Treaty of Ruby Valley (1863) - Treaty

Treaty

In the early 1860s some of the Western Shoshone people were conducting raids against settlers who were travelling along the Humboldt River and the Overland Trail. The Federal government established Fort Ruby to provide security for the settlers against the Indians, and started to negotiate treaties with the Shoshone and other peoples of the Great Basin. On 1 October 1863 Governor James W. Nye of Nevada Territory and Governor James Duane Doty of the Utah Territory signed the Treaty of Ruby Valley. Twelve chiefs signed for the "Western Bands of the Shoshonee Nation of Indians". All but one made a mark in place of a signature. The document was witnessed by J. B. Moore, lieutenant-colonel Third Infantry California Volunteers, Jacob T. Lockhart, Indian agent, Nevada Territory and Henry Butterfield, interpreter.

The signatories agreed to cease hostilities. They would allow free passage along the routes through Shoshone country, establishment of military posts and rest stations for travelers and for mail and telegraph companies, continued operation of telegraph and stage lines and construction of a railway from the plains to the Pacific ocean passing through their country. They would also allow prospecting for gold, silver or other minerals, mining of any deposits found, formation of mining and agricultural settlements and ranches, erection of mills and logging of timber. When the President of the United States should "deem it expedient for them to abandon the roaming life", they agreed to become herdsmen or agriculturalists on reservations that would be assigned to them. In exchange, the Shoshone would receive twenty annual payments worth $5,000 each in the form of cattle and other goods.

The treaty did not state that the Shoshone were to surrender their lands. This omission was to create a huge amount of work for the Indian Claims Commission from the time it was established in 1946 until it was dissolved in 1978 and outstanding issues transferred to the courts.