Watlala. A division of the
Chinookan family formerly
living at the cascades of Columbia river and, at least in later
times, on Dog (now Hood) river about halfway between the
cascades and The Dalles, in Wasco County, Oregon. Early writers
mention several tribes at or near the cascades, but as the
population of that region was very changeable from the fact of
its being a much frequented fishing resort, and as many of the
so-called tribes were merely villages, often of small size, it
is now impossible to identify them with certainty. After the
epidemic of 1829, the Watlala seem to have been the only
remaining tribe, the remnants of the others having probably
united under that name, though they were commonly called Cascade
Indians by the whites. In 1854 they were reported to number 80.
In 1855 they joined in the Wasco treaty under the name of the "Ki-gal-twal-la
band of the Wascoes" and the "Dog River band of the Wascoes,"
and were removed to the
Warm
Springs Reservaton in Oregon, where a few still survive.
The term Watlala is also used by some writers,
following Hale, to include all the Upper Chinook. The names
given by different writers to the tribes living at or near the
cascades, which may have been the Watlala or later have been
included under them, are Cathlakaheckit, Cathlathlala,
Cathlayackty, Clahclellah, Katlagakya, Yehuh.
