uooxev] TRIBES OF THE COLUMBIA 737 



the Yakima treaty tit' 1S55. They now live with the other tribes hist 

 named in Kittitas county. 



(i. Si'APKAT <>r Seapcat. They reside now in Kittitas county, but 

 probably lived originally at a place of the same name on the east bank 

 of the Columbia, about Bishop rock and Milk creek, below Wenatchee 

 river. They are called Seapcat in the Yakima treaty of 1855. The 

 word is of the Piskwaus language. 



Ya'kImI (Shahaptian stock). — Synonyms: Outsahnim (Lewis and 

 Clark), Eyackimah, Pa' kbit- le'nia, Stobshaddat (by Puget sound 

 tribes, Tolmie), Waptai'lmim, Yackamans, Yookoomans. The Yakima 

 are the most important tribe of the Shahaptian stock, excluding the 

 Nez Perces. They occupied the country of Natchess and middle 

 Yakima rivers, in the present Yakima county, Washington, and are now 

 on a reservation within the same county. Stevens says the name 

 signifies "black bear'' in the Wallawalla language, but Yakima inform- 

 ants state that it is a nickname signifying "coward" or "runaway," 

 and say that the proper name of the tribe is Waptai'lmim, people of 

 the -'narrow river," or Pa' kiut-'lema, '-people of the gap," both names 

 referring to the narrows in Yakima river at Union gap, near Yakima 

 bridge. Their old village was on the west side of the river, just below 

 the gap. They are the Outsahnim of Lewis and Clark. This name 

 may possibly come from the same mot as Ku'tsauo't," Lying Alongside," 

 the name of an old Yakima chief who died about 1880. In 1854, accord- 

 ing to Stevens, they were "divided into two principal bands, each made 

 up of a number of villages and very closely connected, the one own- 

 ing the country on the Natchess and lower Yakima, the other on the 

 Wenass and its main branch above the forks." These latter, however, 

 were chiefly of the Piskwaus connection. They had then several chiefs, 

 of whom Kamaiakan was the most important. Like all the other 

 Columbia tribes east of the Cascade range, they formerly crossed the 

 Rocky mountains annually to bunt the buffalo on the waters of the 

 Missouri. In 1855 the government made a treaty with the Yakima, 

 Piskwaus, Palus, and other tribes by which they were to cede a ter- 

 ritory on both sides of the Columbia, extending generally from the 

 Cascade range eastward to Palouse and Snake rivers, and southward 

 from above Chelan lake to the Columbia, excepting a small portion 

 between the Columbia and the lower Yakima. At the same time the 

 Yakima reservation was established and an arrangement was made by 

 which all the tribes and bands concerned were to be confederated under 

 the title of the "Yakama Nation," with Kamaiakan as head chief. 

 Shortly afterward the Yakima war broke out, and the treaty remained 

 unratified until 1859. As already stated, the Palus and several other 

 tribes have never recognized it or come on the reservation, and their 

 objection to such removal has become a religious principle of the Smo- 

 halla doctrine. In the original treaty of 1855 fourteen tribes are named 

 as participating, as follows: Yakama (Yakima), Palouse (Pa'lus), Pis- 



