authenticator of your choosing, you must do so prior to your placing of any bid. RR Auction is not responsible for differing opinions submitted 30 days after the date of the sale.
