The Oregon Superintendent of Indian Affairs was an official position of the

U.S. state In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its so ...

Oregon Oregon ( , ) is a U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. It is a part of the Western U.S., with the Columbia River delineating much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington (state), Washington, while t ...

, and previously of the

Oregon Territory The Territory of Oregon was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from August 14, 1848, until February 14, 1859, when the southwestern portion of the territory was admitted to the United States, Union as the Oreg ...

, that existed from 1848 to 1873.

Background

The

Bureau of Indian Affairs The Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA), also known as Indian Affairs (IA), is a United States List of United States federal agencies, federal agency within the U.S. Department of the Interior, Department of the Interior. It is responsible for im ...

(BIA) was created in 1824 to regulate contacts between Native Americans and

settler A settler or a colonist is a person who establishes or joins a permanent presence that is separate to existing communities. The entity that a settler establishes is a Human settlement, settlement. A settler is called a pioneer if they are among ...

s. Territorial governors often served as ''ex officio'' superintendents of Indian affairs, and had a general responsibility for Indian affairs in a territory or other political region. In this capacity, they would help negotiate treaties and clear titles to land. A system of agencies was established under each superintendent where each agency was responsible for one or more tribes.

Indian agent In United States history, an Indian agent was an individual authorized to interact with American Indian tribes on behalf of the U.S. government. Agents established in Nonintercourse Act of 1793 The federal regulation of Indian affairs in the Un ...

s were appointed by the

President President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) * President (education), a leader of a college or university *President (government title) President may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Film and television *'' Præsident ...

with approval of the

Senate A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior (Latin: ''senex'' meaning "the el ...

. Most agents reported to superintendents, while other reported directly to the central office in

Washington, D.C. Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from Virginia, and shares land borders with ...

, and relied on local military posts for law enforcement as it related to Indians.

Oregon Superintendency

In 1842, an Indian subagency for the " country West of the Rocky mountains" was established and located in

Oregon City Oregon City is the county seat of Clackamas County, Oregon, United States, located on the Willamette River near the southern limits of the Portland metropolitan area. As of the 2020 census, the city population was 37,572. Established in 1829 ...

in the

Willamette Valley The Willamette Valley ( ) is a valley in Oregon, in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. The Willamette River flows the entire length of the valley and is surrounded by mountains on three sides: the Cascade Range to the east, the ...

. The Oregon Superintendency was established in 1848, when the Oregon Territory was organized. This was about the same time that the

Donation Land Claim Act The Donation Land Claim Act of 1850, sometimes known as the Donation Land Act, was a statute enacted by the United States Congress in late 1850, intended to promote homestead settlements in the Oregon Territory. It followed the Distribution-Pre ...

opened Oregon to settlement. The superintendency had jurisdiction over the entire area west of the Rocky Mountains and north of the 42nd parallel. The territorial governor,

Joseph Lane Joseph Lane (December 14, 1801 – April 19, 1881) was an American politician and soldier. He was a state legislator representing Evansville, Indiana, and then served in the Mexican–American War, becoming a general. President James K. Polk ap ...

, acted as the ''ex officio'' superintendent until 1850, when a separate official was appointed. In 1851, the superintendency headquarters was moved from Oregon City to Milwaukie. Later moves included: 1853 to

Dayton Dayton () is a city in Montgomery County, Ohio, United States, and its county seat. It is the List of cities in Ohio, sixth-most populous city in Ohio, with a population of 137,644 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. The Dayton metro ...

; 1856 back to Oregon City; 1857 to Salem; 1859 to

Portland Portland most commonly refers to: *Portland, Oregon, the most populous city in the U.S. state of Oregon *Portland, Maine, the most populous city in the U.S. state of Maine *Isle of Portland, a tied island in the English Channel Portland may also r ...

; and in 1861 back to Salem. When

Washington Territory The Washington Territory was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from March 2, 1853, until November 11, 1889, when the territory was admitted to the Union as the State of Washington. It was created from the ...

was established in 1853, a separate superintendency was established there with jurisdiction over the area north of the

Columbia River The Columbia River (Upper Chinook language, Upper Chinook: ' or '; Sahaptin language, Sahaptin: ''Nch’i-Wàna'' or ''Nchi wana''; Sinixt dialect'' '') is the largest river in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. The river headwater ...

and the 46th parallel.

Agents

The first three regular agents were appointed to the Oregon Superintendency in 1850. There were previous agents, Joseph Lane and Josiah Parrish but the Indian agent roles were reduced until treaty making, and establishing the peace was necessary. They were assigned to geographical areas rather than to particular tribes. The Indian agencies in Oregon Territory were Coast (Siletz), Alsea, Grand Ronde, Warm Springs, Umatilla, Klamath, Nez Perce and Malheur. The agencies changed over time based on wars and the progress of treaty land cessions. The Oregon Territory also had numerous Indian management Districts Puget Sound District, Southeastern District, Port Orford, Eastern (east of Cascades), Western (west of Cascades), Northern (north of the Columbia until the Washington Territory was sectioned off) Umpqua, Astoria (north Oregon coast and lower Columbia), Willamette Valley, Umpqua Valley, Klamath, and Rogue River. The Indian District configurations changed over time as tribes were moved to reservations, as the territory was divided between Oregon and Washington territories, and as wars and conflicts occurred. The agency structure in Oregon was complicated because of the removal of Indians from their original homes and the attempt to concentrate them on reservations. There were also many encampments, subagencies, special agencies, and local agencies, especially after the wars of 1855. The Northern district changed responsibility from the Oregon Superintendency to the Washington Superintendency several times in the mid-1850s.

