Yakama

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Yakama
Yakamawarrior.jpg
Yakama warrior ca. 1913,
photographed by Lucullus V. McWhorter
Total population
10,851 (2000 Census)
Regions with significant populations
United States (Flag of Washington.svg  Washington)
Languages
English, Ichishkíin Sínwit
Religion
Christianity, Indian religions
Related ethnic groups
Klickitat

The Yakama are a Native American tribe with nearly 10,851 members, based primarily in eastern Washington state.

Contents

Yakama people today are enrolled in the federally recognized tribe, the Confederated Tribes and Bands of the Yakama Nation. Their Yakama Indian Reservation, along the Yakima River, covers an area of approximately 1.2 million acres (5,260 km2). Today the nation is governed by the Yakama Tribal Council, which consists of representatives of 14 tribes.

Many Yakama people engage in ceremonial, subsistence, and commercial fishing for salmon, steelhead, and sturgeon in the Columbia River and its tributaries, including within land ceded by the tribe to the United States.[ citation needed ] Their right to fish in their former territory is protected by treaties and was re-affirmed in late 20th-century court cases such as United States v. Washington (known as the Boldt Decision, 1974) and United States v. Oregon ( Sohappy v. Smith , 1969), though more than a century of U.S. industrial pollution has contaminated these waterways with dangerous levels of toxic chemicals. [1] The Columbia Basin Initiative aims to improve salmon-fishing for the tribe.

Etymology

Scholars disagree on the origins of the name Yakama. The Sahaptin words, E-yak-ma, means "a growing family", and iyakima, means "pregnant ones". Other scholars note the word, yákama, which means "black bear," or ya-ki-ná, which means "runaway". [2]

They have also been referred to as the Waptailnsim, "people of the narrow river," and Pa'kiut'lĕma, "people of the gap," which describes the tribe's location along the Yakima River. [2] The Yakama identify as the Mamachatpam. [2]

Historic Yakama Band and Territories

″Yakima″ or ″Yakama″ was first a collective term for five (originally six) regional bands who spoke the same language or dialect of Sahaptin, also known as Ichishkíin Sɨ́nwit (″this language″). Usually they named the individual bands, village groups, local groups, and rivers after a specific rock formation, their main camps, or after an important village or fishing site.

The English names of the following local rivers were derived from Sahaptin: the Klickitat, Umatilla, Walla Walla, Palouse, Yakima, Satus, Toppenish, Tieton, and Wenatchee (in each case the original native term referred not to the river itself, which generally was left unnamed): [3] [4]

Their lands lay within the Yakima Rivers (in Yakama: Tapteal – ″rapids″ because of the waterfalls at Prosser, Washington) watershed and for the most part east of the Cascade Range, to the south along the northern tributaries of the Columbia River (in Yakama: Nch'i-Wána – ″great river″) (here the Yakama bands frequently lived in bilingual villages together with Southern/Columbia River Sahaptin-speaking bands: Umatilla, Skin-pah/Skin, Tenino/Warm Springs), to the southwest along the Lower Snake River and Columbia River (here the Yakama bands lived also in bilingual villages together with Lower Snake River Sahaptin-speaking local groups of Chamnapam/Chem-na-pum, Wauyukma and Naxiyampam), to the northeast their tribal territories ranged up to the Wenatchee River (because of frequently intermarriages some of the originally Interior Salish-speaking Wenatchi bands switched to Sahaptin as first language), in the north to the lakes of Cle Elum Lake (after the Upper Yakama / Kittitas name Tie-el-Lum, meaning "swift water", referring to the Cle Elum River), Kachess Lake ("more fish") and Keechelus Lake ("few fish") at the headwaters of the Yakima River (with the directly northwest living Coast-Salish-speaking Snoqualmie the Yakama bands kept family ties), in the west across the Cascade Range to the headwaters of the Cowlitz River (shch'il), Lewis River ((wl'ɫt'kh) and White Salmon River (where there were also family ties with Coast-Salish-speaking Lower Cowlitz and Upper Chinookan/Kiksht-speaking Wasco-Wishram).

History

Yakama woman, ca. 1911 Edward S. Curtis Collection People 030.jpg
Yakama woman, ca. 1911
Yakama tipi, by Edward Curtis, 1910 Yakimatent.jpg
Yakama tipi, by Edward Curtis, 1910

The Yakama people are similar to the other native inhabitants of the Columbia River Plateau. They were hunters and gatherers well known for trading salmon harvested from annual runs in the Columbia River. In 1805 or 1806, they encountered the Lewis and Clark Expedition at the confluence of the Yakima River and Columbia River.

