The Klickitat (also spelled Klikitat) are a Native American tribe of the

Pacific Northwest The Pacific Northwest (PNW; ) is a geographic region in Western North America bounded by its coastal waters of the Pacific Ocean to the west and, loosely, by the Rocky Mountains to the east. Though no official boundary exists, the most common ...

. Today most Klickitat are enrolled in the

federally recognized This is a list of federally recognized tribes in the contiguous United States. There are also federally recognized Alaska Native tribes. , 574 Indian tribes are legally recognized by the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) of the United States.

Confederated Tribes and Bands of the Yakama Nation, some are also part of the

Confederated Tribes of the Grand Ronde Community of Oregon The Confederated Tribes of the Grand Ronde Community of Oregon (CTGR) is a federally recognized tribe of Indigenous peoples of the Northwest Plateau. They consist of at least 27 Native American tribes with long historical ties to present-day wes ...

. A Shahaptian tribe, their eastern neighbors were the

Yakama The Yakama are a Native Americans in the United State, Native American tribe with nearly 10,851 members, based primarily in Eastern Washington, eastern Washington (state), Washington state. Yakama people today are enrolled in the federally rec ...

, who speak a closely related language. Their western neighbors were various

Salishan The Salishan languages ( ), also known as the Salish languages ( ), are a family of languages found in the Pacific Northwest in North America, namely the Canadian province of British Columbia and the American states of Washington, Oregon, Ida ...

and

Chinookan The Chinookan languages are a small family of extinct languages spoken in Oregon and Washington along the Columbia River by Chinook peoples. Although the last known native speaker of any Chinookan language died in 2012, the 2009-2013 American C ...

tribes. Their name has been perpetuated in Klickitat County, Washington, Klickitat, Washington, Klickitat Street in

Portland, Oregon Portland ( ) is the List of cities in Oregon, most populous city in the U.S. state of Oregon, located in the Pacific Northwest region. Situated close to northwest Oregon at the confluence of the Willamette River, Willamette and Columbia River, ...

(also Big Lake, Minnesota), the former Washington State Ferry MV Klickitat, and the Klickitat River, a tributary of the Columbia River. The Klickitat were noted for being active and enterprising traders, and served as intermediaries between the coastal tribes and those living east of the

Cascade Mountains The Cascade Range or Cascades is a major mountain range of western North America, extending from southern British Columbia through Washington and Oregon to Northern California. It includes both non-volcanic mountains, such as many of those in the ...

Name

The

ethnonym An ethnonym () is a name applied to a given ethnic group. Ethnonyms can be divided into two categories: exonyms (whose name of the ethnic group has been created by another group of people) and autonyms, or endonyms (whose name is created and used ...

''Klikitat'' is said to derive from a

word meaning "beyond," in reference to the

Rocky Mountains The Rocky Mountains, also known as the Rockies, are a major mountain range and the largest mountain system in North America. The Rocky Mountains stretch in great-circle distance, straight-line distance from the northernmost part of Western Can ...

. The Klickitat, however, call themselves ''Qwû'lh-hwai-pûm'' or ''χwálχwaypam'', meaning "prairie people" (X̣ʷáɬx̣ʷaypam). The Yakama called them ''Xwálxwaypam'' or ''L'ataxat''. Other names for the Klickitat include: *''Awi-adshi'', Molala name *''Lûk'-a-tatt'', Puyallup name *''Máhane'', Umpqua name *''Mǐ-Çlauq'-tcu-wûn'-ti'', Alsea name, meaning "scalpers" *''Mûn-an'-né-qu' tûnnĕ'', Naltunnetunne name, meaning "inland people" *''Tlakäï'tat'', Okanagon name *''Tsĕ la'kayāt amím'',

Kalapuya The Kalapuya are a Native American people, which had eight independent groups speaking three mutually intelligible dialects. The Kalapuya tribes' traditional homelands were the Willamette Valley of present-day western Oregon in the United Sta ...

name *''T!uwānxa-ikc'', Clatsop name *''Wahnookt'', Cowlitz name

History

The ancestral lands of the Klickitat were situated north of the

Columbia River The Columbia River (Upper Chinook language, Upper Chinook: ' or '; Sahaptin language, Sahaptin: ''Nch’i-Wàna'' or ''Nchi wana''; Sinixt dialect'' '') is the largest river in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. The river headwater ...

