Klamath Termination Act

Last updated

The Klamath Termination Act was a 1953 law under the US Indian termination policy. The Klamath tribe along with the Flathead, Menominee, Potawatomi, and Turtle Mountain Chippewa, as well as all tribes in the states of California, New York, Florida, and Texas were targeted for immediate termination by House Concurrent Resolution 108 of 1953. The statement which was issued 1 August 1953 by the United States Congress announced the official beginning of the federal Indian termination policy. [1] The tribes that were listed as being ready for immediate termination had been placed on a list prepared by acting Commissioner of Indian Affairs, William Zimmerman, because they met four primary criteria: adequate resources, they had adopted to a certain degree the cultural traits of the larger American culture, they were willing to terminate federal trust obligations, and the state was willing to assume jurisdiction over their criminal and civil matters. [2]

Contents

Background

In the 1950s, the Klamath tribe in Oregon was one of the strongest and wealthiest tribes in the nation. They had created a vigorous economy based on timber resources and imported livestock, which nearly fully supported the entire tribe. The Klamath tribe was not a burden to the Oregon taxpayers, and was the only tribe in the country paying its share of BIA administrative costs. [3] However, despite appearances, 82% of the tribe members living "on" the reservation had no jobs and most still engaged in hunting and fishing for subsistence. As for acculturation, although Klamath students were enrolled in public high schools, only 10 graduated between 1934 and 1947 and in the mid-1950s more than half of the Klamath students enrolled did not pass to the next grade. Though the Klamath who lived "off" the reservation were more prepared for living in the mainstream society, the occupants of the reservation had no concept of rent, utility payments, taxes, banking or even how they would meet their dietary needs. [2]

Termination

In spite of testimony and evidence given, the Klamath tribe was terminated under the Klamath Termination Act, or Public Law 587, enacted on August 13, 1954. Under this act, all federal supervision over Klamath lands, as well as federal aid provided to the Klamath because of their special status as Indians, was ended. [4] The legislation required each tribal member to choose between remaining a member of the tribe, or withdrawing and receiving a monetary payment for the value of the individual share of tribal land. [5] Those who stayed became members of a tribal management plan. This plan became a trust relationship between tribal members and the United States National Bank in Portland, Oregon. [6] Of the 2,133 members of the Klamath tribe at the time of termination, 1,660 decided to withdraw from the tribe and accept individual payments for land. [4]

Oregon Senator Richard L. Neuberger, and Oregon Representative Albert Ullman, worked together to delay implementation of the Klamath termination law until hearings with the Indians were held and amendments could be made. [7] In spite of testimony from experts, BIA officials and tribe members, [2] the Klamath were terminated in 1961 as a result of constant pressure by Republican Senator Arthur V. Watkins. [3]

The termination legislation required the land to be sold in 5000 acre increments and the US Government only accepted forestland. The politically-influential Crown-Zellerbach paper corporation of San Francisco obtained 90,000 acres, and the remaining 93% was converted to the Winema and Fremont National Forests. [8] The reservation shrunk from 762,000 acres to 145,000 acres.

Modoc controversy

The termination of the Klamath Reservation, in actuality included three distinct but affiliated tribes. The Act defines the members as the "Klamath and Modoc Tribes and the Yahooskin Band of Snake Indians, and of the individual members thereof". [9] A portion of the Modoc Tribe, had been taken as prisoners to Indian Territory in 1873 following the Modoc War in Oregon. Later, they were placed on a reservation in Indian Territory and their lands were allotted as were other tribes to make way for statehood for Oklahoma. In 1909, the US Congress passed an Act allowing those Modocs to return to their traditional home in Oregon and take up residence on the Klamath Reservation. Some returned, and some remained in Oklahoma, Kansas and Missouri, where they had now established homes and ties. In 1965, as a part of the US settlement with the Klamath reservation, a series of hearings were held from April to August. At the hearings, testimony was heard regarding the notice given to the western Modoc at the time of the termination of the Klamath Reservation. William Randall, Representative from Missouri's 5th District, observed on 13 May 1965 that he had reviewed notices that appeared in the Federal Register between 14 January 1955 and 12 August 1961 regarding the Klamath termination and none mentioned the Modoc. His and other testimony presented at the hearing made it clear that many western Modoc had not registered for the final roll, were unaware that the Klamath termination applied to them, and felt that they should not be excluded from claim reparations due by the United States to the tribe as a whole for historic breaches. The hearings concluded without allowing the Oklahoma Modoc to be included in the rolls of the Klamath Tribe. [10]

