Commission on Indian Services​

​Burns Paiute Tribe

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Click here: Heart and Spirit of Tribal Consultation Video - Burns Paiute Tribe​

The Burns Paiute Tribe is primarily comprised of the Wadatika Band of Northern Paiute people, but holds lineal family ties to all other Northern Paiute Bands in Oregon and Beyond. The Burns Paiute's Ancestors' carried from generation to generation the oral history of lives lived since time immemorial. The beginning of our world was a time when there was no land, only water. The other four legged and winged beings helped our people acquire our traditional language in a time when land was first created.

Since then, our people, living by a traditional understanding of existence, have practiced a reciprocal relationship with all others inhabiting our traditional lands. Every year our families predictably traveled to seasonally inhabited locations within our homelands to continue our relationships with others in our ecosystem. Our Ancestors were the last truly free Indigenous people in Oregon prior to being forcibly marched in the winter of 1879 from our lands to Ft. Simcoe, Washington. 

Our surviving Ancestors were held in exile for half a decade at Ft. Simcoe, prior to being allowed to leave. Those who returned home established themselves in a changing world and planted the seeds for the successful adjudication of a settlement claim for the loss of our Malheur Reservation. Our historic Tribe obtained federal recognition in 1969.

Today, our community, as a sovereign nation, is working to revitalize our lands, our language, and our traditional culture as we also navigate the rigors of the 21st century. We are still here as Creator intended and look forward to passing along our oral and written histories for many generations to come.

Address
100 Pasigo St., Burns, OR 97720

Discover More

Official Website
Oregon Blue Book​
Tu' Kwa Hone​​