Who ownes the “Quinault” Reservation?

Did you know that the land was intended to be owned exclusivly by individuals and was never intended to be owned by a tribe. It was given to individual Indians from nine different tribes so they might live more like the whites.

The Treaty of Olympia in 1855 - 1856 created the original 10,000 acres for the Quinault Reservation. It was made between the United States and the “Qui-nai-elt and Quil-leh-ute” people. In that treaty Article 2 provided for a reservation; article 3 provided the right of taking fish at usual and accustomed places; article 6a) said that the U.S. Government could consolidate the Quinaults and Quilleutes with other friendly Tribes and Bands; and article 6 h) said that the whole or any portion of the lands reserved could be surveyed into lots and given to Individuals.

President U.S. Grant signed an Executive Order on November 4, 1873 that ordered that the reserve created in accordance of the Treaty of Olympia be expanded to 220,000 acres and be “set apart for the use of the Quinaielt, Quillehute, Hoh, Quit, and other tribes of fish eating Indians on the Pacific coast.”

In 1887 congress passed the Dawes Act or General Allotment Act. This act divided Native American reservation land into parcels that were to be given (allotted) to individual Indians, not tribes. This was intended to weaken tribal structures by encouraging the development of individually-owned farms. The act was also supposed to protect Native American ownership of reservation lands.

Allotments of land on the Quinault Reservation began in 1907. It is interesting that many Allottees are erroneously listed as Quinault when in fact they are not.

In the 1924 Supreme Court case United States v. Payne confirmed that the Quilleutes were eligible for allotments.

It says that the allotments may be used as a place to build permanent homes. “Payne, an Indian of the Quillehute (Quilleute) tribe, brought suit in the federal District Court for the Western District of Washington to determine his right to an allotment of an 80-acre tract of land in the Quinaielt (Quinault) Indian Reservation in that state... The treaty with the Quillehute and other Indians, made in 1855, among other things, provides for the removal and settlement of these Indians upon a reservation to be selected for them by the President, and for the payment by the United States of $2,500 ‘to clear, fence, and break up a sufficient quantity of land for cultivation’... The President is authorized by article 6 of the treaty, at his discretion, to cause the reserved lands to be surveyed and assign the same to individual Indians or families for permanent homes on the same terms and under the same conditions as are provided in article 6 of the treaty with the Omahas, concluded in 1854.”

Halbert v. United States 1931. Says that Chehalis, Chinook and Cowlitz tribal members, ³the other tribes of fish eating Indians², are eligible to receive allotments on the Quinault reservation.

Heads of households received 160 acres; single people over the age of eighteen received 80 acres and children got 40 acres.

You came to own a piece of the “Quinault” Reservation because you are a descendent of, or you yourself are a Chehalis, Chinook, Cowlitz, Hoh, Makah, Queets, Quileute, Quinault or Shoalwater Indian. (return to top)

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