Key Concepts & Ideas in the Development of Gov. in WA

Lecture by Chris Gall

Walla Walla CouncilReasons for:

Open up land for settlement

Protect Indians from white encroachment

Define boundaries for Indians & Whites

Problems with:Promises not keptLack of enforcement

Reasons for Delayed StatehoodWA Territory

Created: 1853WA State Created:

1898Low Population

Couldn’t meet the threshold

State closed to newcomers

Ongoing conflictYakama Wars

Talk break….Discuss with your group the ways in which

the misunderstandings about what was negotiated at the Walla Walla council might have led to delayed statehood for Washington.

1 minuteWhip Around

Tribal SovereigntyTribes are “domestic dependent nations”They have the right to govern their own people

and make their own laws & rules within their reservations

More independence from federal oversight than states, but less than foreign nations

Means that tribes can (and do) negotiate with states and the federal government for what they need

Have certain rights as a group that the rest of us do not have, based on treaty negotiations that occurred in the 19th century.

Talk break….Define tribal sovereignty in your own words

within your group1 minuteWhip Around

Results, Impacts, & So ForthFederal government

provided annuities and other forms of support to reservation Indians

State government is limited in its authority on reservations

State is forced to interact on a more equal level

Tribes are allotted certain amounts of various resources, such as fish

Talk break….What does what we’ve learned mean for the

relationship between tribal government and the US government (at its various levels)?

2 minutesWhip Around