![Deschutes River](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/fe/Deschutes_River.jpg)
The Tenino people, commonly known today as the Warm Springs bands, are several
Sahaptin
The Sahaptin are a number of Native American tribes who speak dialects of the Sahaptin language. The Sahaptin tribes inhabited territory along the Columbia River and its tributaries in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. Sahaptin-s ...
Native American subtribes which historically occupied territory located in the North-Central portion of the American state of
Oregon
Oregon () is a U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. The Columbia River delineates much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington (state), Washington, while the Snake River delineates much of it ...
. The Tenino people included four localized subtribes — the Tygh (Taih, Tyigh) or "Upper Deschutes" divided in Tayxɫáma (Tygh Valley), Tiɫxniɫáma (Sherar's Bridge) and Mliɫáma (present Warm Spring Reservation), the Wyam (Wayámɫáma) (Wayámpam) or "Lower Deschutes", also known as "Celilo Indians", the Dalles Tenino or "Tinainu (Tinaynuɫáma)", also known as "Tenino proper"; and the Dock-Spus (Tukspush) (Takspasɫáma) or "John Day."
Historically splitting their time between winter camps and summer camps on the
Columbia River
The Columbia River (Upper Chinook: ' or '; Sahaptin: ''Nch’i-Wàna'' or ''Nchi wana''; Sinixt dialect'' '') is the largest river in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. The river rises in the Rocky Mountains of British Columbia, C ...
, in 1855 the Tenino people were made a party to the
Treaty with the Tribes of Middle Oregon, which was negotiated by
Oregon Superintendent of Indian Affairs
The Oregon Superintendent of Indian Affairs was an official position of the U.S. state of Oregon, and previously of the Oregon Territory, that existed from 1848–1873.
Background
The Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) was created in 1824 to regulate ...
Joel Palmer
General Joel Palmer (October 4, 1810 – June 9, 1881) was an American pioneer of the Oregon Territory in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. He was born in Canada, and spent his early years in New York and Pennsylvania before serving ...
. The Warm Springs bands are today a part of the
Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs
The Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs is a recognized Native American tribe made of three tribes who put together a confederation. They live on and govern the Warm Springs Indian Reservation in the U.S. state of Oregon.
Tribes
The confederat ...
, which governs the
Warm Springs Indian Reservation
The Warm Springs Indian Reservation consists of in north-central Oregon, in the United States, and is governed by the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs.
Tribes
Three tribes form the confederation: the Wasco, Tenino (Warm Springs) and Pa ...
in
Central Oregon
Central Oregon is a geographic region in the U.S. state of Oregon and is traditionally considered to be made up of Deschutes, Jefferson, and Crook counties. Other definitions include larger areas, often encompassing areas to the north towards the ...
.
History
Description
The Tenino people, commonly known today as the Warm Springs bands, comprised four local subtribes:
* the Tinainu (Tinaynuɫáma), or Dalles Tenino: occupied two closely adjacent summer villages on the south bank of the Dalles of the Columbia River / Fivemile Rapids (
Fivemile Rapids Site) and a winter village at
Eightmile Creek (named from its distance, eight miles from
The Dalles
The Dalles is the largest city of Wasco County, Oregon, United States. The population was 16,010 at the 2020 census, and it is the largest city on the Oregon side of the Columbia River between the Portland Metropolitan Area, and Hermiston ...
); the name of the larger summer village, ''″tinainu″'', was applied both to this local subtribe as to the whole Tenino people.
* the Tygh (Tayxɫáma), or "Upper Deschutes": their principal summer village was at the
Upper Deschutes River and their principal winter village at the site of today's
Tygh Valley, Oregon
Tygh Valley is a census-designated place (CDP) and unincorporated community in Wasco County, Oregon, United States. The population was 224 at the 2000 census.
History
Named for the Tygh (Taih, Tyigh) or "Upper Deschutes" Tenino people, Tygh Vall ...
