INDIAN TRIBES OF WASHINGTON TERRITORY. 403 



ever, belonged to the Upper Chinooks. The whole number is since much diminished by the 

 smallpox. The present, population is probably reduced to 600, of whom the majority are in 

 Oregon Territory. The head chief of the Wallah-Wallahs is Pu-pu-mux-mux, or the Yellow 

 Serpent an old man, who generally makes his residence near Fort Wallah- Wallah. His influ 

 ence with his people is said to be good as far as it goes, but he does not exercise it beyond his 

 immediate band. This tribe have been notorious as thieves since their first intercourse with the 

 whites. They, as well as their neighbors, the Nez Perces, own large bands of horses, which 

 roam at large over the hills south of the Columbia, and their principal wealth consists in them. 

 There is no wood in their country, and they depend upon the drift brought down by the stream 

 for their fuel. Their very canoes are purchased from the Spokanes. They move about a great 

 deal, generally camping in winter on the north side of the river. Their fisheries at the Dalles, 

 and at the falls ten miles above, are the finest on the river. The expedition passed through the 

 Wallah- Wallah country on its return route, but no official intercourse took place with the tribe. 

 They, as well as the Nez Perces and Cayuses, are at present included in the agency of Mr. R. R. 

 Thompson, of Oregon. At the crossing of Snake river, at the mouth of the Peluse, we met with 

 an interesting relic. The chief of the band, Wattai-wattai-how-lis, in coming to visit Captain 

 McClellan, exhibited, with great pride, the medal presented to his father, Ke-powh-kan, by 

 Captains Lewis and Clark. IL is of silver, double, and hollow, having on the obverse a me 

 dallion bust, with the legend, &quot; Thomas Jefferson, President U. S. A., 1801 ;&quot; and on the reverse 

 the clasped hands, pipe, and battle-axe, crossed, with the legend, &quot;Peace and Friendship.&quot; 



The Klikatats and Yakimas will remain to the Washington superintendency. The former in 

 habit, properly, the valleys lying between Mounts St. Helens and Adams, but they have spread 

 over districts belonging to other tribes, and a band of them is now located as far south as the 

 Umpqua. Their nomadic habits render a census very difficult, though their number is not large. 

 Dr. Dart stated them at 492; since when, there has certainly been a great decrease. The num 

 ber of the two principal bands, as obtained during the summer, was, at the Chequoss 138, and 

 at the Kamas plain 84. These must have constituted the chief part, as it was the season of ber 

 ries when they congregated there. Including all others within the Territory, the total does not 

 probably exceed 300. In this, however, are riot reckoned the Tai-tin-a-pam, a band said to live 

 apart in the country lying on the western side of the mountains, between the heads of the Cath- 

 lapoot l and Cowlitz, and which probably did not enter into the former estimate. But little is 

 known of them, and their numbers are undoubtedly small. The head chief of the Klikatats is 

 a very old man, named Towe-toks. He evidently possesses but little influence, his people pay 

 ing much more respect to his wealthier neighbors, Ka-mai-ya-kan, Skloo, and the other chiefs of 

 the Yakimas. 



The Klikatats and Yakimas, in all essential peculiarities of character, are identical, and their 

 intercourse is constant; but the former, though a mountain tribe, are much more unsettled in 

 their habits than their brethren. 



This fact is probably due, in the first place, to their having been driven from their homes, 

 many years ago, by the Cayuses, with whom they were at war. They thus became acquainted 

 with other parts of the country, as well as with the advantage to be derived from trade. It was 

 not, however, until about 1839 that they crossed the Columbia, when they overran the Willa 

 mette valley, attracted by the game with which it abounded, and which they destroyed in defiance 

 of the weak and indolent Callapooyas. They still boast that they taught the latter to ride and 



7 hunt. 

 They manifest a peculiar aptitude for trading, and have become to the neighboring tribes what 

 the Yankees were to the once Western States, the travelling retailers of notions; purchasing from 

 the whites feathers, beads, cloth, and other articles prized by Indians, and exchanging them for 

 horses, which in turn they sell in the settlements. Their country supplies them with an abun 

 dance of food. The lower prairies afford kamas, and the mountains a great variety of berries 



