In 1854, the U.S. Commissioner of Indian Affairs instructed Isaac I. Stevens, Governor of the Washington Territory, to enter into treaties with the coast Indian tribes. Following the initial council meetings in Cosmopolis, treaty councils were held on the Quinault River in July, 1855 and in Olympia in January, 1856. The treaty was eventually signed by Governor Stevens and Ta-Ho-Lah and How-Yatle, chiefs of the Quinaults and Quillayute tribes, and it was ratified by the U.S. Senate in 1859.