Washington Archives – Page 80 of 102

Watlala Tribe

Watlala Indians. Watlala Tribe. A division of the Chinookan family formerly living at the cascades of Columbia River and, at least in later times, on Dog (now Hood) river about halfway between the cascades and The Dalles, in Wasco County, Oregon. Early writers mention several tribes at or near the cascades, but as the population of that region was very changeable from the fact of its being a much frequented fishing resort, and as many of the so-called tribes were merely villages, often of small size, it is now impossible to identify them with certainty. After the epidemic of 1829, … Read more

Chinookan Indians

Chinookan Family, Chinookan People. An important linguistic family, including those tribes formerly living on Columbia River, from The Dalles to its mouth (except a small strip occupied by the Athapascan Tlatskanai), and on the lower Willamette as far as the present site of Oregon City, Oregon. The family also extended a short distance along the coast on each side of t he mouth of the Columbia, from Shoal Water Bay on the north to Tillamook Head on the south. The family is named from the Chinook, the most important tribe. With the exception of a few traders near the mouth … Read more

Chinook Indian Chiefs and Leaders

Comcomly Comcomly was a Chinook chief. He received the Lewis and Clark expedition hospitably when it emerged at the mouth of Columbia river in 1805, and when the Astor expedition arrived to take possession of the country for the United States he cultivated close friendship with the pioneers, giving his daughter as wife to Duncan M’Dougal, the Canadian who was at their head. Yet he was probably an accomplice in a plot to massacre the garrison and seize the stores. When a British ship arrived in 1812 to capture the fort at Astoria, he offered to fight the enemy, with … Read more

Chinook Tribe

Chinook (from Tsinúk, their Chehalis name). The best-known tribe of the Chinookan family. They claimed the territory on the north side of Columbia River, Washington, from the mouth to Grays bay, a distance of about 15 miles, and north along the seacoast as far as the north part of Shoalwater bay, where they were met by the Chehalis, a Salish tribe. The Chinook were first described by Lewis and Clark, who visited them in 1805, though they had been known to traders for at least 12 years previously. Lewis and Clark estimated their number at 400, but referred only to … Read more

Chilluckittequaw Tribe

Chilluckittequaw Indians (Chilû’ktkwa). A Chinookan tribe formerly living on the north side of Columbia river in Klickitat and Skamania counties, Washington, from about 10 miles below the Dalles to the neighborhood of the Cascades. In 1806 Lewis and Clark estimated their number at 2,400. According to Mooney a remnant of the tribe lived near the mouth of White Salmon river until 1880, when they removed to the Cascades, where a few still resided in 1895. The Smackshop were a subtribe.

Clallam Tribe

Clallam Indians (strong people). A Salish tribe living on the south side of Puget Sound, Washington, formerly extending from Port Discovery to Hoko River.

Atanumlema Tribe

Atanumlema Indians. A small Shahaptian tribe living on Yakima Reservation, on Atanum Creek, Washington. They are said to speak a dialect closely related to the Yakima and Klikitat. For Further Study The following articles and manuscripts will shed additional light on the Atanumlema. Mooney in 14th Rep. B. A. E., 738, 1896.

Washington Indian Agencies and Schools

Agencies and Schools listed below are what were listed for the state. Slight indent after an Agency list all schools in that jurisdiction. Colville Agency and School, Washington Post-office: Miles, Washington Telegraph address: Davenport, Washington; Western Union, 28 miles from school; thence telephone. Railroad station: Davenport, Washington, on Washington Central branch of Northern Pacific Rwy. via Spokane; thence stage daily, except Sunday, to Miles, 28 miles. Or Creston, on same railroad: thence hired team, 20 miles. Colville mission school. Post-office: Ward, Washington Telegraph address: Ward, Washington, via Meyers Falls, Washington. Railroad station: Ward, Washington, on Spokane Falls and Northern Rwy.; … Read more

Indian Tribes West of the Rocky Mountains, 1822

In the Table is given, from the most authentic sources to which I have had access, which I believe to be the best existing in our country, a list of the Indian Tribes West of the Rocky Mountains. With the names, numbers, and places of residence, of these tribes, Messrs. Crooks &, Stuart, (to whom I am indebted for the body of information contained in the Table, as well as for that which follows it,) gave me a concise description of these Indians, and of their country, which I here insert. This description embraces several tribes, and their country, immediately … Read more

Extracting Wokas Seeds by the Diachas Process

In wokas pods properly roasted as well the interior tissues are in the condition of a mucilaginous paste. The seeds do not separate from this paste as readily as they do from the mucilage in pods of the spokwas grade, and therefore the Indian has invented another method of extracting them. This method is known as diachas (di-ä”-chäs”). About a peck of actual, of either the nokapk or the chiniakum grade, is placed upon a sack or upon a hard smooth area of bare ground and pounded with a small stone ská into a gluey mass. To this is added … Read more

Wokas as an Article of Commerce

Illustration of a wokas camp at the close of the season

In the preparation of lolensh and of shiwulinz the broken seed shells (tsi’-hlak) are winnowed, as already described, from the seed kernels. These seed shells or hulls are not always thrown away, but they are often saved for a later curious use. In the manufacture of their finer baskets and trays the Klamaths use for both warp and weft cords twisted from the split outer surface of the tule (Scirpus lacustris). Upon the main body of the basket as woven from these cords are overlaid various designs in white, black, yellow, and maroon. The patterns in black are made from … Read more

