Warm Springs Indian Reservation

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Flag of the Warm Springs Indian Reservation

The Warm Springs Indian Reservation occupies 2,640.194 km² (1,019.385 sq mi) in north central Oregon. It lies primarily in parts of Wasco County and Jefferson County, but there are smaller sections in five other counties; in descending order of land area they are: Clackamas, Marion, Gilliam, Sherman, and Hood River counties. (The Hood River County portion consists of tiny sections of non-contiguous off-reservation trust land in the northeast corner of the county.) The reservation is 105 miles (170 km) southeast of Portland; 348,000 acres (1408 km²), over half, is forested. Its 2000 census total population was 3,314 inhabitants. Its only significant population center is the community of Warm Springs, which comprises over 73 percent of the reservation's population. The reservation is home to several bands from three tribes of the Pacific Northwest:

the Sahaptin-speaking Warm Springs Indians, organized into four bands: Upper and Lower Deschutes (the Tygh and the Wyam), the Tenino, and the John Day (Dock-spus);
two bands (The Dalles a.k.a. the Ki-gal-twal-la, and Dog River) of Wasco Indians who spoke a dialect of Upper Chinook; and
the Northern Paiutes, who spoke Shoshonian and had a way of life very different from the Warm Springs and Wasco bands.
Like the Grand Ronde Agency in western Oregon, the Warm Springs Reservation is one of the last holdouts in the US of speakers of the Chinook Jargon because of its utility as an inter-tribal language. The forms of the Jargon used by elders in Warm Springs vary considerably from the heavily-creolized form at Grand Ronde.

Since 1938 they have been unified as the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs.

The reservation was created by treaty in 1855, which defined its boundaries as follows:

Commencing in the middle of the channel of the Deschutes River opposite the eastern termination of a range of high lands usually known as the Mutton Mountains; thence westerly to the summit of said range, along the divide to its connection with the Cascade Mountains; thence to the summit of said mountains; thence southerly to Mount Jefferson; thence down the main branch of Deschutes River; heading in this peak, to its junction with Deschutes River; and thence down the middle of the channel of said river to the place of beginning.

The Warm Springs and Wasco bands gave up ownership rights to 10,000,000 acre area, which they had inhabited for over 10,000 years, in exchange for basic health care, education, and other forms of assistance as outlined by the Treaty with the Tribes of Middle Oregon (June 25, 1855). Other provisions of the Treaty of 1855 ensured that tribal members retained hunting and fishing rights in the "Natural and Accustomed Area" which they had vacated. These treaty hunting and fishing rights are rights that were retained by the tribe and are not "special rights" granted by the U.S. government. [1]

In 1879, the U.S. government moved a small group of Paiutes to the reservation in spite of that tribe's history of conflict with Columbia River tribes.

In 1964, the first part of the Kah-nee-ta resort was completed—Kah-nee-ta Village—a lodging complex with a motel, cottages and tipis.

As of 2003, the reservation was home to a tribal enrollment of over 4200. The biggest source of revenue for the tribes are hydroelectric (Warm Springs Power Enterprises) projects on the Deschutes River; a casino opened in 1996 nets less than $3 million/year. The tribes also operate Warm Springs Forest Products Industries.