Tûkspû′sh or John Day Indians (Shahaptian stock).—Synonyms: Dock-spus, John Day Rivers, Tûkspûsh-‛lĕma. A tribe speaking the Tenino language and formerly living along the lower part of John Day river, Oregon, having their principal village at the falls about 4 miles above the mouth. They are now on Warmspring reservation, and numbered 59 in 1892, with perhaps others off the reservation. Tûkspûsh is the name of John Day river in the Tenino language.
Lohĭm or Willow Creek Indians (Shoshonean stock).—A tribe living on Willow creek, in Gilliam and Morrow counties, Oregon. They are of Shoshonean connection, being the only Indians of this stock who have been able to maintain their position on the Columbia against the inroads of the Shahaptian tribes. They have never made a treaty with the government, and are generally spoken of as renegades belonging to the Umatilla reservation. In 1870 they were reported to number 114, but are not mentioned in the recent official reports.
Cayuse or Wailĕ′tpu (Waiilatpuan stock).—Synonyms: Cailloux, Kayuse, Shiwanish, Skyuse, Wailetma, Yeletpo Chopunnish (of Lewis and Clark). The Cayuse are a warlike tribe of distinct stock formerly occupying the mountain country on the heads of Wallawalla, Umatilla, and Grande Ronde rivers in Oregon and Washington, including the present Umatilla reservation. Further investigation may yet establish a linguistic connection with the Shahaptian tribes. The Molala, formerly on Molalla creek, west of the Cascades, are a separated band, of whose western migration the Cayuse and their neighbors still have a tradition. The Cayuse formerly bore a high reputation for intelligence and bravery, but on account of their fighting propensities, which led them to make constant war on the Snakes and other tribes to the west, they were never very numerous. In 1838 a Presbyterian mission, called Waiilatpu, had been established among the Cayuse, by Dr Whitman, where now is the town of Whitman, in Wallawalla county, Washington. In 1847 the smallpox, before unknown among them, carried off a large part of the tribe. The Cayuse, believing that the missionaries were the cause of it, attacked the mission on November 29, 1847, killed Dr Whitman and thirteen others, and destroyed the mission. As a matter of fact, there seems little question that the infection was brought into the country in supplies intended for the use of the mission or of emigrants temporarily stopping there. In 1854, according to Stevens, “the tribe, though still dreaded by their neighbors on account of their courage and warlike spirit, is but a small one, numbering, according to the census of 1851, only 126. Of these, individuals of the pure blood are few, the majority being intermixed with the Nez Percés and the Wallah-Wallahs, particularly with the former, to such a degree that their own language has fallen into disuse.” A few years ago only a few individuals, then living on Umatilla reservation, retained their old language. In 1855 they joined in the treaty by which Umatilla reservation in Oregon was set apart, and most of those remaining are now there, while a few others are with the Nez Percés at Lapwai. Joseph, the noted Nez Percé chief, is himself the son of a Cayuse father. In 1892 the Cayuse on Umatilla reservation were reported to number 391, but it is evident that most of these are mixed-bloods of other tribes, particularly the Umatilla. The name Cayuse is from the Nez Percé language. They call themselves Wailĕtpu. They are known to the Yakima as Wi′alĕt-pûm or Wai′lĕtma, and to the Tenino as Shiwanish, or “strangers from up the river,” a name extended also to the Nez Percés.
Umatilla (Shahaptian stock).—Synonym: Utilla. A tribe formerly occupying the lower portion of the river of the same name, with the adjacent bank of the Columbia, in Oregon. They speak a distinct language of the Shahaptian stock. By the treaty of 1855 they agreed to go on Umatilla reservation in Oregon, where in 1892 they were reported to number 216. A large proportion of those now called Cayuse on the same reservation are Umatilla mixed-bloods.