Spokwas

The basketful of spokwas as it is brought from the boat is emptied into a pit dug in the ground for the purpose, to which each successive day’s harvest of spokwas is added. The disintegrating pods undergo some process of fermentation, which changes them into a mucilaginous liquid mass having the texture of a thin but very elastic dough. The pits are commonly 1½ to 2 feet in both diameter and depth. The top is covered with grass, tales, or an empty grain sack. These holes may be found anywhere about a wokas camp, and from the inconspicuous character of … Read more

Lolensh

Wokas in process of grinding on a mealing stone

Fresh wokas seeds, in which the kernels are still moist, are in the condition necessary for manufacture into what is called lolensh (lo-lensh’). This condition exists in spokwas and in the two grades of seeds, nokapk and chiniakuni, derived from cooked pods, or away described below. The dried seeds, lowed and stontablaks, can not be made into lolensh. The fresh seeds are placed in a frying pan, one or two quarts at a time, and held over a fire for perhaps ten minutes, constantly stirred or shaken. This operation dries and partially cooks the seed, leaving the shell brittle and … Read more

Shnaps and Lowak

In the preparation of shnaps from shelled wokas, kernels, or lolensh, the primitive method of roasting with live coals in a wokas shaker, as described under shiwulinz, seems to have been entirely discarded. The frying pan is now used instead by all the Indians. A handful or two of lolensh, either the fresh or the dried and stored product, about enough to barely cover the bottom, is thrown into a hot frying pan and roasted briskly over a fire until it is nicely parched and slightly browned, the pan being shaken meanwhile to prevent scorching. The kernels swell, crack their … Read more

Stonablaks and Shiwulinz

In the preparation of lowak, the pods in the interior of the drying piles do not dry, but turn into a soft, moist, rotten mass, the seeds themselves, however, retaining their freshness. When the piles are opened the dry pods are thrown in a pile by themselves to be made into lowak, but these moist, decomposing pods are differently treated and produce a superior grade of seed having a different name, stontablaks (stont”-a-blaks). The rotten pods, denuded of their covering of dry ones, are pounded to a pulpy mass with a site. According to information from the Indians, the pounded … Read more

Awal

When seeds are required to be extracted from freshly gathered pods, either to furnish an immediate food supply, or to secure material for the preparation of shnaps or because the wokas gatherer is nearing the end of his harvest and can not wait for the pods to dry, a process of cooking or steaming the pods is employed which facilitates the extraction of the seeds. These cooked pods are known as awal (a’-wal). The process of making away as observed at one of the camps on the east side of the Klamath Marsh, was a follows: Two pine sticks about … Read more

Harvesting Wokas

Ten thousand acres of wokas, Klamath Marsh, Oregon. An Indian woman is poling a dugout.

Wokas is harvested exclusively in boats of the kind known as a “dugout.” The dugout (wuns) is hollowed from a single log, commonly of the yellow pine (Pinus ponderosa), and ordinarily is about 18 feet long, 2 feet wide, and 16 inches deep (Plate 4). Sometimes logs if Douglas fir (Pseudotsuga mucronata) are used. This tree makes a superior boat, but as the species normally grows at a higher elevation than the lake and marsh, it is less easily available to the boatmaker. the dugout is propelled usually by poling instead of paddling. The role (la-gak’), made of a peeled … Read more

Wokas A Primitive Food of the Klamath Indians

One of the plants growing abundantly in the Klamath Marsh and less extensively in some of the bays of the Klamath Lake, the great yellow water lily (Nymphaea polysepala), was a staple farinaceous food of the Klamaths in primitive times and now is regarded by them as a delicacy. An opportunity presented itself for Frederick Coleville to spend a week at Klamath Marsh in August, 1902, and to see the Indians harvest their crop of wok’s (makes), or waterlily seed. The industry was well preserved in so nearly its primitive form that he made a detailed record of it, and we present it as an example of a Native tribe using the natural growing indigenous plants in its region as a crop to feed its people.

Klamath Names Connected with the Wokas Industry

The Wokas Plant, its Parts, and its Products A’-wal, roasted pods. Bal’-bal-wam, leaf. Chin-i’-a-kûm, immature seeds, constituting the fifth grade. Di-ä”‘chäs’, a process of extracting seeds from roasted pods. Ga’-i-dan’, rootstock. Gam’-bol-wos, flower hold. Ka-kal’-ga’-li, pod. Kakt-chi’-as, screenings from the diachas process. Kai’-a-kams, said to be an old name for chiniakum. Lo-lensh, shelled seeds, not roasted. Lo-wak’, seeds from dried pods, constituting the third grade. No’-kapk, the better seeds from roasted pods, constituting the fourth grade. Shi’-wu-linz, dry seeds cracked and winnowed, cooked by boiling. Shloks, pods strung on strings to dry. Shlol’-bals, seeds, dried. Shlo-tish’, finely ground parched seeds. … Read more

Washington Indian Tribes

The State of Washington was occupied by a great number of Indian tribes formerly very populous, particularly those along the coast. There are few traditions regarding migrations and those which we have apply almost entirely to the interior people. After the Whites came it was unlikely that the Indians would move eastward in the face of the invasion and impossible for them to move westward; hence we do not have to trace various stages of long migrations due to displacement by the Whites and the overland retreat which followed, so marked in the history of the eastern Indians. Contrary to … Read more