Cayuse Tribe

Brief Timeline
1836: Marcus Whitman and Henry Spalding and their wives founded a Presbyterian mission - Waiilatpu

1847-50: Cayuse War, one cause was the spread of measles; the Whitman's were killed.

1853: settled with the Umatilla and Walla Walla on a reservation in northeastern Oregon and southeastern Washington.

1855-59: the Cayuse supported the Yakama and Bannock in the Yakama War

1878: the Cayuse supported the Bannock and Yakama in the Bannock War

1877: 

Brief History
Ancestral homes along the Columbia River, Grande Ronde, Umatilla and Wallawalla Rivers in northeast Oregon and southeast Washington.

Additional References to the History of the Tribe and/or Bands
A good history of the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Reservation is included on the tribal web site.

Frederick Webb Hodge, in his Handbook of American Indians North of Mexico, gave a more complete history of the Cayuse tribe, with estimations of the population of the tribe at various time periods. Additional details are given in John Swanton's The Indian Tribes of North America.

Tribal Headquarters
The Umatilla Reservation was established in 1855 for the Cayuse, Umatilla, and Walla Walla Indians. They joined together as the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Reservation in 1949.

Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation PO Box 638 73239 Confederated Way Pendleton, Oregon 97801 Phone: 541-276-3165 FAX: 541-276-3095

Agency Records
Correspondence and Census

Treaties


 * June 9, 1855, referred to in Yakima treaty
 * June 9, 1855, with the Walla Walla, Cayuse, Etc., at Camp Stevens

Important Web Sites

 * Official web site of the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Reservation, which includes the Cayuse Tribe.
 * Wikipedia article about the Cayuse Indians.
 * Constitution and By-Laws for the Cayuse Indians