As a consequence of the Walla Walla Council [8] and the Yakima War of 1855, the tribe was forced to cede much of their land and move onto their present reservation. [9] The Treaty of 1855 identified the 14 confederated tribes and bands of the Yakama, including "Yakama (Lower Yakama or Yakama proper, autonym: Mámachatpam), Palouse (now written Palus, Yakama name: Pelúuspem), Pisquouse (P'squosa, now Wenatchi), Wenatshapam (Yakama name: Winátshapam, now Wenatchi), Klikatat (Yakama name: Xwálxwaypam or L'ataxat), Klinquit (a Yakama subtribe), Kow-was-say-ee (Yakama name: Kkáasu-i or K'kasawi, Tenino subtribe, today's Crow Butte, Washington, opposite of Boardman, Oregon), Li-ay-was (not identified), Skin-pah (Sk'in tribe or Sawpaw, also known as Fall Bridge and Rock Creek people or K'milláma, a Tenino subtribe; perhaps another Yakama name for the Umatilla, which were known as Rock Creek Indians), Wish-ham (Yakama name: Wíshχam, now Wishram, speaking Upper Chinook (Kiksht)), [10] Shyiks (a Yakama subtribe), Ochechotes (Uchi'chol, a Tenino subtribe), Kah-milt-pay (Kahmiltpah, Q'míl-pa or Qamil'lma, perhaps a Klikatat subtribe), and Se-ap-cat (Si'apkat, perhaps a Kittitas (Upper Yakama) subtribe, Kittitas autonym: Pshwánapam or Psch-wan-wap-pams), confederated tribes and bands of Indians, occupying lands hereinafter bounded and described and lying in Washington Territory, who for the purposes of this treaty are to be considered as one nation, under the name 'Yakama'…". (Treaty with the Yakama, 1855) The name was changed from Yakima to Yakama in 1994 to reflect the native pronunciation. [11]

Language

Yakama is a northwestern dialect of Sahaptin, a Sahaptian language of the Plateau Penutian family. Since the late 20th century, some native speakers have argued to use the traditional Yakama name for this language, Ichishkíin Sínwit. The tribal Cultural Resources program wants to replace the word Sahaptin, which means "stranger in the land". [12]

Notable Yakama people

Profile of a Yakama man by DeLancey W. Gill, 1906. Portrait (Profile) of Samuel Schanowa in Partial Native Dress with Ornaments February 1905.jpg
Profile of a Yakama man by DeLancey W. Gill, 1906.

Notes

  1. Another interpretation is that the bread made from the root kous was called kit-tit. Kous grew in the Kittitas Valley. "Tash" is generally accepted to mean "place of existence."
  2. another version for the origin of the tribal name Klickitat is probably a Chinookan word meaning "beyond" in reference to the Rocky Mountains

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Yakima County, Washington</span> County in Washington, United States

Yakima County is a county in the U.S. state of Washington. As of the 2020 census, its population was 256,728. The county seat and most populous city is Yakima. The county was formed out of Ferguson County in January 1865 and is named for the Yakama tribe of Native Americans.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cowlitz people</span> Two distinct indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest

The term Cowlitz people covers two culturally and linguistically distinct indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest; the Lower Cowlitz or Cowlitz proper, and the Upper Cowlitz / Cowlitz Klickitat or Taitnapam. Lower Cowlitz refers to a southwestern Coast Salish people, which today are enrolled in the federally recognized tribes: Cowlitz Indian Tribe, Quinault Indian Nation, and Confederated Tribes of the Chehalis Reservation. The Upper Cowlitz or Taitnapam, is a Northwest Sahaptin speaking people, part of the Confederated Tribes and Bands of the Yakama Nation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lewis River (Washington)</span> Columbia River tributary

The Lewis River is a tributary of the Columbia River, about 95 miles (153 km) long, in southwestern Washington in the United States. It drains part of the Cascade Range north of the Columbia River. The drainage basin of the Lewis River covers about 1,046 square miles (2,709 km2). The river's mean annual discharge is about 6,125 cubic feet per second (173.4 m3/s). Unlike nearby Lewis County and Fort Lewis the Lewis River was not named for Meriwether Lewis, but rather for A. Lee Lewis, an early colonizer who homesteaded near the mouth of the river.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Palouse people</span> Ethnic group

