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18-08-2015, 06:23

KLICKITAT

Although the Klickitat, or Klikitat, once lived south of the Columbia River in present-day northern Oregon, their primary homeland by the early 19th century was along the Klickitat and White Salmon Rivers, northern tributaries of the Columbia in present-day southern Washington State. They spoke a Sahaptian language, part of the Penutian phylum, shared by their eastern neighbors the YAKAMA living along the Yakima River. Other Sahaptians also discussed with them as PLATEAU INDIANS, including the NEZ PERCE, PALOUSE, UMATILLA, WALLA WALLA, and WANAPAM, lived east of these two peoples also near the Columbia. Chinookian tribes, such as the WISHRAM, lived along the Columbia to the west. The name Klickitat, pronounced CLICK-eh-tat, means “beyond” in Chinookian, in reference to their homeland being east of the Cascade Range. Their Native name was Qwulh-hwai-pum for “prairie people.”

Economy

The Klickitat fished the rivers in their homeland, especially for salmon, and also hunted and collected wild plant foods, especially camas roots. They were known as traders to other tribes, given their location on the Columbia between tribes of different language families.

Contacts and Warfare

In 1805, the Lewis and Clark Expedition made contact with the Klickitat near the mouth of the Klickitat and Yakima Rivers. In the 1820s, tribes of the Willamette Valley to the south, such as the Chi-nookian-speaking Clowwewalla, suffered an epidemic of diseases carried to them by traders and lost many of their people. The Klickitat took advantage of this situation and crossed the Columbia to seize lands as far south as the Umpqua Valley, some of which they are thought to have once held. Yet they were soon driven back north of the Columbia. In 1855, they joined with other tribes of the region, such as the Yakama and Nez Perce, in a treaty ceding lands. Some of their warriors participated with the Yakama, although to a small degree, in the Yakama War of 1855—56. Afterward, they, like the Yakama, Palouse, Wanapam, Wishram, and smaller groups, were forced to live on the Yakama Reservation near their homeland.