| History
This area was originally part of the Columbia or Chief
Moses Indian Reservation, established by two executive orders in 1879 and 1880.
The reservation originally extended from Lake Chelan and the Chelan River on the
south, to the Columbia and the Okanogan River on the eastern side, to the
Canadian border on the north, and to the crest of the Cascade Range on the
western side.
Almost immediately, white stockmen and gold seekers began a movement to break
up the reservation. On February 23, 1883, President Chester A. Arthur signed an
executive order, which restored to the public domain, a strip of land fifteen
miles wide along the Canadian border.
A few months later, on July 7, 1883, Moses and two other chiefs signed a
document in Washington, D.C., which made it possible to open the reservation for
homestead and mineral entries.
The so-called Moses Agreement stipulated that certain Indians, then living on
the Columbia Reservation, "shall be entitled to 640 acres, or one square mile of
land, to each head of the family or male adult, in the possession and ownership
of which they shall be guaranteed and protected."
Although the tracts would be allocated to the sole possession of the Indians
specified, those who did not choose to take such special allotments could move
to the Colville Reservation, where they would be accorded full rights.
 Members of the Wapato Family were among those who claimed
allotments. This family, whose patriarch at the time was Nekquelekin
(Enkawhakekum) or Wapato John (sometimes misspelled Wapato), had previously
lived along the Columbia River above Ribbon Cliff in the Entiat vicinity.
In 1884, Peter Wapato, son of John, obtained the Wapato Point area as
part of the Moses Agreement allotment No. 10, and his descendants still retain
his interest.
Later, the Point became a gathering place for local Indians, who played the
stick game, ran their horses on a half-mile racetrack, and staged rodeos. A
grandstand was erected at the racetrack, which was located on the west side of
the neck of land leading to Wapato Point itself. Nearby, on this neck, family
members operated a dance hall from the late 1920's into the 1940's.
They also planted fruit trees on the east side of the neck. Nothing is left
standing of the early structures. In the 1950's and 1960's, the family
maintained facilities for camping, swimming, and boating.
In the early 1900's, the local settlers, through the Wapato Irrigation
Company, convinced Congress to reduce the size of the allotments previously
awarded the Indians. In March 1911, Congress did diminish the allotments to only
160 acres. In the 1930's, the water level of Lake Chelan was raised 22 feet,
causing approximately 50 acres of the final 160 acres to be under water, when
the lake is at high water, 1100 elevation.
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