Series marks Northwest Indian Treaty anniversary

Diane Mallickan, park ranger and cultural interpreter for the Nez Pierce National Historic Park, will speak March 10 at Washington State University Vancouver as part of the Northwest Treaty Trail of 1854-1856 lecture series.

The talk, titled “War (and Treaties) are Made to Take Something Not Yours” — words spoken by Yellow Wolf (a nephew of Chief Joseph) after the 1877 War with the U.S. Cavalry — will take place in Student Services Building Room 110. The event is free and open to the public. Light refreshments will follow.

The presentation will give an overview of all the treaties the United States engaged in with the Nez Perce tribe, including the 1855 Stevens Treaty, highlighting the perspective of the Plateau people.

Mallickan, a member of the Nez Perce and Shoshone-Paiute tribes, was educated at the University of Idaho and Lewis-Clark State College in Lewiston, Idaho. She has been a park ranger and cultural interpreter at the Nez Perce National Historical Park for almost 15 years.Her publications include “Nez Perce Nation Divided: Firsthand Accounts of Events Leading to the 1863 Treaty.” She was a team writer for the Nez Perce tribe’s “Treaties: Nez Perce Perspective” and is currently working on “Vol. I of Voices from Nez Perce Country” that will contain Nez Perce stories kept in families over the decades about Lewis and Clark, missionaries and others who came.

This year marks the 150th anniversary of the Northwest Indian Treaty negotiations between Territorial Gov. Isaac Stevens and Northwest Indian leaders that determined the future of tribal people throughout the Northwest. By the terms of the treaties, thousands of native people ceded millions of acres of their traditional homelands. These same treaties continue to shape life in the Pacific Northwest for native and non-native peoples. This lecture series gives residents of Portland and southwest Washington the opportunity to learn more about these issues and offers contemporary native perspectives on the topic from a variety of disciplines, including legal, literary and poetic.

Clark County Historical Museum, WSU Vancouver College of Liberal Arts, WSU Vancouver Diversity Council and the Center for Columbia River History are co-sponsors of the series.

WSU Vancouver is located at 14204 N.E. Salmon Creek Ave., east of the 134th Street exit from I-5 or I-205. Parking rules are enforced Monday through Friday from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Parking is available in the blue lot for $1.75 or at parking meters.