″Yakima″ or ″Yakama″ was first a collective term for five (originally six)
regional bands who spoke the same language or
dialect of
Sahaptin, also known as
Ichishkíin Sɨ́nwit (″this language″). Usually they named the individual bands, village groups, local groups, and rivers after a specific rock formation, their main camps, or after an important village or fishing site. The English names of the following local rivers were derived from Sahaptin: the Klickitat, Umatilla, Walla Walla, Palouse, Yakima, Satus, Toppenish, Tieton, and Wenatchee (in each case the original native term referred not to the river itself, which generally was left unnamed): •
Yakama (proper) or
Lower Yakama (Autonym in Yakama:
Mámachatpam) –
Chief Kamiakin's people: Their territory encompasses the watershed of the Lower Yakima River east of the Cascade Range, hence they were called
Lower Yakima to distinguish them from their upriver cousins – the ″Kittitas or Upper Yakama.″ As they were the largest group in population, they were often termed as
Yakama or
Yakama proper. Their lands stretched from
Selah (″Quiet Water″) and Wenas just north of today's
Yakima south to the area around today's
Prosser (named for the nearby Prosser Falls as
Tapteil, Tap tut, Toptut – ″rapids or falls″). All major rivers in this area – such as the Naches River, and Ahtanum, Toppenish and Satus reeks – are tributaries of the Yakima River. • Síla-ħlama (along the Yakima River between Wenas and Umtanum creeks, the northernmost Lower Yakama Band) • Wínas-ħlama (along Wenas Creek, the ″cross river″ between the Upper Yakama and Lower Yakama) • Nahchísh-ħlama (″People along the Roaring Water, i.e. Naches River″), lived along the
Tieton and
Naches rivers (the latter meaning ″roaring, rough or turbulent water″), the largest tributary of the Yakima River. They were closely linked to the
Taitnapam (″People of the Tieton River″) regional band west of the Cascade Range) • Tkaíwaichaś-ħlama / Tkai'waichash-hlama (along Cowiche Creek near the eastern foothills of the Cascade Mountain range) • Átanŭm-ħlama (″People along Ahtanum Creek″, named after their territory along
Ahtanum Creek, a right tributary to the Yakima River, entering the Yakima River immediately upstream of
Ahtanum Ridge anticline (
Union Gap), their main village ''Pa'kiut / Páxutakyuu-t
("both hills together or gap", "heads joined") in the valley between Ahtanum Ridge and Rattlesnake Ridge was the most important of the Lower Yakama; hence the self-designation of this particular local or village group as Pa'kiut'-ħlama / Pa'kiut'lĕma
(″People of the gap″, lit. ″People of Mountain Heads Coming Together″) was transferred by the Europeans as Pah-quy-ti-koot-lema /Pakiutlema
or as Narrow River Indians'' to all Lower Yakama bands and later to neighboring Yakama bands to) • Písko-ħlama / Pisko-pum (″Sagebrush People″, along Toppenish Creek of the Toppenish plains, a right tributary of the Yakima River) • Sí-ħlama (on Yakima River above the mouth of Toppenish Creek) • first Thápnĭś-ħlama / Thap-pah-nish (also on Toppenish Creek – Toppenish Creek was named after
Tẋápniš / Txápni-sh (″that which suddenly goes forth″ or ″protruded, stuck out″, an allusion to a large landslide that occurred on the ridge south of
White Swan, Washington – the contemporary Yakima Indian Reservation town of
Toppenish is a corruption of this native term); this self-designation was transferred by the Europeans as
Toppenish to refer to all Lower Yakama and neighboring Yakama bands) • second Thápnĭś-ħlama / Thap-pah-nish (on Toppenish Creek north of the
Simcoe Mountains (in Yakama:
Sim Quwe – "saddle back" or ″a dip between two hills like a saddle back″) • Símkoe-ħlama (along Simcoe Creek in the Simcoe Valley, later there was established
Fort Simcoe, this area, originally known as "Mool-mool", had been a camp site for the summer and early fall seasons) • Se'tas-ħlama / Setass-lema (on Satus Creek) • Taptat-ħlama (″People at the rapids, i.e. Prosser Falls″, along Yakima River from the mouth of Satus Creek to present Kiona, with a key fishery at Prosser Falls (today:
