In 1855, the Yakama, Imatalamłáma (Umatilla), Cayuse, and Walla Walla peoples were forced to cede more than 6 million acres of their lands to the United States in the Yakama Treaty. The governor of Washington Territory, Isaac I. Stevens, assured Native peoples that Euro-Americans would not intrude on their remaining lands. However, gold strikes near Colville, Washington, and the Fraser River area in British Columbia led to numerous Euro-American miners passing through these lands. Native people killed some miners in retaliation, which prompted Major Granville O. Haller of the U.S. Army to deploy troops to the Yakima Valley. There, his troops battled Native fighters led by Yakama Chief Kiamiakin on October 5, 1855, which sparked what would become known as the Yakima War. During the war, Oregon Territorial Governor George L. Curry provided volunteer troops to assist the U.S. Army and Euro-American emigrants in Washington in fighting Native peoples, and notable Oregon figures such as James W. Nesmith served in the war. The war ended in 1859, and resulted in the United States seizing 90 percent of the Yakama people's traditional lands and confining them to a reservation.

Sources: "Yakama Indian War begins on October 5, 1855," by Paula Becker, HistoryLink.org, https://www.historylink.org/File/5311; Corning, Howard McKinley, editor, "Dictionary of Oregon History," 2nd edition, 1989.

Newman S. Clarke (circa 1792-1860) was a United States Army officer who served in the War of 1812 and the Mexican-American War. In 1857, he succeeded General John E. Wool as commander of the Department of the Pacific.

Sources: Obituary in the New York Times, November 15, 1860; "Governor Isaac Stevens convenes Second Walla Walla Council on September 11, 1856," by David Wilma, Historylink.org, https://historylink.org/File/5189; "Isaac I. Stevens: Young Man in a Hurry," by Kent D. Richards, revised edition (Pullman, Wash.: Washington State University Press, 2016), page 290; vital and census records on Ancestry.com.