← All supplied studies and collections
Klickitat involvement in the wars of 1855 and 1856
Owner-supplied research study. The study’s assertions and citations have not all been independently checked by the Atlas. This is supplementary reading, separate from the profile’s inspected-source collection.
Download Word (.docx) · Study source collection
About this reading copy
Study text retained; author/editor file metadata cleared for public download. Online text preserves paragraphs and table content; use the Word download for original layout and any embedded media.
Klickitat War 1855 to 1856
Historical overview and sources
The Klickitat War of 1855–1856 is best understood as Klickitat participation in the wider wars over land and reservations in the Pacific Northwest. The fighting overlapped with the Yakama War east of the Cascade Mountains, the Puget Sound War west of the mountains and the March 1856 attack at the Cascades of the Columbia River. Treating these events as connected gives a clearer account than presenting the Klickitat War as a fully separate conflict. [1, 2, 3]
The Klickitat were a Sahaptin-speaking people whose traditional homeland lay north of the Columbia River, in areas now within Klickitat, Skamania and Clark counties in Washington. During the early nineteenth century, some Klickitat bands moved into western Oregon. They became important traders between communities, dealing in horses, weapons, hides and other goods. [4]
As American settlement grew, Native access to land and food became harder to maintain. In western Oregon, settlers fenced prairies and treated movement across claimed land as trespass. Federal officials promoted reservations as a way to protect Native people while opening much larger areas to settlement. These policies threatened communities’ homes, hunting grounds, fishing places and freedom of movement. [4, 5]
The June 1855 treaty came before the main fighting. At the Walla Walla council, Governor Isaac Stevens and Indian superintendent Joel Palmer pressed tribal leaders to surrender large areas of land. Kamiakin, a leading Yakama chief, opposed the proposed terms before eventually signing. The council brought together peoples with different leaders and interests, so a signature did not mean that every affected community accepted the agreement. [1]
The Treaty with the Yakama, signed June 9, 1855, specifically included the “Klikatat.” It grouped fourteen tribes and bands together under the name Yakama and established a reservation. It also reserved fishing rights at customary places and rights to hunt, gather food and pasture livestock on open and unclaimed land. Its terms required relocation within one year after ratification, which did not occur until 1859. Those dates matter because the treaty should not be described as a surrender that ended the fighting in 1855. [6, 1]
In August 1855, officials forcibly removed several hundred Klickitat people from Oregon to a temporary reserve near present-day White Salmon, Washington. Some had lived in Oregon for years and considered it home. The Oregon Encyclopedia identifies displaced Oregon Klickitats as an important part of the resistance associated with Kamiakin in 1856, including attacks along the Columbia River and lower Lewis River. Removal was therefore one of the direct links between government policy and armed resistance. [4]
The main sequence was:
| Date | Event |
| June 9, 1855 | The Treaty with the Yakama included the Klickitat among its participating tribes and bands. [6] |
| August 1855 | Several hundred Klickitat people were removed from Oregon to Washington. [4] |
| September 1855 | Yakama warriors killed Indian agent Andrew J. Bolon amid escalating violence involving miners and Native people. The Army prepared a military response. [7] |
| October 5, 1855 | Yakama forces defeated Major Granville Haller’s troops at Toppenish Creek, beginning the main Yakama War fighting. [7] |
| Late October 1855 | Nisqually and Klickitat fighters clashed with territorial volunteers in the Puget Sound region. Muckleshoot and Klickitat attackers also killed nine settlers along the White River. [2] |
| January 26, 1856 | Native forces attacked Seattle. Gunfire from USS Decatur helped defend the settlement. Territorial officials associated the attack with leaders including Owhi, although accounts of responsibility require care. [8] |
| March 26–28, 1856 | Yakama, Klickitat and Cascade fighters attacked settlements and military positions at the Columbia River Cascades. Army reinforcements recovered the area. [3] |
The Cascades attack was a struggle over a vital transportation route and fishing area. The river’s dangerous rapids forced travelers to carry goods around them, a process called portaging. Whoever controlled that passage could influence trade and military movement between the lower Columbia and the interior. The area also supported important Native salmon fisheries. Attacking its blockhouses, supplies, transportation facilities and steamers offered a way to interrupt American military operations farther east. [9, 3]
On March 26, attackers struck the Upper, Middle and Lower Cascades. Some settlers took refuge in a military blockhouse while others sheltered in the Bradford brothers’ store. Attackers burned buildings and tried to set the store on fire. The steamers Mary and Wasco escaped upriver, allowing word of the attack to reach Army forces. [3]