; they were divided into three local village groups - the dominant ''Tayxɫáma'' (at Tygh Valley), the ''Tiɫxniɫáma'' (
Sherar's Bridge below Sherars Falls) and the ''Mliɫáma'' (along
Warm Springs River
The Warm Springs River is a tributary of the Deschutes River in north-central Oregon in the United States. It flows generally southeast along the east side of the Cascade Range. The watershed is approximately between Mount Jefferson and Timoth ...
on present
Warm Springs Indian Reservation
The Warm Springs Indian Reservation consists of in north-central Oregon, in the United States, and is governed by the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs.
Tribes
Three tribes form the confederation: the Wasco, Tenino (Warm Springs) and Pa ...
).
* the Wyam (Wayámɫáma) or "Lower Deschutes", also known as "Celilo Indians": their summer village was at
Celilo Falls
Celilo Falls (Wyam, meaning "echo of falling water" or "sound of water upon the rocks," in several native languages) was a tribal fishing area on the Columbia River, just east of the Cascade Mountains, on what is today the border between the U.S. ...
known to the Native Sahaptin people as ''Wyam'' ("echo of falling water" or "sound of water upon the rocks") on the south bank of Columbia River and their winter village on the left bank of the
Lower Deschutes River just above its junction with the Columbia River (another source locates the winter village ''Wanwa'wi'' on the west bank of Deschutes River immediately south of the confluence with the Columbia.)
* the Dock-Spus / Tukspush (Takspasɫáma), or "John Day": had two summer villages on the south bank of the Columbia River and occupied the
Lower John Day River with twin winter villages on either sides of the named river.
[G.P. Murdock, "The Tenino Indians," ''Ethnology,'' vol. 19 (1980), pp. 129-149; reprinted in Donald M. Hines, ''The Forgotten Tribes: Oral Tales of the Teninos and Adjacent Mid-Columbia River Indian Nations'' (1991). Issaquah, WA: Great Eagle Publishing, 1997; pp. 18-24.]
These bands split their time between inland winter villages close to water and fuel supplies and summer camps with rich fisheries located on the south bank of the
Columbia River
The Columbia River (Upper Chinook: ' or '; Sahaptin: ''Nch’i-Wàna'' or ''Nchi wana''; Sinixt dialect'' '') is the largest river in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. The river rises in the Rocky Mountains of British Columbia, C ...
in today's North-Central Oregon.
[
The Tenino people spoke a dialect of the ]Sahaptin language
Sahaptin or Shahaptin, endonym Ichishkin, is one of the two-language Sahaptian branch of the Plateau Penutian family spoken in a section of the northwestern plateau along the Columbia River and its tributaries in southern Washington, northern Ore ...
, a tongue shared by the neighboring Umatilla people
The Umatilla are a Sahaptin-speaking Native American tribe who traditionally inhabited the Columbia Plateau region of the northwestern United States, along the Umatilla and Columbia rivers."Umatilla," in Barbara A. Leitch, ''A Concise Dictionar ...
located to the East.[ Other neighboring tribal entities spoke other languages, including the Wasco and Wishram, located to the Northwest, who spoke a dialect of the ]Chinookan language
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 ...
, the Molala people
The Molala (also Molale, Molalla, Molele) are a people of the Plateau culture area in the Oregon Cascades and central Oregon, United States. They are one of the Confederated Tribes of the Grand Ronde Community of Oregon, with 141 of the 882 member ...
across the Cascade Range
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, ...
to the West, who spoke Waiilatpuan, and the Northern Paiute
Northern may refer to the following:
Geography
* North, a point in direction
* Northern Europe, the northern part or region of Europe
* Northern Highland, a region of Wisconsin, United States
* Northern Province, Sri Lanka
* Northern Range, a r ...
to the South, who spoke a variant of Shoshoni
The Shoshone or Shoshoni ( or ) are a Native American tribe with four large cultural/linguistic divisions:
* Eastern Shoshone: Wyoming
* Northern Shoshone: southern Idaho
* Western Shoshone: Nevada, northern Utah
* Goshute: western Utah, easter ...
.[
The Tenino people historically recalled only one great war with other Columbia River peoples, a victorious battle with the Molala which forced the latter to the other side of the Cascade Mountains.] One brief battle was also fought with the Klamath Klamath may refer to:
Ethnic groups
*Klamath people, a Native American people of California and Oregon
**Klamath Tribes, a federally recognized group of tribes in Oregon
*Klamath language, spoken by the Klamath people
Places in the United States
* ...
