Mission, OR

Mission is a Umatilla County census-designated place on the Umatilla Indian Reservation, about six miles from Pendleton in the Pendleton-Hermiston micropolitan area. Its map is reservation-based: the Nixyaawii Governance Center, tribal services, the Umatilla Agency, health and early-learning programs, and the roads connecting the community to Pendleton. The Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation are Cayuse, Umatilla, and Walla Walla, and the reservation was established through the 1855 Treaty of Walla Walla. Pendleton School District serves the community.

Mission is not just a residential edge outside a nearby city. It is the place where tribal government, school routes, farming, and community services meet. CTUIR's own farm manages tribally owned and leased land, and the governance center sits alongside Nixyaawii Community School, Cay-Uma-Wa Head Start, and Yellowhawk Tribal Health Center. Mission's local feel comes from that overlap: daily errands and school trips may point toward Pendleton, but the community's civic center is the reservation and the institutions of the Confederated Tribes.