Our Heritage
In the mid-19th century, the Yakima and 13 other neighboring tribes and bands, pushed to the brink of war and annihilation by the ceaseless expansion of the new American country, united in self preservation. Together, they negotiated the peace known today as the Treaty of the Yakama Nation (1855).
Their Tribal leaders, in exchange for over 10 million acres of ancestral homeland, secured for the people essential rights and freedoms necessary to their cultural survival. These included the right to habitable spaces for living, to infrastructural support from the government, access to hunting and fishing grounds, and most importantly, to unencumbered travel and trade throughout the new Union. With guaranteed access to the resources of the land, and that they and their goods, game, or furs would be protected on their way to and from the markets of neighboring tribes and white settlements, the people of the Yakama Nation survived the near-genocidal establishment of the new government.
The same is no less true now as it was in the 1850s: Native Americans, who in many ways are still to-this-day treated as foreigners on their own home soil, regularly rely upon the upholding of their legal rights, won and promised to them over a century and a half ago.
Legal & Court Rulings
Yakama Nation v. Flores
Concerning state imposition of licensing and permitting fees on Yakama logging trucks. Ruled in favor of Yakama Nation: the Treaty unambiguously secures its members the right to travel public highways without restriction.
United States v. Smiskin
Concerning transportation & possession of unstamped cigarettes without notifying the State. Determined that the Treaty was intended to retain the Yakama right to travel outside reservation boundaries, with no conditions attached.
Cree v. Waterbury (“Cree II”)
Confirmed that the Treaty secured for the Yakama Nation the right to use future roads to transport goods to market for trade and other purposes.
Cougar Den v. Washington State
Court declared that the Treaty’s terms do not permit restrictions on the ability of Yakama members to bring their goods to and from market. Thus, “imposing fuel tax on Yakama entity as an enterer violates the Treaty’s right to travel provision.”
Yakama Nation v. Flores
Concerning state imposition of licensing and permitting fees on Yakama logging trucks. Ruled in favor of Yakama Nation: the Treaty unambiguously secures its members the right to travel public highways without restriction.
Cree v. Waterbury (“Cree II”)
Confirmed that the Treaty secured for the Yakama Nation the right to use future roads to transport goods to market for trade and other purposes.
United States v. Smiskin
Concerning transportation & possession of unstamped cigarettes without notifying the State. Determined that the Treaty was intended to retain the Yakama right to travel outside reservation boundaries, with no conditions attached.
Cougar Den v. Washington State
Court declared that the Treaty’s terms do not permit restrictions on the ability of Yakama members to bring their goods to and from market. Thus, “imposing fuel tax on Yakama entity as an enterer violates the Treaty’s right to travel provision.”