, a group which was otherwise a valuable trading partner. The tribe did have a historic enemy in the Northern Paiute
Northern may refer to the following:
Geography
* North, a point in direction
* Northern Europe, the northern part or region of Europe
* Northern Highland, a region of Wisconsin, United States
* Northern Province, Sri Lanka
* Northern Range, a r ...
, however, with conflict between the two groups characterized anthropologist G.P. Murdock as having been "endemic."
Economics
Up to the 19th Century the Warm Springs bands were semi-nomadic peoples, engaging neither agriculture nor the raising of domesticated food animals.[ The fishing of ]salmon
Salmon () is the common name for several list of commercially important fish species, commercially important species of euryhaline ray-finned fish from the family (biology), family Salmonidae, which are native to tributary, tributaries of the ...
, the hunting of game animals, and the gathering of wild foodstuffs were essential activities of the tribal bands.[ Labor was differentiated on the basis of gender, with men doing the hunting and most of the fishing.][ Men also produced all implements from stone, bone, or horn and were responsible for felling trees and stockpiling firewood.][Murdock (1980), pp. 34-35.] Men produced the dugout canoes
A dugout canoe or simply dugout is a boat made from a hollowed tree. Other names for this type of boat are logboat and monoxylon. ''Monoxylon'' (''μονόξυλον'') (pl: ''monoxyla'') is Greek – ''mono-'' (single) + '' ξύλον xylon'' (t ...
used for river transport and constructed the permanent winter dwellings.[
Women preserved the meat and fish for later use by drying or ]smoking
Smoking is a practice in which a substance is burned and the resulting smoke is typically breathed in to be tasted and absorbed into the bloodstream. Most commonly, the substance used is the dried leaves of the tobacco plant, which have bee ...
and engaged in most of the work in collecting plant-based foods, which included berries and other fruit, roots, acorns, and pine nuts
Pine nuts, also called piñón (), pinoli (), pignoli or chilgoza (), are the edible seeds of pines (family Pinaceae, genus ''Pinus''). According to the Food and Agriculture Organization, only 29 species provide edible nuts, while 20 are trade ...
.[ Women also cooked the food in each family group and produced, repaired, and laundered clothing and bedding.][ Women also produced thread, rope, baskets, bags, and mats.][
Women also were primarily responsible for the conduct of trade with visitors from other tribal groups, while in the late summer and into the fall parties of men periodically set out to trade with others.][ Trade exports of the Tenino people included dried salmon, fish oil, and animal furs.][ Imported products included baskets, horses, slaves, buffalo hides, feathers, and shells.][
The Warm Springs bands did not live communally, but rather divided themselves into family groups, each of which had its own dwellings. In the winter villages, occupied each year from approximately November to March,][ each family had two houses — an oval dugout lodge covered with earth that was used for sleeping and a rectangular dwelling built above ground which was covered with mats and used for cooking and other daytime activities.][ In the summer months, generally April through October, the band would relocate to the river, where families would construct rectangular temporary dwellings with poles and mats.][ These were divided, with half used for sleeping while the other half was used as a covered area for the processing of salmon for later use.][
]
Culture
The Tenino people participated in regular festivals related to the obtaining of the first foods of the new year. Each April a ceremonial party would be sent out to catch fish and gather wapato roots for a large festival celebrated collectively at the Dalles Tenino village by all tribal members except for the Dock-Spus band, which celebrated separately.[ This ritual of the First Fish was common to most of the Native American peoples 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. Though ...
coast and Columbia River plateau.[Harold E. Driver and Willam C. Massey, ''Comparative Studies of North American Indians.'' Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society, 1957; pg. 256.]
Typically with First Fish rituals of the region, one versed in specific verbal incantations was called upon to make use of his skill to catch the ceremonial fish. The fish was never to touch the ground, but was laid upon a mat made of reeds and butchered with a traditional knife before being cooked in a prescribed manner and shared by designated members of the tribal group. After being consumed, the bones were to be thrown directly back into the water so that they would not be consumed by dogs or other carnivores and the meal was to be followed by traditional songs and dances. It was commonly believed that the soul of the First Fish would return downstream to other salmon and relate the respectful way in which it was captured and eaten, thereby inspiring other salmon to travel upstream to be treated with the same honor and respect.
