Last updated: June 11, 2024
Place
Parade Ground Tour Stop 5: The Guardhouse
NPS Photo / FOVA 197400
Although it no longer stands, the barracks guardhouse was approximately in the location of this hedge beginning in the 1860s. Built to confine soldiers who violated laws or Army regulations, the guardhouse also imprisoned Indigenous people from tribes across the Northwest who resisted forced removal from their homelands. Their experiences serve as an important reminder that Vancouver Barracks was a complex place that holds many stories: from ones of service and celebration to those of dispossession of land, imprisonment, and violence.
From the 1850s through the 1880s, Vancouver Barracks was the administrative hub and staging ground for military campaigns against various tribes known as the Indian Wars. Beginning in the 1840s, Americans poured into the region, and conflict between these newcomers and Indigenous people had become increasingly common and often turned violent. The US government pushed for treaties that would confine Native people to reservations, away from population centers. Faced with the threat of violence if they did not comply, some Indigenous leaders signed these treaties, but others refused.
Indigenous incarceration at Vancouver Barracks began with the imprisonment of individual leaders, growing to larger groups of men, women, and children. During the 1870s and 1880s, groups from tribes including the nimíipuu (Nez Perce), Bannock, Paiute, and Tukudika were incarcerated in the guardhouse until they agreed to move to reservations, often located hundreds of miles away from the homelands of themselves and their community.
For groups like the 33 members of the nimíipuu tribe who arrived at the guardhouse on August 7th, 1877, or the 50 Tukudika men, women, and children imprisoned beginning in 1880, Vancouver Barracks was a place of uncertainty and hardship. After enduring months of forced march to reach the barracks, Native prisoners were confined to the cramped guardhouse. Indigenous men were forced to perform manual labor, constructing new buildings, maintaining the military cemetery, and repairing roads under the watch of soldiers. Native women had to learn Western-style sewing from officers’ wives, while children were required to attend school and learn English.
Following their incarceration here, most Indigenous prisoners were transported to reservations. The nimíipuu were escorted to Fort Lapwai in north central Idaho. The Tukudika were taken to Fort Hall in southeastern Idaho. Today, many of their descendants still live in these regions.
What is a place that feels like home to you? What makes it special? Consider what it would be like to be forced to leave it permanently. How might that affect you?
From the 1850s through the 1880s, Vancouver Barracks was the administrative hub and staging ground for military campaigns against various tribes known as the Indian Wars. Beginning in the 1840s, Americans poured into the region, and conflict between these newcomers and Indigenous people had become increasingly common and often turned violent. The US government pushed for treaties that would confine Native people to reservations, away from population centers. Faced with the threat of violence if they did not comply, some Indigenous leaders signed these treaties, but others refused.
Indigenous incarceration at Vancouver Barracks began with the imprisonment of individual leaders, growing to larger groups of men, women, and children. During the 1870s and 1880s, groups from tribes including the nimíipuu (Nez Perce), Bannock, Paiute, and Tukudika were incarcerated in the guardhouse until they agreed to move to reservations, often located hundreds of miles away from the homelands of themselves and their community.
For groups like the 33 members of the nimíipuu tribe who arrived at the guardhouse on August 7th, 1877, or the 50 Tukudika men, women, and children imprisoned beginning in 1880, Vancouver Barracks was a place of uncertainty and hardship. After enduring months of forced march to reach the barracks, Native prisoners were confined to the cramped guardhouse. Indigenous men were forced to perform manual labor, constructing new buildings, maintaining the military cemetery, and repairing roads under the watch of soldiers. Native women had to learn Western-style sewing from officers’ wives, while children were required to attend school and learn English.
Following their incarceration here, most Indigenous prisoners were transported to reservations. The nimíipuu were escorted to Fort Lapwai in north central Idaho. The Tukudika were taken to Fort Hall in southeastern Idaho. Today, many of their descendants still live in these regions.
What is a place that feels like home to you? What makes it special? Consider what it would be like to be forced to leave it permanently. How might that affect you?