Bands

A partial list of the tribes that were assigned to the Oregon Superintendency were the Cayuse, Chastacosta, Chetco, Clackamas,

Joshua Joshua ( ), also known as Yehoshua ( ''Yəhōšuaʿ'', Tiberian Hebrew, Tiberian: ''Yŏhōšuaʿ,'' Literal translation, lit. 'Yahweh is salvation'), Jehoshua, or Josue, functioned as Moses' assistant in the books of Book of Exodus, Exodus and ...

Kalapuya The Kalapuya are a Native American people, which had eight independent groups speaking three mutually intelligible dialects. The Kalapuya tribes' traditional homelands were the Willamette Valley of present-day western Oregon in the United Sta ...

, Klamath,

Modoc Modoc may refer to: Ethnic groups *Modoc people, a Native American/First Nations people ** Modoc language ** Modoc Nation, a federally recognized tribe of Modoc * Modoc War, the last armed resistance of the Modoc people in 1873 *The "Modocs", ri ...

Molala The Molala are a Native American people of Oregon that originally resided in the Western Cascades. There are few recorded sources about the Molala, the majority being unpublished manuscripts. This assortment includes the works of Albert S. Gatsc ...

Nez Perce The Nez Perce (; autonym in Nez Perce language: , meaning 'we, the people') are an Indigenous people of the Plateau who still live on a fraction of the lands on the southeastern Columbia River Plateau in the Pacific Northwest. This region h ...

Paiute Paiute (; also Piute) refers to three non-contiguous groups of Indigenous peoples of the Great Basin. Although their languages are related within the Numic group of Uto-Aztecan languages, these three languages do not form a single subgroup and th ...

, Rogue River, Shasta, Sixes (Kwatami), "Snake", Tenino, Umatilla, Umpqua, Wallawalla, Warm Springs, Wasco, and Yamel.There were upwards of a hundred tribes and bands in the Oregon Territory.

Dissolution

From 1857 to 1861, the Oregon and Washington superintendencies were combined. The Oregon Superintendency was abolished in 1873—the agents in Oregon then reported directly to the BIA in Washington, D.C.

List of superintendents

(1848–1850) (was Oregon Governor at the same time) * Anson Dart (June 21, 1850 – 1852) *

Joel Palmer General Joel Palmer (October 4, 1810 – June 9, 1881) was an American pioneer of the Oregon Territory in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. He was born in Upper Canada, and spent his early years in New York and Pennsylvania before se ...

(March 17, 1853 – August 16, 1856) (resigned) * Absalom F. Hedges (June 21, 1856 – May 1, 1857) * James W. Nesmith (March 12, 1857 – 1859) * Edward R. Geary (March 22, 1859-?) * William H. Rector (June 13, 1861-?) * J. W. Perit Huntington (January 19, 1863-?) * Alfred B. Meacham (March 29, 1869–?) * T. B. Odeneal (January 8, 1872–?)

Agents

An incomplete list of Indian agents in Oregon includes: * George Ambrose * Lindsay Applegate (Modoc) * William Bagley (Siletz 1875-) * Oliver Cromwell Applegate * B. R. Biddle * Samuel H. Culver *Timothy Woodbridge Davenport * Joseph Emery (Klamath) * J.H. Fairchild (Siletz 1873-1975) * John P. Gaines * Anson G. Henry * William Logan (1861–1865), U.S. representative (with J. W. Perit Huntington) for 1864 treaty establishing the

Warm Springs Indian Reservation The Warm Springs Indian Reservation consists of in north-central Oregon, in the United States, and is governed by the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs. Tribes Three tribes form the confederation: the Wasco, Tenino (Warm Springs) and ...

with the Klamath, Modoc, and Yahooskin *

Lee Moorhouse Lee Moorhouse (1850–1926) of Pendleton, Oregon, United States, was a photographer and an Indian agent for the Umatilla Indian Reservation. From 1888 to 1916, he produced over 9,000 images documenting urban, rural, and Native Americans in th ...

(Umatilla) * Robert Newell (tribes south of the Columbia River) * Linus M. Nickerson (Klamath Agency, 1878-) *

(Siletz- ~1868-1872) * Josiah Lamberson Parrish * Samuel Parrish * William V. Rinehart * J. H. Roark (Klamath Agency 1877–78) * Patrick B. Sinnott * Alonzo A. Skinner * S. M. Smith *

Elijah Steele Elijah Steele (November 13, 1817June 27, 1883) was an American attorney, jurist, Indian agent, and pioneer of Wisconsin and Northern California. He served as a delegate to Wisconsin's first constitutional convention, and was a member of the Wisc ...

Elijah White Dr. Elijah White (1806–1879) was a missionary and agent for the United States government in Oregon Country during the mid-19th century. A trained physician from New York State, he first traveled to Oregon as part of the Methodist Mission in th ...

(Nez Perce, Walla Walla and Cayuse)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Oregon Superintendent Of Indian Affairs Government of Oregon 1848 establishments in Oregon Territory 1873 disestablishments in Oregon

Background

Oregon Superintendency

Agents

Bands

Dissolution

List of superintendents

Agents

See also

References