RESERVATION POLICY PACIFIC NORTHWEST 21
to make a treaty with the Indians of that region under the title of the Confederated Tribes of Middle Oregon, and Stevens travelled eastward to make a treaty with the Flat- head Indians. The council with the Flatheads and other Indians was held, July 16, 1855, at Hellgate. They ceded the region lying between the Bitter Root Mountains and the main ridge of the Rocky Mountains, and agreed to accept a reserva- tion lying south of Flathead Lake. It was also provided that a portion of the Bitter Root Valley should be temporarily withheld from settlement, the Flathead Indians desiring that this region also be made a reservation, and the superintendent agreeing to leave the matter open for final settlement at a later time. 45
Stevens negotiated a treaty with the Blackfeet, October 17, 1855, relative to common hunting grounds east of the Rocky Mountains for the Blackfeet, Nez Perces, and Flatheads. It was the intention of Stevens to treat with the Coeur d'Alene, Spokan, Colville, and Okinagan on his return trip to Olympia, Washington, but when the Indian war broke out he decided to postpone the negotiation of these treaties, although he visited the Indians. 46
While Stevens was in eastern Washington in the summer of 1855, the treaty was made with the Quinaielt, and other Indians 1 , July 1, 1855, by A. J. Cain. These Indians ceded the lands lying north of Grays Harbor, on the Pacific Coast of Washington Territory. A reservation was set aside for them along the Quinaielt River. 47
The treaty made by Palmer, at Wasco near The Dalles, June 25, 1855, with the Confederated Tribes of Middle Ore- gon provided for the cession of the lands lying between the Wallawalla cession and the Cascade Mountains. The Warm Springs Reservation was designated as the future home of these Indians. It was located about seventy-five miles south of The Dalles, on the west side of the Des Chutes River, and was probably the most isolated region designated in the Stevens- Palmer treaties as an Indian reservation. 48
45 Ibid., II, 722-25.
46 Ibid., II, 736-40.
47 Ibid., II, 719-21.
48 Ibid., II, 740-43.