Prosser, in Yakama:
Tapteil,
Tap tut,
Toptut – ″rapids, waterfalls″; this self-designation was also transferred by the Europeans as
Tap-teil-lema / Tap-teil-min or its proper variant
Waptail-lema / Waptailmim to all Lower Yakama and neighboring Yakama bands) •
Upper Yakama or
Kittitas (meaning of the word Kittitas vary – perhaps ″shale rock, white chalk, or white clay ″, but in any case the name probably refers to the region's soil composition) (in Yakama: Pshwánwapam / Psch-wan-wap-pam / Pish-wana-pum – ″Many Rocks People″ or ″Stony Ground People″, also given as ″River Rock People″) – Chief Owhi's and
Chief Qualchan's people: Their territory was usually north of Wenas Creek and Selah Creeks and along the Upper Yakima River, therefore they were called
Upper Yakima in reference to the downriver living Yakama / Yakama proper (or Lower Yakama) bands. They occupied the northern Yakima River tributaries
Cle Elum River (in Yakama: Tie-el-Lum – "swift water"),
Teanaway River (in Yakama: Tyawnawí-ins – "[salmon] drying place"),
Kachess River to the Wenatchee Mountains and Saddle Mountains in the east. Their territory included three large lakes in the Cascade Range (from east to west):
Cle Elum Lake,
Kachess Lake ("more fish") and
Keechelus Lake ("few fish"). •
Klikatat / Klickitat (a corruption of the place name
látaxat for a key fishery at the falls of the Klickitat River or
ládaxat, an
Upper Chinook name for a Klickitat village with resident Kiksht-speaking Wishram, in Yakama: Xwálχwaypam / Qwû'lh-hwai-pûm / X̣ʷáɬx̣ʷaypam – ″Prairie People″ or ″People of the village χwálχway (Steller's Jay')″, located at the junction of the Klickitat and Little Klickitat Rivers) – Chief Slockish's people: Their territory was generally situated north of the Columbia River, at the headwaters of the Cowlitz, Lewis, Washougal, White Salmon, and Klickitat rivers. •
Cowlitz Klickitat or
Lewis River Klickitat Band, erroneously called
Upper Cowlitz or
Lewis River Cowlitz, sometimes
Lewis River Chinook (in Yakama: Taitnapam / Taidnapam / Táitinpam – ″People of the
Tieton River″): Closely allied with their Yakama kin (Áypaχ-pam – ″People of the Plains″ or ″People of the river mouth″) east of the Cascades – they had permanently occupied and controlled the Upper Cowlitz (shch'il) above Mossyrock, Cispus River (shíshpash), Tilton River (lalálx), the uppermost Nisqually River and Lewis River basins. They apparently intermarried with Salish-speaking Lower Cowlitz (in Yakama: T'lkwi'lipam / λ'kwílipam) communities downriver and travelled freely as far as the mouth of the Cowlitz River (in Yakama: shchil-aypáχ – ″Cowlitz River mouth″), as well as moving freely through adjacent Yakama-controlled territory east of the Cascade Crest. Their own name
Taitnapam indicates that they originally came from east off the Cascades – along the Tieton River (in Yakama: Táitin) hence territory of the Nahchísh-ħlama, a Yakama/Lower Yakama band along the
Naches River; they had strong linguistic and family ties to that band and to the Klikatat / Klickitat. • Qw':ltɫa'ma / Qwiilt-lá-ma (occupied the Mossyrock Prairie near
Mossyrock on the east end of the Klickitat Prairie along Upper Cowlitz River) • Lalalxɫa'ma / Lalalx-lá-ma (their main settlement
lalálx was at the mouth of the Tilton River, which was also called
lalálx ) • Wasaɫa'ma (lived around
Morton at the foothills of the Cascade Mountains in the Tilton River Valley southwest of
Mount Rainier) • Nucnu:ɫa'ma (lived in Cowlitz River Canyon) • Sw:ktsw'ktɫa'ma / Swikt-swikt-lá-ma (lived around today
Nesika, Washington, on
Riffe Lake, south of Morton and upriver of Mossyrock, and in Steel Canyon, Winters Mountain and Green Mountain) • K'wpɫa'ma (lived at the Cowlitz Falls of Cowlitz River, which was a key fishery site) • Cicpacɫa'ma (lived along Cispus River) • Qiyanxuɫa'ma / Q'iyanxw-lá-ma (lived along Cowlitz River, ca. 7 miles west of