HistoryLink reports fourteen civilians and three soldiers killed. The National Park Service’s scholarly study also gives seventeen white deaths, while stressing that Native casualties were poorly recorded. That uneven record makes a complete casualty total difficult to establish. The event became widely known as the Cascades Massacre, a name that emphasizes the deaths of settlers and soldiers. [3, 9]
Lieutenant Philip Sheridan brought reinforcements from Fort Vancouver, while troops under George Wright and Edward Steptoe approached from upriver. The relief forces broke the attack. Sheridan then captured a nearby Cascade community, including men, women and children. The Cascade people were a distinct community, so these prisoners should not simply be described as captured Klickitat fighters. [10, 4]
Sheridan’s later memoir reports that Wright’s military commission sentenced nine Cascade prisoners to death and had them hanged. Sheridan described the prisoners initially denying participation, then treated residue in their gun barrels as evidence of guilt. He also repeated reports of confessions before execution, although he acknowledged that he did not witness the hangings. A cautious reading is that recently fired weapons alone cannot establish which individuals attacked civilians. His memoir provides valuable testimony, but it also defends his own actions and those of the Army. [11]
Violence also reached Native families who had supported American forces. Sheridan described finding the murdered wife and six children of Spencer, a Chinook interpreter working with Wright. He attributed their deaths to white men seeking revenge and condemned the killing of people who had no part in the attack. This account shows how retaliation endangered people regardless of their actual role in the fighting. [11]
The fighting in 1856 did not mark the end of the wider regional war. Resistance and Army campaigns continued, with major defeats of Native forces in 1858. Kamiakin attempted to maintain an alliance across tribal boundaries, but that alliance faced military pressure and internal disagreements. There was no single Native army representing every Klickitat, Yakama or neighboring community. [12]
The lasting consequences included displacement, greater American control over transportation routes and reduced Native control of land and resources. Klickitat people nevertheless remained part of the region. Most descendants of Oregon Klickitats are enrolled in the Yakama Nation, while others have connections to Grand Ronde and Cowlitz communities. Klickitat are among the fourteen tribes and bands represented within the Yakama confederation today. [4, 13]
A precise chronological entry is:
1855–1856: Klickitat involvement in the Yakama and Puget Sound wars, including the March 1856 Cascades attack.
Sources
The numbered citations refer to these sources. The treaty and Sheridan’s memoir are primary sources.
[1] James Schroeder. Walla Walla Council 1855. National Park Service.
https://www.nps.gov/articles/000/walla-walla-council-1855.htm
[2] David Wilma. Nisquallys and Klickitats battle Territorial Volunteers in Pierce County beginning on October 27, 1855. HistoryLink, May 14, 2007.
https://www.historylink.org/file/8149
[3] David Wilma. Native Americans attack and kill 14 Americans at the Cascades of the Columbia on March 26, 1856. HistoryLink, February 7, 2003.
https://www.historylink.org/file/5190
[4] Robert Boyd, R. Scott Byram and David Lewis. Western Oregon Klikatats (Klickitats). The Oregon Encyclopedia.
https://www.oregonencyclopedia.org/articles/western_oregon_klickitats/
[5] Cliff Trafzer. Native American Treaties, Northeastern Oregon. The Oregon Encyclopedia.
https://www.oregonencyclopedia.org/articles/native_american_treaties_eastern_oregon/
[6] Treaty with the Yakama, June 9, 1855. Washington Governor's Office of Indian Affairs. Primary source, treaty transcription.
https://goia.wa.gov/resources/treaties/treaty-yakama-1855
[7] Paula Becker. Yakama War begins on October 5, 1855. HistoryLink, February 26, 2003.
https://historylink.org/File/5311
[8] Walt Crowley and David Wilma. Native Americans attack Seattle on January 26, 1856. HistoryLink, February 15, 2003.
https://www.historylink.org/File/5208
[9] Jackie Gonzales and Morgen Young. Overlanders in the Columbia River Gorge, 1840–1870: A Narrative History. Historical Research Associates, prepared for the National Park Service, September 24, 2020. Printed pages 132–133.
[10] David Lewis. Philip Henry Sheridan (1831–1888). The Oregon Encyclopedia.
https://www.oregonencyclopedia.org/articles/philip_sheridan_1831_1888_/
[11] Philip Henry Sheridan. Personal Memoirs of P. H. Sheridan, General, United States Army, Volume I. 1888. Chapters V and VI. Project Gutenberg transcription. Primary source, a participant's later recollection.
https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/2651/pg2651.html
[12] Jim Kershner. Chief Kamiakin (ca. 1800–1877). HistoryLink, April 19, 2012.
https://historylink.org/File/10096
[13] Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission. The Confederated Tribes and Bands of the Yakama Nation.
https://critfc.org/member-tribes-overview/the-confederated-tribes-and-bands-of-the-yakama-nation/