Yakima (Ya-ki-ná, `runaway'). An important Shahaptian tribe, formerly living
on both sides of the Columbia and on the northerly branches of the Yakima (formerly Tapteal) and the Wenatchee, in Washington. They are mentioned by Lewis and
Clark in 1806 under the name Cutsahnim (possibly the name of a chief): and
estimated as 1,200 in number, but there is no certainty as to the bands it eluded
under that figure. In 1855 the United States made a treaty with the Yakima and
13 other tribes of Shahaptial, Salishan, and
Chinookan stocks, by whit they ceded
the territory from the Cascade mountains to Palouse and Snake rivers and from
Lake Chelan
to the Columbia, and the Yakima
Reservation was established, upon which all the participating tribes and
bands were to be confederated as the Yakima nation
under the leadership of Kamaiakan, distinguished Yakima chief. Before the
treaty could be ratified the Yakima war, broke out, and it was not until 1859 that
the provisions of the treaty were carried into effect. The
Paloos and certain other
tribes have never recognized the treaty or come on the reservation. Since the
establishment of the reservation the term Yakima has been generally used in
comprehensive sense to include all their tribes within its limits, so that it is now
impossible to estimate the number Yakima proper. The total Indian population of
the reservation was officially estimated at 1,900 in 1909, but of this number
probably comparatively few are true Yakima. The native name of the Yakima is
Waptailnsim, 'people of the narrow river,' or Pa'kiut'lĕma,
'people of
the gap,' both names referring to the narrows in Yakima river at Union Gap, where
their chief village was formerly situated. Other bands were the Setaslema, of
Setass creek, and the Pisko, of the lower Yakima. Little is known of the
particular customs of the Yakima, but there is no reason to suppose that their
life differed greatly from that of the Nez Percé and other Shahaptian
peoples.
