INDIAN TRIBES OP 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 Wall ah-Wall ah. 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. It. is of silver, double, and hollow, having on the obverse a me¬ 
dallion bust, with the legend, “ Thomas Jefferson, President U. S. A., 1801and on the reverse 
the clasped hands, pipe, and battle-axe, crossed, with the legend, “Peace and Friendship.” 
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 Kansas 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 not 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, Sldoo, 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 
to 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 
