Yakima Indian Tribe
Location
Yakima. Meaning "runaway."
Also called:
Cuts-sah-nem, by Clark in 1805 in Lewis and Clark Journals (1904-5).
Pa'
kiut`1ĕma, own name, "people of the gap."
Shanwappoms, from Lewis and Clark in 1805.
Stobshaddat, by the Puget Sound tribes, meaning "robbers."
Waptai'lmln,
own name, "people of the narrow river." Both of their
names for themselves refer to the narrows in Yakima River at Union
Gap where their chief village was formerly situated.
Connections
The Yakima belonged to the Shahaptian
division of the Shapwailutan linguistic family.
Location
On the lower course of Yakima River.
Subdivisions
As given by Spier (1936), quoting Mooney and Curtis
Atanum-lema, on Atanum Creek.
Nakchi'sh-hlama, on Naches River, and hence possibly Pshwa'nwapam.
Pisko,
about the mouth of Toppenish Creek.
Se'tas-lema, on Satus Creek.
Si'-hlama, on Yakima River above the mouth of Toppenish Creek.
Si'la-hlama, on Yakima River between Wenas and Umtanum Creeks.
Si'mkoe-hlama, on Simcoe Creek.
Tkai'waichash-hlama, on Cowiche Creek.
Topinish, on Toppenish Creek.
Waptailmin, at or below Union Gap.
It is quite possible that under the term Yakima several
distinct tribes were included.
History
The Yakima are mentioned by Lewis and Clark under the name of Cutsahnim, but it is not known how many and what bands were
included under that term. In 1855 the United States made a treaty with the
Yakima and 13 other tribes of Shapwailutan, Salishan, and Chinookan
stocks, by which these Indians ceded the territory from the Cascade
Mountains to Palouse and Snake Rivers and from Lake Chelan to the
Columbia. The Yakima
Reservation was established at the same time and upon it all the
participating tribes and bands were to be confederated as the Yakima
Nation under the leadership of Kamaiakan, a distinguished Yakima chief.
Before this treaty could be ratified, however, the Yakima War broke out,
and it was not until 1859 that its provisions were carried into effect.
The Palouse 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 a comprehensive sense to include
all the tribes within its limits, so that it is now impossible to estimate
the number of true Yakima.
Population
Mooney (1928) estimated the Yakima proper at 3,000 in 1780. In
1806 Lewis and Clark give an estimated population of 1,200 to their Cutsahnim (see above). The census of 1910 gives 1,362 "Yakima," and the
Report of the United States Indian Office for 1923, 2,939, but as already
stated, this name now covers many people beside the true Yakima tribe. In
1937 the population of the same body of Indians was given as 2,933.
Connection in which they have become noted
The Yakima first attained prominence on account of the
extension of their name over a number of related, and some unrelated, peoples as
above mentioned, and its use to designate the Yakima Reservation. It has
attained greater permanence as the designation of a branch of Columbia River, a
county in Washington, and a town in the same County and State.
Additional Resources
Notes About the Book:
Source: The Indian Tribes of North America, by John R. Swanton, 1953, Bureau of
American Ethnology, Bulletin 145, US Government Printing Office, Washington DC.
Online Publication: The manuscript was scanned and then ocr'd. Minimal editing
has been done, and readers can and should expect some errors in the textual
output.
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