The Palouse are a Sahaptin tribe recognized in the Treaty of 1855 with the United States along with the Yakama. It was negotiated at the 1855 Walla Walla Council. A variant spelling is Palus. Today they are enrolled in the federally recognized Confederated Tribes and Bands of the Yakama Nation and some are also represented by the Colville Confederated Tribes, the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation and Nez Perce Tribe.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Umatilla people</span> Indigenous people of America

The Umatilla are a Sahaptin-speaking Native American tribe who traditionally inhabited the Columbia Plateau region of the northwestern United States, along the Umatilla and Columbia rivers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Indigenous peoples of the Northwest Plateau</span> Regional culture in North America

Indigenous peoples of the Northwest Plateau, also referred to by the phrase Indigenous peoples of the Plateau, and historically called the Plateau Indians are Indigenous peoples of the Interior of British Columbia, Canada, and the non-coastal regions of the Northwestern United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Yakima War</span> 19th-century conflict between the United States and the Yakama people

The Yakima War (1855–1858), also referred to as the Plateau War or Yakima Indian War, was a conflict between the United States and the Yakama, a Sahaptian-speaking people of the Northwest Plateau, then part of Washington Territory, and the tribal allies of each. It primarily took place in the southern interior of present-day Washington. Isolated battles in western Washington and the northern Inland Empire are sometimes separately referred to as the Puget Sound War and the Coeur d'Alene War, respectively.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Puget Sound War</span> 1855–1856 war between US and Native Americans

The Puget Sound War was an armed conflict that took place in the Puget Sound area of the state of Washington in 1855–56, between the United States military, local militias and members of the Native American tribes of the Nisqually, Muckleshoot, Puyallup, and Klickitat. Another component of the war, however, were raiders from the Haida and Tlingit who came into conflict with the United States Navy during contemporaneous raids on the native peoples of Puget Sound. Although limited in its magnitude, territorial impact and losses in terms of lives, the conflict is often remembered in connection to the 1856 Battle of Seattle and to the execution of a central figure of the war, Nisqually Chief Leschi. The contemporaneous Yakima War may have been responsible for some events of the Puget Sound War, such as the Battle of Seattle, and it is not clear that the people of the time made a strong distinction between the two conflicts.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Klickitat people</span> Ethnic group

The Klickitat are a Native American tribe of the Pacific Northwest. Today most Klickitat are enrolled in the federally recognized Confederated Tribes and Bands of the Yakama Nation, some are also part of the Confederated Tribes of the Grand Ronde Community of Oregon.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sahaptin</span> Ethnic group

The Sahaptin are a number of Native American tribes who speak dialects of the Sahaptin language. The Sahaptin tribes inhabited territory along the Columbia River and its tributaries in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. Sahaptin-speaking peoples included the Klickitat, Kittitas, Yakama, Wanapum, Palus, Lower Snake, Skinpah, Walla Walla, Umatilla, Tenino, and Nez Perce.

Sahaptin, also called Ichishkiin, is one of the two-language Sahaptian branch of the Plateau Penutian family spoken in a section of the northwestern plateau along the Columbia River and its tributaries in southern Washington, northern Oregon, and southwestern Idaho, in the United States; the other language is Nez Perce (Niimi'ipuutímt).

The Wenatchi people or Šnp̍əšqʷáw̉šəxʷi / Np̓əšqʷáw̓səxʷ are Native Americans who originally lived near the confluence of the Columbia and Wenatchee Rivers in Central Washington state. Their language is Interior Salish. Traditionally, they ate salmon, starchy roots like camas and biscuitroot, berries, deer, sheep and whatever else they could hunt or catch. The river that they lived on, the Wenatchee River, had one of the greatest runs of salmon in the world prior to numerous hydroelectric dams being put in on the downstream Columbia, pollution and other issues, and was their main food source.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Naches River</span> River in the United States of America

The Naches River is a tributary of the Yakima River in central Washington in the United States. Beginning as the Little Naches River, it is about 75 miles (121 km) long. After the confluence of the Little Naches and Bumping River the name becomes simply the Naches River. The Naches and its tributaries drain a portion of the eastern side of the Cascade Range, east of Mount Rainier and northeast of Mount Adams. In terms of discharge, the Naches River is the largest tributary of the Yakima River.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rimrock Lake</span> Reservoir in Washington, United States

Rimrock Lake is a lake along the course of the Tieton River, in Yakima County, Washington state, US.

