The Klickitat (also spelled Klikitat) are a Native American tribe of the

Pacific Northwest The Pacific Northwest (sometimes Cascadia, or simply abbreviated as PNW) is a geographic region in western North America bounded by its coastal waters of the Pacific Ocean to the west and, loosely, by the Rocky Mountains to the east. Tho ...

. Today most Klickitat are enrolled in the

federally recognized This is a list of federally recognized tribes in the contiguous United States of America. There are also federally recognized Alaska Native tribes. , 574 Indian tribes were legally recognized by the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) of the United ...

Confederated Tribes and Bands of the Yakama Nation, some are also part of the Confederated Tribes of the Grand Ronde Community of Oregon. A Shahaptian tribe, their eastern neighbors were the

Yakama The Yakama are a Native American tribe with nearly 10,851 members, based primarily in eastern Washington state. Yakama people today are enrolled in the federally recognized tribe, the Confederated Tribes and Bands of the Yakama Nation. Their ...

, who speak a closely related language. Their western neighbors were various

Salishan The Salishan (also Salish) languages are a family of languages of the Pacific Northwest in North America (the Canadian province of British Columbia and the American states of Washington, Oregon, Idaho and Montana). They are characterised by ...

and

Chinookan The Chinookan languages were a small family of languages spoken in Oregon and Washington along the Columbia River by Chinook peoples. Although the last known native speaker of any Chinookan language died in 2012, the 2009-2013 American Community ...

tribes. Their name has been perpetuated in

Klickitat County, Washington Klickitat County is a county located in the U.S. state of Washington. As of the 2020 census, the population was 22,735. The county seat and largest city is Goldendale. The county is named after the Klickitat tribe. History Klickitat Count ...

, Klickitat, Washington, Klickitat Street in

Portland, Oregon Portland (, ) is a port city in the Pacific Northwest and the list of cities in Oregon, largest city in the U.S. state of Oregon. Situated at the confluence of the Willamette River, Willamette and Columbia River, Columbia rivers, Portland is ...

(also Big Lake, Minnesota), and the

Klickitat River The Klickitat River is a tributary of the Columbia River, nearly long, in south-central Washington in the United States. It drains a rugged plateau area on the eastern side of the Cascade Range northeast of Portland, Oregon. In 1986, of the ri ...

, a tributary of the Columbia River. The Klickitat were noted for being active and enterprising traders, and served as intermediaries between the coastal tribes and those living east of the

Cascade Mountains The Cascade Range or Cascades is a major mountain range of western North America, extending from southern British Columbia through Washington and Oregon to Northern California. It includes both non-volcanic mountains, such as the North Cascades, a ...

Name

The ethnonym ''Klikitat'' is said to derive from a

word meaning "beyond," in reference to the

Rocky Mountains The Rocky Mountains, also known as the Rockies, are a major mountain range and the largest mountain system in North America. The Rocky Mountains stretch in straight-line distance from the northernmost part of western Canada, to New Mexico ...

. The Klickitat, however, call themselves ''Qwû'lh-hwai-pûm'' or ''χwálχwaypam'', meaning "prairie people" (X̣ʷáɬx̣ʷaypam). The Yakama called them ''Xwálxwaypam'' or ''L'ataxat''. Other names for the Klickitat include: *''Awi-adshi'', Molala name *''Lûk'-a-tatt'', Puyallup name *''Máhane'', Umpqua name *''Mǐ-Çlauq'-tcu-wûn'-ti'',

Alsea The Alsea are a Native American tribe of Western Oregon. They are (since 1856), confederated with other Tribes on the Siletz Reservation, Oregon, and are members of the Confederated Tribes of Siletz. Their origin story says that the Yaquina, Al ...

name, meaning "scalpers" *''Mûn-an'-né-qu' tûnnĕ'', Naltunnetunne name, meaning "inland people" *''Tlakäï'tat'', Okanagon name *''Tsĕ la'kayāt amím'',