Wallawalla (Shahaptian stock).—Synonyms: Oualla-Oualla, Walawaltz, Wollawollah, Wollaw-Wollah. A tribe formerly occupying the country about the lower portion of the river of the same name and along the east bank of the Columbia from Snake river down nearly to the Umatilla, in Washington and Oregon. They take their name from the river, the word being said to refer to “rushing water.” Their language is said to resemble closely that of the Nez Percés. By the treaty of 1855 they agreed to go on Umatilla reservation, Oregon, where, in 1892, they were reported to number 474.
A small band of the same tribe, known to the Yakima as Walu′la-pûm, formerly lived on the west bank of the Columbia opposite the present Wallula. Their dialect is said to have been more akin to the Pä′lus language.
Sahaptin or Nez Percés (Shahaptian stock).—Synonyms: Chohoptins, Chopunnish (Lewis and Clark), Copunnish, Laaptin (misprint), Â′dal-k̔ato′igo, “people with hair cut across the forehead” (Kiowa name), Shi′wanĭsh (Tenino name, applied also to the Cayuse), Wa′pamĕtănt (Yakima name for the language). The Nez Percés are said to call themselves Sahaptin, and were named Nez Percés, or “pierced noses,” by the French from their former custom of wearing nose pendants. They are the most important tribe of the Shahaptian stock, and formerly occupied a large territory in eastern Washington and Oregon and central Idaho, bounded on the east by the main divide of the Bitterroot mountains, and including lower Grande Ronde and Salmon rivers, with a large part of the Snake and all of the Clearwater. The Wallowa valley, the disputed title to which led to the Nez Percé war, lies on a branch of the Grande Ronde, in Oregon. They had the Salishan tribes to the northeast, the Shoshonean tribes to the south, and the Cayuse, Wallawalla, and Pälus, with all of whom they are much intermarried, on the west and northwest. Almost all authorities give them a high character for bravery, intelligence, and honorable conduct traits which were strikingly displayed in the Nez Percé war.
Lewis and Clark traversed their country in 1805, and speak of them and some connected tribes under the name of Chopunnish, distinguished as follows: Chopunnish nation (about the present Lapwai reservation), Pelloatpallah band (the Pälus), Kimooenim band (on Snake river, between the Salmon and the Clearwater), Yeletpo band (the Cayuse), Willewah band (in Wallowa valley, afterward Joseph’s band), Soyennom band (on the north side of the upper Clearwater, in Idaho; these were really a part of the Pälus—the proper form is Tätqu′nma, whence Thatuna hills, referring to “a fawn” in the Pälus language, and was the name applied to their kamas ground about Camass creek), Chopunnish of Lewis river (on Snake river, below the Clearwater). In response to a request from the Nez Percés, who sent a delegation all the way to Saint Louis for that purpose in 1832, the first Protestant mission was established among them at Lapwai, Idaho, in 1837. Soon afterward they entered into relations with the government, and made their first treaty with the United States in 1855. By this treaty they ceded the greater portion of their territory, and were confirmed in the possession of a reservation including Wallowa valley. On the discovery of gold in the country, however, the miners rushed in, and in consequence a new treaty was made in 1863, by which they gave up all but the present Lapwai reservation in Idaho. Joseph, who occupied Wallowa valley with his band, refused to recognize this treaty or remove to Lapwai. This refusal finally led to the Nez Percé war in 1877, as already related. The main body of the tribe took no part in the war. After the surrender of Joseph his band was removed to Indian Territory, where the mortality among them was so great that in 1884 they were returned to the northwest. For several reasons, however, it was deemed unadvisable to settle them in the neighborhood of their old home, and a place was finally found for them in 1887 on Colville reservation in northern Washington. In 1892 there were 1,828 on Lapwai reservation and 138 on Colville reservation, a total population of 1,966.
Chapter VIII
THE SHAKERS OF PUGET SOUND
My breath was out and I died. All at once I saw a great shining light. Angels told me to look back. I did, and saw my own body lying dead. It had no soul. My soul left my body and went up to the judgment place of God.... My soul was told that I must come back and live on earth. When I came back, I told my friends, “There is a God. My good friends, be Christians. If you all try hard and help me, we shall be better men on earth.”—John Slocum.