The Burns Paiute tribe is a Native American tribe in Oregon, a state in the north-western US. Most are from the Wadatika band of the Northern Paiutes. They were the main people living in south-eastern Oregon from at least 1000 to 1830.
By the numbers:
- 1800: 40,000? people on 136,000 km2 (more land than Arkansas)
- 1868: 2,000 people on 7,198 km2 (more land than Delaware)
- 2016: 349 people on 56 km2 (almost as much land as Manhattan).
Unlike most Native Americans, they did not grow maize. They were hunter-gatherers. Some say they were in Oregon by -11,000, others say it was not till 1000.
1820s: The first Whites arrive, hunting beaver, used to make hats in the eastern US. Their trail grows into the Oregon Trail, which brings White settlers and their diseases.
1830s and 1840s: Cholera and smallpox sweep through the tribe. Up to 90% die. They start using guns and horses.
1860s: White people and their horses and cows are eating up and destroying the tribe’s food supply. The tribe begins raiding Whites just to live. This brings the US Army down on them. By the spring of 1868 half are dead, leaving 2,000.
1868: They sign a peace treaty with the US (not ratified by Congress). The tribe agrees to stop raiding Whites. In return, the US will give them the Malheur Indian Reservation, food, clothing and army protection.
1878: The US does not hold up its end. This leads to starvation and an uprising, which the US Army puts down.
January 5th 1879: The US Army marches the remaining 500 off their land at gunpoint. They put the men in shackles and make the walk 500 km north through the snow to Fort Simcoe.
1883: The US starts giving away their land to Whites under the Homestead Act.
1908: The US makes part of the Malheur Indian Reservation into the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge to protect egrets (Ardea alba). Egrets are being overhunted to make hats in the eastern US.
When the Paiutes return, the US offers them marginal land in the Rye Grass area. Most distrust the offer and settle outside of Burns and Drewsey instead, working for Whites as ranch hands and washerwomen.
1927: Father Heuel, a Catholic priest, arrives. In time some become Christians. In 1934, he persuades them to take the US to court for stealing their land.
1949: They are now allowed to go to White schools. Until now too many had tuberculosis and trachoma.
1968: The US recognizes them as a tribe. This allows them to set up their own government.
1969: They win their court case against the US, but their old land is valued at 1890 prices! After they pay the lawyers, they only get $741 apiece (425 crowns).
1998: They open a casino.
2007: Although other tribes speak Northern Paiute and it is taught at some schools, it is in danger of dying out.
2016: Whites with guns led by Ammon Bundy “take back” the wildlife refuge (760 km2). They seem not to know that the US government stole it not from White ranchers but from the nearby Burns Paiute tribe. The tribe wants Bundy to leave. He is desecrating their sacred lands where their ancestors are buried.
– Abagond, 2016.
Sources: Mainly their website: burnspaiute-nsn.gov.
See also:
- Oregon stand-off – the Ammon Bundy thing
- Racializing Native Montana
- Cherokee Trail of Tears
- genocide
- settler colonialism
- American Indians – Legal Recognition
565
Well once you attack a government’s citizen’s, you shouldn’t be surprised if that government goes after you.
If I started raiding Canadians, you can bet I would go to jail for it.
LikeLike
@ Bobby M
If you invade a people’s country, do not be surprised if they attack you.
LikeLike
“I HATE treasonous conservatives like Jefferson Davis and Ammon Bundy. HATE, HATE, HATE THEM!!!!!”
..
lol That’s very Jesus-like/Catholic of you!
You’re quite the comedian..
I wonder if your other idol, Bernie, feels the same way?
LikeLike
If I started raiding Canadians, you can bet I would go to jail for it.
Not really. It would depend on how tall and good-looking you were. Why bring up Canadians in the first place?
LikeLike
Wandering tribes are no more a county than an elephant herd is.
LikeLike
LOM said: “The only humans who should be on that land are outdoorsmen and Federal workers. It is a place for wildlife to live in peace.”
You’re so funny! You never cease to amaze me. Almost the entire southeastern corner of Oregon belongs to the Paiute Indians, not white outdoorsmen or white federal workers. What’s wrong with giving this land back to the rightful owners, the natives???
LikeLike
“Do you now see why I hate them? ”
Umm… what happened to hating the sin, but loving the sinner?
Your celebrated belief system isn’t very meaningful or celebrated, is it?
““There are deeds, crimes that may be forgiven, but this is not among them.”
Walt Whitman, referencing the Confederate concentration camp at Andersonville.”
So Walt Whiteman’s statements trumps the instructions of Jesus??
Mirkwood, don’t you ever get tired of tasting your smelly foot?
SMH
LikeLike
“And I think we can both agree that their rap sheet is pretty bloody.”
No one on this blog dodges, backpedals and switches gears as much as you do. But you’re not the sly fox, or the slick owl you think you are.
