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Klikitat Indian
History
Klikitat (Chinookan: 'beyond,' with
reference to the Cascade Mountains. ). A Shahaptian tribe whose
former seat was at the headwaters of the Cowlitz, Lewis, White
Salmon, and Klickitat rivers, north of Columbia river, in
Klickitat and Skamania Counties, Wash. Their eastern neighbors
were the Yakima, who speak a closely related language, and on
the west they were met by various
Salishan and Chinookan tribes.
In 1805 Lewis and Clark reported them as wintering on Yakima and
Klickitat rivers, and estimated their number at about 700.
Between 1820 and 1830 the tribes of Willamette valley were
visited by an epidemic of fever and greatly reduced in numbers.
Taking advantage of their weakness, the Klikitat crossed the
Columbia and forced their way as far south as the valley of the
Umpqua. Their occupancy of this territory was temporary,
however, and they were speedily compelled to retire to their old
seat north of. the Columbia. The Klikitat were always active and
enterprising traders, and from their favorable position became
widely known as intermediaries between the coast tribes and
those living east of the Cascade range. They joined in the
Yakima treaty at Camp Stevens, Wash., June 9, 1855, by which
they ceded their lands to the United States. They are now almost
wholly on Yakima Reservation, Wash., where they have become so
merged with related tribes that an accurate estimate of their
number is impossible. Of the groups still recognized on that
reservation the Topinish are probably their nearest relatives
(Mooney in 14th Rep. B. A. E., 738, 1896)
and may be regarded as a branch of the Klikitat, and the
Taitinapam, speaking the same tongue, as another minor branch.
One of the settlements of the Klikitat was Wiltkun.
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Handbook
of American Indians, 1906
Index of Tribes or Nations
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