Hunting and fishing rights

Termination led to lawsuits, as individual Klamath Natives struggled to preserve treaty hunting and fishing rights. Five Klamath Natives who had withdrawn from the tribe after Public Law 587 claimed they retained hunting and fishing rights guaranteed to the Klamath tribe in the Treaty of October 16, 1854. After a U.S. district court ruled against them, they filed an appeal under Kimball v. Callahan . [11]

Based on reasoning similar to that in Menominee Tribe v. United States , the U.S. District Court of Appeals of the Ninth Circuit found that, since the Klamath Termination Act did not specifically abrogate Klamath hunting and fishing rights, these rights remained. The court looked at the stipulation in Public Law 280, providing that no state could deprive a Native tribe (or individual members) of hunting and fishing rights guaranteed to them by federal treaty. [12]

Restoration

Within the tribe, termination had been supported only by a few who were loyal to Sen. Watkins. After being terminated, the tribe was cut off from services for education, health care, housing and related resources. Termination directly caused decay within the tribe including poverty, alcoholism, high suicide rates, low educational achievement, disintegration of the family, poor housing, high dropout rates from school, disproportionate numbers in penal institutions, increased infant mortality, decreased life expectancy, and loss of identity. [13]

Ironically, the western Modoc were restored to tribal status 15 May 1978, in an Act which reinstated the Modoc, Wyandotte, Peoria and Ottawa Tribes of Oklahoma. [14] Almost a decade later, through the leadership and vision of the Klamath people, and the assistance of a few congressional leaders, the Klamath Restoration Act was adopted into law in 1986, reestablishing the Klamath as a sovereign state. [3]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Klamath people</span>

The Klamath people are a Native American tribe of the Plateau culture area in Southern Oregon and Northern California. Today Klamath people are enrolled in the federally recognized tribes:

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Modoc War</span> 1872–73 conflict between the Native American Modoc people and the U.S. Army

The Modoc War, or the Modoc Campaign, was an armed conflict between the Native American Modoc people and the United States Army in northeastern California and southeastern Oregon from 1872 to 1873. Eadweard Muybridge photographed the early part of the US Army's campaign.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Modoc people</span> Native American people originally from northern California and Oregon

The Modoc are an Indigenous American people who historically lived in the area which is now northeastern California and central Southern Oregon. Currently, they include two federally recognized tribes, the Klamath Tribes in Oregon and the Modoc Tribe of Oklahoma, now known as the Modoc Nation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tribal sovereignty in the United States</span> Type of political status of Native Americans

Tribal sovereignty in the United States is the concept of the inherent authority of indigenous tribes to govern themselves within the borders of the United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Menominee</span> Federally-recognized indigenous people of the United States

The Menominee are a federally recognized nation of Native Americans. Their land base is the Menominee Indian Reservation in Wisconsin. Their historic territory originally included an estimated 10 million acres (40,000 km2) in present-day Wisconsin and the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. The tribe currently has about 8,700 members.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians</span> Native American tribe

The Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians is a federally recognized Native American tribe of Ojibwe based on the Turtle Mountain Indian Reservation in Belcourt, North Dakota. The tribe has 30,000 enrolled members. A population of 5,815 reside on the main reservation and another 2,516 reside on off-reservation trust land.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Iowa Tribe of Kansas and Nebraska</span> One of two federally recognized tribes of Iowa people

The Iowa Tribe of Kansas and Nebraska is one of two federally recognized tribes of Iowa people. The other is the Iowa Tribe of Oklahoma.

The Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians in the United States is a federally recognized confederation of more than 27 Native American tribes and bands who once inhabited an extensive homeland of more than 20 million acres from northern California to southwest Washington and between the summit of the Cascades and the Pacific Ocean. After the Rogue River Wars, these tribes were removed to the Coast Indian Reservation, now known as the Siletz Reservation. The tribes spoke at least 11 distinct languages, including Tillamook, Shasta, Lower Chinook, Kalapuya, Takelma, Alsea-Yaquina, Siuslaw/Lower Umpqua, Coos, the Plateau Penutian languages Molala and Klickitat, and several related Oregon Athabaskan languages.

The Klamath Tribes, formerly the Klamath Indian Tribe of Oregon, are a federally recognized Native American Nation consisting of three Native American tribes who traditionally inhabited Southern Oregon and Northern California in the United States: the Klamath, Modoc, and Yahooskin. The tribal government is based in Chiloquin, Oregon.

Indian termination is a phrase describing United States policies relating to Native Americans from the mid-1940s to the mid-1960s. It was shaped by a series of laws and practices with the intent of assimilating Native Americans into mainstream American society. Cultural assimilation of Native Americans was not new; the belief that indigenous people should abandon their traditional lives and become what the government considers "civilized" had been the basis of policy for centuries. What was new, however, was the sense of urgency that, with or without consent, tribes must be terminated and begin to live "as Americans." To that end, Congress set about ending the special relationship between tribes and the federal government.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Modoc Nation</span>

The Modoc Nation is a federally recognized tribe of Modoc people, located in Ottawa County in the northeast corner of Oklahoma and Modoc and Siskiyou counties in northeast California. The smallest tribe in the state, they are descendants of Captain Jack's band of Modoc people, removed in 1873 after the Modoc Wars from their traditional territory in northern California and southern Oregon. They were exiled to the Quapaw Agency in Indian Territory, where they were colocated with the Shawnee people from east of the Mississippi River.

The Menominee Restoration Act, signed by President of the United States Richard Nixon on December 22, 1973, returned federally recognized sovereignty to the Menominee Indian Tribe of Wisconsin. It also restored tribal supervision over property and members, as well as federal services granted to American Indian tribes. The Act officially repealed the Termination Act of 1954. It also called for the creation of the Menominee Restoration Committee, which would be responsible for drafting new tribal constitutions and serve as an interim authority until an officially elected tribal government was put into place. In addition, all Menominee Indians born after the termination of the action would be added to the tribal roll.

Native American self-determination refers to the social movements, legislation and beliefs by which the Native American tribes in the United States exercise self-governance and decision making on issues that affect their own people.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation</span>

Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation is a federally recognized tribe of Neshnabé, headquartered near Mayetta, Kansas.

Menominee Tribe v. United States, 391 U.S. 404 (1968), is a case in which the Supreme Court ruled that the Menominee Indian Tribe kept their historical hunting and fishing rights even after the federal government ceased to recognize the tribe. It was a landmark decision in Native American case law.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sac and Fox Nation of Missouri in Kansas and Nebraska</span> Sauk and Meskwaki tribe based in Kansas

The Sac and Fox Nation of Missouri in Kansas and Nebraska is one of three federally recognized Native American tribes of Sac and Meskwaki (Fox) peoples. Their name for themselves is Nemahahaki and they are an Algonquian people and Eastern Woodland culture.

South Dakota v. Bourland, 508 U.S. 679 (1993), was a case in which the Supreme Court of the United States held that Congress specifically abrogated treaty rights with the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe as to hunting and fishing rights on reservation lands that were acquired for a reservoir.

Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife v. Klamath Indian Tribe, 473 U.S. 753 (1985), was a case appealed to the US Supreme Court by the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife. The Supreme Court reversed the previous decisions in the District Court and the Court of Appeals stating that the exclusive right to hunt, fish, and gather roots, berries, and seeds on the lands reserved to the Klamath Tribe by the 1864 Treaty was not intended to survive as a special right to be free of state regulation in the ceded lands that were outside the reservation after the 1901 Agreement.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Native American peoples of Oregon</span> Indigenous people of the area now known as Oregon

The Native American peoples of Oregon are the set of Indigenous peoples who have inhabited or who still inhabit the area delineated in today's state of Oregon in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. While the state of Oregon currently maintains relations with nine federally recognized tribal groups, the state was previously home to a much larger number of autonomous tribal groups, which today either no longer exist or have been absorbed into these larger confederated entities. Six of the nine tribes gained federal recognition in the late 20th century, after undergoing the termination and restoration of their treaty rights starting in the 1950s.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kickapoo Tribe in Kansas</span> Federally recognized tribe of Kickapoo people

The Kickapoo Tribe of Indians of the Kickapoo Reservation in Kansas is one of three Federally recognized tribes of Kickapoo people. The other Kickapoo tribes in the United States are the Kickapoo Traditional Tribe of Texas and the Kickapoo Tribe of Oklahoma. The Tribu Kikapú are a distinct subgroup of the Oklahoma Kickapoo and reside on a hacienda near Múzquiz Coahuila, Mexico; they also have a small band located in the Mexican states of Sonora and Durango.

References

  1. ↑ "INDIAN AFFAIRS: LAWS AND TREATIES. Vol. 6, Laws". Archived from the original on 2016-03-03. Retrieved 2014-12-27.
  2. 1 2 3 Clements, Chris. "Federal Termination and Its Effects on the Land, Culture, and Identity of the Klamath Indian Tribe". History Department Rutgers (March 2009). Archived from the original on 27 December 2014. Retrieved 27 December 2014.
  3. 1 2 3 "The Klamath Tribes -Termination". Archived from the original on 21 March 2015. Retrieved 27 December 2014.
  4. 1 2 Charles E. Kimball (February 26, 1974). "Plaintiffs-Appellants, v. John D. Callahan, Defendants-Appellees". United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. 493 F.2d 564.[ dead link ]
  5. ↑ Wilkinson, Charles. Blood Struggle: The Rise of Modern Indian Nations'. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2005
  6. ↑ Hood, Susan, The Termination of the Klamath Indian Tribe of Oregon, The American Society for Ethnohistory, 1972 JSTOR   481441
  7. ↑ "Termination and Restoration". Oregonencyclopedia.org. Retrieved 27 December 2014.
  8. ↑ Chiu, Peggy. "Stewards of their Lands: A Case Study of the Klamath Tribes" (PDF). Trust for Public Land.
  9. ↑ "25 U.S. Code § 564a - Definitions". Law.cornell.edu. Retrieved 27 December 2014.
  10. ↑ "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2016-03-03. Retrieved 2014-12-27.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  11. ↑ "Charles E. KIMBALL et al., Plaintiffs-Appellants, v. John D. CALLAHAN et al., Defendants-Appellees. United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit". 493 F.2d 564. February 26, 1974.[ dead link ]
  12. ↑ Menominee Tribe of Indians v. United States, Certiorari to the U.S. Court of Claims, No. 187, 1968. (Transcript at Caselaw.lp) "FindLaw for Legal Professionals - Case Law, Federal and State Resources, Forms, and Code". Archived from the original on 2008-04-01. Retrieved 2008-11-23.
  13. ↑ Clements (2009), pp 47-62
  14. ↑ "Public Law 95-281". Uscode.house.gov. May 15, 1978. Retrieved July 22, 2022.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.