Kiona, Washington) • Ca'q'kɫa'ma / Shíq'k-lá-ma (lived along Kiona Creek, a tributary of the Cowlitz River) •
Wanapum / Wánapam (″River People″): They lived south of the Saddle Mountains on both sides of the Columbia River downriver to the mouth of the Snake River, most important settlement as well as fishing grounds was at
Priest Rapids, 1953 the construction of the
Priest Rapids Dam and the
Wanapum Dam flooded the Wánapam living and fishing grounds to create the
Priest Rapids Lake reservoir. Today still about 60 Wánapam are living near today's Priest Rapids Dams. The Wanapam dreamer-prophet
Smohalla (″Dreamer″ or ″Preacher″) was the most prominent leader of the
Washane ("Dreamer Religion"), other prophets were Chief Homli (of the Walla Walla), Kotiakan (of the Pa'kiut'-ħlama local group of Lower Yakama) as well Lishwailait and Ashnithlai (both Klickitat). Adherents included
Chief Joseph and his Nez Percé followers as well as Native people from other tribes in the region. •
Mishalpam (in Yakama: Mical-ɫa'ma – ″
Eatonville people″, lit. ″Mashel River people″), later called
Upper (Mountain) Nisqually, today also commonly known as '''Meshal / Me-Schal / Mashel / Mica'l Band of Nisqually''' –
Chief Leschi's people: Their territory was generally on the west side of the Cascade Range and northwest of the kindred
Klikatat / Klickitat and encompassed the
Mashel River, tributary of the Nisqually, and the
Upper Nisqually and
Upper Puyallup River Valleys reaching up to
Mount Rainier (Talol/Tacoma/Tahoma) ("bigger than
Mount Baker") – together with
Klikatat / Klickitat they occupied
Ohop Valley in
Pierce County (around present-day cities Eatonville and
Roy); their primary village site was ''Basha'labsh
on Meshal River, near present-day La Grande, Washington. They intermarried with downstream and closer to the coast living Southern Lushootseed-speaking Nisqually (Squalli-Absh / Sqʷaliʼabš) ("People of the Grassland"), a Coast Salish people, had switched from Sahaptin to Nisqually / Sqʷali'abš
no later than in the 19th century. Chief Leschi (from Basha'labsh'', with a Yakama mother) was one of the most important leaders during the
Puget Sound War (1855 und 1856) of an intertribal alliance of Coast Salish (Nisqually,
Puyallup (S'Puyalupubsh) and
Muckleshoot) and Sahaptin (Mishalpam, Klikatat / Klickitat and Yakama) peoples. Their lands lay within the
Yakima Rivers (in Yakama:
Tapteal – ″rapids″ because of the waterfalls at
Prosser, Washington) watershed and for the most part east of the
Cascade Range, to the south along the northern tributaries of the
Columbia River (in Yakama: ''Nch'i-Wána
– ″great river″) (here the Yakama bands frequently lived in bilingual villages together with Southern/Columbia River Sahaptin-speaking bands: Umatilla, Skin-pah/Skin, Tenino/Warm Springs), to the southwest along the Lower Snake River and Columbia River (here the Yakama bands lived also in bilingual villages together with Lower Snake River Sahaptin-speaking local groups of Chamnapam/Chem-na-pum, Wauyukma and Naxiyampam), to the northeast their tribal territories ranged up to the Wenatchee River (because of frequently intermarriages some of the originally Interior Salish-speaking Wenatchi bands switched to Sahaptin as first language), in the north to the lakes of Cle Elum Lake (after the Upper Yakama / Kittitas name Tie-el-Lum'', meaning "swift water", referring to the Cle Elum River),
Kachess Lake ("more fish") and
Keechelus Lake ("few fish") at the headwaters of the Yakima River (with the directly northwest living Coast-Salish-speaking
Snoqualmie the Yakama bands kept family ties), in the west across the Cascade Range to the headwaters of the
Cowlitz River (shch'il),
Lewis River ((wl'ɫt'kh) and
White Salmon River (where there were also family ties with Coast-Salish-speaking
Lower Cowlitz and Upper Chinookan/Kiksht-speaking
Wasco-Wishram). ==History==