I believe I’ve said this once before: Besides the fact that we both breathe air, there’s not much else I agree with you about, or have in common with you.
LikeLike
Bobby M said: “Wandering tribes are no more a county than an elephant herd is.”
Here goes another comedian! You’re correct in the sense that pillaging, raping, murdering, conquering and wandering bands of white men 500 years still does not mean you’re comprised of a nation either. Even more so when the land is attained through European thuggery and theft! So, … what’s your point???
LikeLiked by 2 people
Abagond,
your post was very enlightening and I hope the media starts filtering down the message to the American public that the Paiute’s were robbed.
These white terrorists are the modern example of how this country was built –they truly believe that other people’s land belongs to them just because they are willing to kill and Take it!
I really feel for the Native Americans, they need to truly stand up to this tyranny by the Bundy’s and fight back.
LikeLiked by 2 people
LOM said: “Wildlife are being driven to extinction by hunting and climate change. Remember my reaction to the slaughter of Cecil the Lion? That’s why we need wildlife preserves like Malheur. That’s why the Right needs to be annihilated – they are not in the right!”
LOM, you are continually digging a hole for self burial. When Europeans conquered this land, they killed of millions of Native Americans for so-called “manifest destiny” and then slaughtered of millions of Buffaloes and other wildlife so that the Natives were unable to feed, shelter or clothe themselves. Now, here comes LOM, telling everyone that today’s Europeans respect human life and wildlife as well.
You Sir, are an absolutely stunning character! Typical European, … you just don’t get it!
LikeLiked by 1 person
“HATE, HATE, HATE THEM!!!!!”
“Jefferson Davis and everyone in the Confederate Government and any officer or above in the Confederate Army should have been tortured to death”
“We need to bomb the conservatives out”
Am i the only one who notices that LOM is now totally losing it?
He used to be a pretty harmless racist but he’s evolving into a dangerous lunatic.
I advise everyone to stay as far away from him (her?) as possible.
This is not going to end well…
LikeLike
LOM said: “Are you against wildlife conservation? We need wildlife preserves like Malheur.”
I’m for human and animal preservation, unlike you who see the value only in animals, but human beings, not at all. So, … I see, you want wildlife conservation but refuse to respect and conserve the life of humans. Paiute Indians are human beings, you know. It’s unfortunate you don’t see them as such. I guess this intentional mislabeling and demonic degradation is what gave your European forefathers the impetus to slaughter millions of First Nation peoples, huh.
Carry on, and tell us how you really feel LOM. Meanwhile, I’ll grab a cold one, prop my feet on the footstool and wait for you to spew more nonsense.
LikeLiked by 3 people
@ In Vino Veritas
You are not the only one.
LikeLiked by 1 person
@ Lord of Mirkwood
The Burns Paiutes lived in balance with nature in Oregon for over 800 years. The reason Teddy Roosevelt had to make Malheur a nature preserve in the first place is because it is Whites who live so out of whack with nature.
Also, it is Whites, not the Burns Paiutes, who practised Lebensraum. It was from White Americans that Hitler got the idea. The Burns Paiutes were among its victims. So to compare them to Nazis is – I do not even have a word for it.
LikeLiked by 1 person
@agabond,
Have the Paiute said anything publically about this? Or have I just missed it? I wouldn’t be surprised if some of they tribe members are in support of the Bundy militants.
LikeLike
@ Anne
You missed it. They held a press conference on Wednesday in Burns. Google Burns Paiute. Their two spokespeople are against it and want Bundy & Co to leave. He is desecrating sacred land. If he wins their ancestors’s graves and cultural sites will likely be shut off to them and be overrun by cows. The US government lets them use the land for cultural purposes (and some hunting and fishing too, it seems).
LikeLike
@blakksage
LMAO!!! Great points.
LikeLike
[…] Sourced through Scoop.it from: abagond.wordpress.com […]
LikeLike
@ LoM – The government seems to be interested in leasing out portions of this former reservation to private corporations who wish to mine for uranium and gold so I seriously doubt that they are interested in ‘conservation’.
The Piutes (and other tribes) have rightful claims to many areas because it was the federal and state governments who reneged on agreed upon treaties.
Many tribes gave up better lands in order to find peace with the usurpers only to have their settlements taken away as well.
LikeLike
@agabond,
Holding a press conference is not what I was hoping to see.
LikeLike
A good video summary of the historical and legal issues surrounding the Malheur Reserve by the vlogbrothers:
Who Owns Oregon? Some Historical Context on the so-called Militia Occupation of Public Lands
(https://youtu.be/5e7-7vWWW6Y)
I am happy he has the gall to proclaim that the entire territory seized by the USA was done by force and illegal or dishonest means. The militia men are completely a non-entity in this case.
LikeLike