Kalapuya The Kalapuya are a Native American people, which had eight independent groups speaking three mutually intelligible dialects. The Kalapuya tribes' traditional homelands were the Willamette Valley of present-day western Oregon in the United Sta ...

name *''T!uwānxa-ikc'',

Clatsop The Clatsop is a small tribe of Chinookan-speaking Native Americans in the Pacific Northwest of the United States. In the early 19th century they inhabited an area of the northwestern coast of present-day Oregon from the mouth of the Columbia R ...

name *''Wahnookt'', Cowlitz name

History

The ancestral lands of the Klickitat were situated north of the Columbia River, at the headwaters of the Cowlitz, Lewis, White Salmon, and Klickitat rivers, in present-day Klickitat and Skamania Counties. They occupied their later base after the

crossed this river. In 1805, the Klickitat were encountered by the

Lewis and Clark Expedition The Lewis and Clark Expedition, also known as the Corps of Discovery Expedition, was the United States expedition to cross the newly acquired western portion of the country after the Louisiana Purchase. The Corps of Discovery was a select gr ...

. Lewis and Clark found them wintering on the Yakima and Klickitat Rivers and estimated their number at about 700. In the early 1850s, the Klickitat Tribe raided present-day

Jackson County, Oregon Jackson County is one of the 36 counties in the U.S. state of Oregon. As of the 2020 census, the population was 223,259. The county seat is Medford. The county is named for Andrew Jackson, the seventh president of the United States. Jackson ...

from the north and settled the area. Modoc, Shasta,

Takelma The Takelma (also Dagelma) are a Native American people who originally lived in the Rogue Valley of interior southwestern Oregon. Most of their villages were sited along the Rogue River. The name ''Takelma'' means "(Those) Along the River". His ...

, Latgawas, and Umpqua Indian tribes had already lived within the present boundaries of that county. Between 1820 and 1830, an epidemic of fever struck the tribes of the

Willamette Valley The Willamette Valley ( ) is a long valley in Oregon, in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. The Willamette River flows the entire length of the valley and is surrounded by mountains on three sides: the Cascade Range to the eas ...

. The Klickitat took advantage of the drop in population in this region and crossed the Columbia River and occupied territory occupied by the Umpqua. This was not permanent, however, as they were pushed back to their original homeland. The Klickitat War erupted in 1855. The Klickitat capitulated and joined in the Yakima treaty at Camp Stevens on June 9, 1855. They ceded their lands to the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

. Most of them settled upon the

Yakama Indian Reservation The Yakama Indian Reservation (spelled Yakima until 1994) is a Native American reservation in Washington state of the federally recognized tribe known as the Confederated Tribes and Bands of the Yakama Nation. The tribe is made up of Klikitat, ...

, a minority on the

Grand Ronde Community The Grand Ronde Community is an Indian reservation located on several non-contiguous sections of land in southwestern Yamhill County and northwestern Polk County, Oregon, United States, about east of Lincoln City, near the community of Grand R ...

. Despite accepting the un-ratified Treaty in 1855, the Kilkitats were reported to have surrounded the city during the Battle of Seattle on January 26, 1856. The Klickitats were noted to trade salmon, roots, and berries and to have two chiefs within the tribe who welcomed Lewis and Clark in their arrival.

Klickitat villages mentioned in historical sources

*''Itkilak'' (Ithlkilak): at White Salmon Landing, occupied jointly with the Chilluckquittequaw Tribe. *''Nanshuit'': occupied jointly with the Chilluckquittequaw Tribe, at Underwood. *''Shgwaliksh'': not far below Memaloose Island. *''Tgasgutcu'': occupied jointly with the Chilluckquittequaw Tribe, said to be about 34 miles west of long high mountain opposite Mosier, Oregon, and about 1 mile above White Salmon Landing but the exact location seems to be in doubt. *''Wiltkun'': exact location unknown.

Sources

* * *

Footnotes

External link