, at the headwaters of the Cowlitz, Lewis, White Salmon, and Klickitat rivers, in present-day Klickitat and Skamania Counties. They occupied their later base after the

crossed this river. In 1805, the Klickitat were encountered by the

Lewis and Clark Expedition The Lewis and Clark Expedition, also known as the Corps of Discovery Expedition, was the United States expedition to cross the newly acquired western portion of the country after the Louisiana Purchase. The Corps of Discovery was a select gro ...

. Lewis and Clark found them wintering on the

Yakima Yakima ( or ) is a city in and the county seat of Yakima County, Washington, United States, and the state's 11th most populous city. As of the 2020 census, the city had a total population of 96,968 and a metropolitan population of 256,728. The ...

and Klickitat Rivers and estimated their number at about 700. In the early 1850s, the Klickitat Tribe raided present-day

Jackson County, Oregon Jackson County is one of the Oregon counties, 36 counties in the U.S. state of Oregon. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the population was 223,259. The county seat is Medford, Oregon, Medford. The county Oregon Geographic Names ...

from the north and settled the area. Modoc, Shasta, Takelma, Latgawas, and Umpqua Indian tribes had already lived within the present boundaries of that county. Between 1820 and 1830, an epidemic of fever struck the tribes of the

Willamette Valley The Willamette Valley ( ) is a valley in Oregon, in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. The Willamette River flows the entire length of the valley and is surrounded by mountains on three sides: the Cascade Range to the east, the ...

. The Klickitat took advantage of the drop in population in this region and crossed the Columbia River and occupied territory occupied by the Umpqua. This was not permanent, however, as they were pushed back to their original homeland. The

Klickitat War The Yakima War (1855–1858), also referred to as the Plateau War or Yakima Indian War, was a conflict between the United States and the Yakama, a Sahaptian languages, Sahaptian-speaking people of the Indigenous peoples of the Northwest Plateau, ...

erupted in 1855. The Klickitat capitulated and joined in the Yakima treaty at Camp Stevens on June 9, 1855. They ceded their lands to the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

. Most of them settled upon the

Yakama Indian Reservation The Yakama Indian Reservation (spelled Yakima until 1994) is a Native American reservation in Washington state of the federally recognized tribe known as the Confederated Tribes and Bands of the Yakama Nation. The tribe is made up of Klikitat ...

, a minority on the

Grand Ronde Community The Grand Ronde Community is an Indian reservation located on several non-contiguous sections of land in southwestern Yamhill County and northwestern Polk County, Oregon, United States, about east of Lincoln City, near the community of Gran ...

. Despite accepting the un-ratified Treaty in 1855, the Kilkitats were reported to have surrounded the city during the Battle of Seattle on January 26, 1856. The Klickitats were noted to trade salmon, roots, and berries and to have two chiefs within the tribe who welcomed Lewis and Clark in their arrival.

Klickitat villages mentioned in historical sources

*''Itkilak'' (Ithlkilak): at White Salmon Landing, occupied jointly with the Chilluckquittequaw Tribe. *''Nanshuit'': occupied jointly with the Chilluckquittequaw Tribe, at Underwood. *''Shgwaliksh'': not far below Memaloose Island. *''Tgasgutcu'': occupied jointly with the Chilluckquittequaw Tribe, said to be about 34 miles west of long high mountain opposite

Mosier, Oregon Mosier is a city along the Columbia River in Wasco County, Oregon, Wasco County, Oregon, United States. The population was 433 at the 2010 United States Census, 2010 census. History Mosier was first settled in 1854 and incorporated as a city in ...

, and about 1 mile above White Salmon Landing but the exact location seems to be in doubt. *''Wiltkun'': exact location unknown.

Sources

* * *

Footnotes

External links