170 



which is the route of the United States miHtary road from Steihicoom to Walla- 

 WaUa. The trade between the two districts was once considerable. The 

 western Indians sokl slaves, liaikwa, kamas, dried clams, &c., and received 

 in return mountain-sheep's wool, porcujjine's quills, and embroidery, the 

 grass from which they manufacture thread, and even di-ied salmon, the 

 product of the Yakama fisheries being- preferred to that of the sound. It 

 Avill be noticed that north of the country more immediately bordering upon 

 the Columbia, the whole of the western district is inhabited by tribes 

 derived from a single stock, with the exception of the northwest point of 

 the peninsula occupied by the Makah. The extensive family to which Mr. 

 Hale has given the name of Tsihali-Selish, from its extreme western and 

 eastern members thus stretches from the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific. 

 On the south, its territories are bounded by those of the Sahaptin and Tsi- 

 nuk families. On the north, it has in the interior the Tahkali, belonging 

 to the Tinneh. The northern boundary upon the coast is not so definitely 

 ascertained, but in my opinion will be found in the neighborhood of 

 Johnston Straits, upon the Gulf of Georgia, thus including the Nanaimuk, 

 Kowichin, Songhu, and Soke of Vancouver Island, and the Kwaitlen of 

 Frazer River. The subject of their migrations will be noticed hereafter. 



NOTICES OF PARTICULAR TRIBES. 



Of the river Indians, and generally of those Avith whom no treaties 

 have been made, ver}^ little is to be added to the observations contained in my 

 former report. In that paper, the Klikatat were treated as belonging to the 

 eastern division of this Territory, to which their original location and afiinities 

 attach them. As, however, they are here spoken of as connected with the 

 western division, some explanation is necessary. After the depopulation of 

 the Columbia tribes by congestive fever, which took place between 1820 and 

 1830, many of that tribe made their way down the Kathlapiitl (Lewis 

 River), and a part of them settled along the course of that river, while others 

 crossed the Columbia and overran the Willamette Valley, more lately 

 establishing themselves on the Umkwa. Within the last year (1855), they 

 have been ordered by the superintendent of Oregon to retui-n to their 

 former home, and are now chiefly in this part of the Territory. The present 



