preview

Columbia River Tribe

Decent Essays

For more than 10,000 years the Native American people of the Columbia River region, specifically the Cayuse, Walla Walla and Umatilla Indian tribes, migrated in a yearly cyclical pattern. The tribes would travel from the lowlands of the Columbia River to the highlands in the Blue Mountains in search of safety, shelter, food, opportunities for trade and resources of energy. The most abundant sources of food included elk, deer, salmon, berries and roots. Each of the aforementioned food sources were spread throughout different locales and thus required a continued pattern of movement, place to place from season to season, to collect each target food. Accumulated meats, berries and roots would be stored for the year to come, and to last through …show more content…

Approaching the end of spring and heading into the summer season, the tribes would migrate from the banks of the Columbia River to the foot of the Blue Mountains to dig for roots. Salmon and roots were then dried and stored for use during the following year. At the end of the summer, the tribes transferred their homestead to the upper mountains to hunt elk, deer and pick berries. During fall, the tribes would make their way back down into the lower valleys and banks of the Columbia River to intercept the prosperous number of salmon returning from the ocean to spawn. Using traps, nets, spears and hooks, tribal men collected vast masses of salmon. The tribal women were responsible for cleaning and hanging the salmon to dry. All three tribes would build a winter camp and remain there, relying upon their stored goods until the start of spring at which point the migration cycle would begin again. Despite the reduced populations of salmon due to the Columbia River dams many Native Americans of the Umatilla Indian Reservation still eat the traditional staples of their ancestors, known as first foods, as part of their regular diet (CTUIR, …show more content…

These negotiations resulted in the Umatilla Indian Reservation, the Yakama Indian Reservation and the Nez Perce Reservation. The Cayuse, Umatilla and Walla Walla tribes all agreed to live on the Umatilla Indian Reservation together. The three tribes relinquished more than 6.4 million acres of their native homeland to the United States government, and in return were promised the right to fish, hunt, gather foods and medicines, and graze their livestock both on and off of their designated reservation (see Image 1: Boundary of the CTUIR), giving them continued access to their ancestral land, which is currently recognized as southeastern Washington and northeastern Oregon. The tribes were provided a reservation of 510,000 acres on which they were to live. Both the natives and The United States government negotiated the terms and recognized the sovereign authority of those involved. Congress later ratified the treaty on March 8th, 1859. Today, the CTUIR maintains a population of about 2,965 enrolled members (CTUIR Board of Trustees,

Get Access