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Cayuse Tribe The Cayuse were once masters of a vast homeland of more than six million acres in what is now Washington and Oregon. The first of the Northwest tribes to acquire horses, they were relatively few in number but great in influence, known for their shrewd bargaining ability and feared as warriors. Fur trader Alexander Ross (1783-1856) said they were "by far the most powerful and warlike" of the tribes on the Columbia Plateau in 1818. There was a brief war with settlers in 1847 after they attacked and killed 11 at a mission near Walla Walla today. The creation of Oregon Territory as a federal entity, and a treaty then stripped the tribe of most of its land. The Cayuse survive as part of the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla, with a 172,000-acre reservation near Pendleton, Oregon; an annual operating budget of nearly $230 million; and businesses ranging from a casino to a wind farm. In the words of a tribal brochure, "We are still here. We will continue to be here." @CherokeeOwl 🦉 @BrettColdwell