WISHRAM

The Dalles is an area of rapids on the Columbia River, about 200 miles inland from the Pacific Ocean. The Wishram, a tribe speaking a Chinookian language, a subgroup of the Penutian language phylum, had villages along the river’s north bank about five miles above and below the Dalles in present-day southwestern Washington State. Across the river in present-day northwestern Oregon was territory held by another Chinookian tribe, the Wasco.

These were the easternmost Chinookians, sometimes discussed with a number of other tribes as Upper Chinook to distinguish them from tribes living near the mouth of the river, grouped together as Lower Chinook, such as the CHI NOOK proper. The name Wishram (pronounced WISH-ram) is derived from Wu’cxam, a name used for them by the Sahaptian-speaking KLICKITAT and YAKAMA. The English spelling of their Native name was Tlakluit.

Wishram wooden spoon

In the system of culture areas, designed to aid in Native American studies, some tribes are difficult to place because they manifest cultural traits from more than one grouping. The Wishram and the Wasco are examples of this dilemma, because although their way of life had much in common with tribes to the west grouped as NORTHWEST COAST INDIANS, such as a class system of nobles, commoners, and slaves, they also shared customs of the PLATEAU INDIANS to the east, such as their semisubterranean earth lodges. Also like Plateau Indians, they depended on the river for sustenance, with fishing stations owned and inherited by groups of related families. Hunting game and the gathering of wild plant

Foods, such as camas roots, complemented their diet. In any case, regardless of classification (of the Chinookians this book classifies only the Wishram among Plateau Indians), the Wishram and Wasco can best be thought of as middlemen between coastal and inland tribes. The Dalles was a gathering place for tribes, who brought a variety of food goods and artifacts to trade with other tribes. Dentalia (tooth shells), strung on beads, were used as a medium of exchange.

The Lewis and Clark Expedition reached the Dalles in 1805; expedition members used the name Echeloot for the Wishram. Fur traders arrived soon afterward, bringing diseases with them that took the lives of many Native peoples in the 1820s. Warfare during this period between allied Wishram and Wasco against GREAT BASIN INDIANS to the south—PAIUTE, SHOSHONE, and BAN NOCK—also took its toll. The Dalles was settled by non-Indians in 1838. The Wishram were among the many Washington tribes forced to cede their lands in 1855. They were settled with the Yakama and other Sahaptians on the Yakama Reservation to the northeast of their ancestral homeland in 1859. The Wasco were settled with the Tenino (Warm Springs) and Paiute on the Warm Springs Reservation in north-central Oregon. Although merged politically with other tribes on these reservations, Wishram and Wasco descendants maintain their cultural identity.