Ahtanum Creek is a tributary of the Yakima River in the U.S. state of Washington. It starts at the confluence of the Middle and North Forks of Ahtanum Creek near Tampico, flows along the north base of Ahtanum Ridge, ends at the Yakima River near Union Gap and forms a portion of the northern boundary of the Yakama Indian Reservation. The name Ahtanum originates from the Sahaptin language, which was spoken by Native Americans in the region.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Simcoe Mountains</span> Volcano in Washington, United States

The Simcoe Mountains Volcanic Field, sometimes called the Simcoe Highlands, is a group of lava flows and extinct cinder cones located to the east of the Cascade Range in south-central Washington, United States. The mountains lie within Klickitat and Yakima Counties with the northern half making up part of the Yakama Indian Reservation. Although the volcanic field is located near the Cascade Arc of volcanoes, it is an intraplate volcanic field rather than having activity sourced from the Cascadia subduction zone. The last known eruption was about 631,000 years ago.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Skinpah</span> Indigenous people of America

The Skinpah were a Sahaptin-speaking people of the Tenino dialect living along the northern bank of the Columbia River in what is now south-central Washington. They were first recorded as the E-nee-shers in 1805 by Lewis and Clark. Their village, Sk'in, was located adjacent to Celilo Falls in modern day Klickitat County.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kittitas people</span> Ethnic group

The Kittitas are a Sahaptin tribe closely related to the Yakama, sometimes described as a band or subtribe of the Yakama. Their traditional territories are found within Kittitas and Yakima counties within Washington state, chiefly in the Kittitas Valley, Naches Valley, Wenas Valley, and upper Yakima Valley. Individuals of Kittitas descent are today enrolled in the Confederated Tribes and Bands of the Yakima and the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation, but the Kittitas are not recognized as a distinct band by either tribal government.

References

  1. Miller, Tony Schick,Maya. "The U.S. Promised Tribes They Would Always Have Fish, but the Fish They Have Pose Toxic Risks". ProPublica. Retrieved November 22, 2022.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  2. 1 2 3 "Yakama," U*X*L Encyclopedia of Native American Tribes, U*X*L. 2008.
  3. Holly Shea M. S., R. P. A. "THE GRISSOM SITE (45KT301): A REVIEW AND SYNTHESIS OF INVESTIGATIONS AND EXPLORATION OF THE SITE'S RESEARCH POTENTIAL" via www.academia.edu.{{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  4. Sahaptin placenames – Columbia Plateau Indian Place Names: What Can They Teach Us?
  5. "Greater Yakima Chamber of Commerce :: About Yakima :: Location and History". www.yakima.org.
  6. "Federal Register, Volume 71 Issue 212 (Thursday, November 2, 2006)". www.govinfo.gov.
  7. "Yakima Valley Museum:Dark Times, Bright Visions". yakimavalleymuseum.org.
  8. Trafzer, Clifford E. (Fall 2005). "Legacy of the Walla Walla Council, 1955". Oregon Historical Quarterly. 106 (3): 398–411. doi:10.1353/ohq.2005.0006. ISSN   0030-4727. S2CID   166019157.
  9. Tribal Ceded Areas in Washington State
  10. Eugene Hunn: Anthropological Study of Yakama Tribe: Traditional Resource Harvest Sites West of the Crest of the Cascades Mountains in Washington State and below the Cascades of the Columbia River, October 11, 2003
  11. "Treaty with the Yakama, 1855". HistoryLink. April 24, 2007. Retrieved September 3, 2020. Note that while the Tribe's name is spelled 'Yakama' in the treaty, the spelling 'Yakima' later became common, and is still used in the names of the river, county, and city derived from the tribal name, but in 1994 the Yakima Tribe changed the spelling of its name back to the original Yakama Tribe.
  12. Beavert, Virginia and Hargus, Sharon Ichishkíin sínwit yakama = Yakima Sahaptin dictionary. Toppenish, Wash. : Heritage University ; Seattle : in association with the University of Washington Press, 2009; 492 pp. OCLC 268797329

Further reading