ABSTRACT

An 1855 treaty between the United States and several different tribal groups living on the Columbia Plateau marked the boundaries for the Yakima Reservation in what is now south-central Washington State. Although the Indian signers of the treaty tried to preserve rights to traditional root-gathering and fishing spots, they also incorporated farming and ranching activities into their economy. Under the Dawes Act, the Yakima Reservation was allotted into individually owned plots of land in 1892, thereby encouraging the Yakimas to invest more heavily in farming and ranching. Despite the provisions for Indian citizenship and individual self-sufficiency explicit in the philosophy behind allotment, the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) continued to maintain a paternalistic surveillance over reservation Indians. BIA purchasing records, which Clifford Trafzer has used to study women’s participation in the reservation economy, are one by-product of BIA supervision over the ordinary, daily life of individual Indians.