408 
INDIAN TRIBES OF WASHINGTON TERRITORY. 
apar't, two of the legs fronting up stream, and one supporting them below. There are several 
of these weirs on the main river fifty or sixty yards in length. The cast-nets are managed by 
two men in a canoe, one of whom extends it with a pole and the other manages the rope. Their 
canoes are of very rude workmanship, compared with those belonging to tribes of more aquatic 
habits, being simply logs hollowed out and sloped up at the ends, without form or finish. 
Another article of food obtained from the rivers is the unis, or fresh-water muscle, of which 
there are several varieties. Deep beds of their shells are found near the, sites of villages on the 
river. 
Of game the Yakima country is as destitute as that of the Klikathts—so much so that ten deer¬ 
skins will purchase a horse. The sage-fowl and sharp-tailed grouse are abundant. The chiefs 
possess a considerable number of cattle, which, in the summer, find good bunch-grass on the 
hills. In winter they are driven to great straits for subsistence, being compelled, when the snow 
lies deep, as it does in the valleys, to browse upon the tops of the wild sage, or artemisia. In 
horses they are well off, though not rich as compared with adjoining tribes. A portion of the 
Yakimas, more particularly those living on the main river, in hunters’ language, “go to buffalo,” 
joining the Flatheads in their hunts; but these expeditions are probably far more rare than 
formerly, when, with greater numbers, they and their allies carried war against the Blackfeet 
beyond the mountains. With the tribes on Puget sound they communicate continually during 
the summer by the Nahchess and main Yakima passes, taking horses for sale to Nisqually, and 
purchasing “hai-qua,” dried clams, and other savage merchandise, on their return. The Yakimas 
have, like the Klikatats, during the past year suffered severely from the smallpox; the village 
at the Dalles in particular, the Wish-ram of evil notoriety, in Mr. Irving’s Astoria, having been 
depopulated. 
Individuals among them profess to have some remedy for the disease. Father Pandozy, one of 
the missionaries among them, informed me that he believed it to be the root of a species of 
iris. He had once tasted it, and it acted as a violent emetic. The Spokanes have also an¬ 
other and different specific. It is known to but few persons, having been gradually forgotten 
since the former visitation. Recently, when it broke out in one of the Spokane villages, an old 
woman, who was blind, described it to her daughter and directed her to proceed towards Kam- 
ai-ya-kans, and that if she encountered none in her way, to get from him some of that which 
he used. The girl, however, did find the herb and returned with it. The mother prepared 
the medicine, and the smallpox was stayed, but not until it had nearly destroyed the village. 
We were not successful in obtaining specimens of this plant, but Father Pandozy kindly prom¬ 
ised to save some when opportunity offered. In regard to this disease, the greatest scourge 
of the red man, it has passed through this region more than once, and was probably the first 
severe blow which fell upon the Oregon tribes. Its appearance seems to have been before any 
direct intercourse took place with the whites, and it may have found its way northward from 
California. Captains Lewis and Clark conjectured, from the relations of the Indians, and the 
apparent age of individuals marked with it, that it had prevailed about thirty years before their 
arrival. It also spread with great virulence in 1S43. From the other, and no less sure, de¬ 
stroyer of the coast tribes, the venereal, the Yakimas, and generally the Indians east of the 
mountains, are, as yet, exempt. Spirituous liquors have never been introduced into their coun¬ 
try, at least beyond the neighborhood of the Dalles. 
That a population very considerably more numerous than the existing one formerly occupied 
this region, there can be no doubt. The estimates of Lewis and Clark gave a sum of 3,240 
for the bands on the Klikatat and Yakima rivers, without including those upon the Columbia, 
which amounted to 3,000 in addition. The whole course of the Yakima is lined with the ves¬ 
tiges of former villages now vacant. A very interesting subject of inquiry has been pursued by 
Mr. Schoolcraft, in his endeavor to follow the earth-works of the Ohio and Mississippi valley 
into the region west of the Rocky mountains. A careful inquiry among the officers of the 