Following this festival about half the families in the village departed on a hunting expedition to the south, while the rest remained at the summer village on the river, catching and drying fish.[
Each July the entire community congregated again, this time to partake of berries and venison in another summer foods celebration.][ Following this festival the community would again divide, with half remaining to catch and smoke salmon while the others departed to gather nuts and berries and to hunt.][ Reeds would be gathered for the manufacture of mats in October, followed by the disbanding of the temporary summer village and a return to the permanent winter village further inland.][
]
Interaction with European-Americans
The Tenino people were first noted 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 gro ...
late in October 1805, when several members of the band were recruited to help the Corps to port their boats and equipment around the impassable Celilo Falls
Celilo Falls (Wyam, meaning "echo of falling water" or "sound of water upon the rocks," in several native languages) was a tribal fishing area on the Columbia River, just east of the Cascade Mountains, on what is today the border between the U.S. ...
.["Tenino Indians,"]
National Geographic.com/ A full day was spent moving these supplies, while entertained onlookers gathered to witness the spectacle.
Near Celilo Falls
Celilo Falls (Wyam, meaning "echo of falling water" or "sound of water upon the rocks," in several native languages) was a tribal fishing area on the Columbia River, just east of the Cascade Mountains, on what is today the border between the U.S. ...
explorer William Clark
William Clark (August 1, 1770 – September 1, 1838) was an American explorer, soldier, Indian agent, and territorial governor. A native of Virginia, he grew up in pre-statehood Kentucky before later settling in what became the state of Misso ...
observed the traditional drying method used for the preservation of salmon:
"After being sufficiently dried it is pounded between two stones fine, and put into a species of basket neatly made of grass and rushes better than two feet long and one foot diameter, which basket is lined with the skin of salmon stretched and dried for the purpose. In this it is pressed down as hard as possible. When full they secure the open part with fish skins across which they fasten through the loops of the basket...very securely, and then on a dry situation they set those baskets, the corded part up. Their common custom is to set 7 as close as they can stand and 5 on top of them, and secure them with mats which rewrapped around them and made fast with cords and covered with mats. Those 12 baskets of from 90 to 100 lbs. each form a stack. Thus preserved those fish may be kept sound and sweet several years, as those people inform me. Great quantities as they inform us are sold to the whites people who visit the mouth of this olumbiariver as well as to the natives below."
Establishment of Warm Springs Reservation
On June 25, 1855 the United States Government established the Warm Springs Indian Reservation
The Warm Springs Indian Reservation consists of in north-central Oregon, in the United States, and is governed by the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs.
Tribes
Three tribes form the confederation: the Wasco, Tenino (Warm Springs) and Pa ...
as part of a treaty with the four bands of the Tenino people as well as three of the bands of the neighboring Wasco.[ The Dalles Tenino, Tygh, Wyam, and Dock-Spus were effectively forced from their historic homelands to the new reservation in 1857, with the Wasco bands and other Chinookan-speaking neighbors following in 1858.][ According to the 1858-59 report of the reservation, some 850 Tenino individuals had been relocated there by that date, with another 160 members of the Wyam and Dock-Spus bands not yet relocated.][
This new reservation was located on lands historically belonging to the Northern Paiute, and for several years afterwards this band retaliated against their historic enemies by conducting raids for horses and other forms of plunder.][
In addition to the reservation the Tenino people have a right by treaty to use the lands around ]Government Camp, Oregon
Government Camp is an unincorporated community and census-designated place located in Clackamas County, Oregon, United States, on the base of Mount Hood and north of Tom Dick and Harry Mountain. It is the only town within of Mount Hood and therefo ...
on Mount Hood
Mount Hood is a potentially active stratovolcano in the Cascade Volcanic Arc. It was formed by a subduction zone on the Pacific coast and rests in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. It is located about east-southeast of Portlan ...
. The Mt. Hood Tribal Heritage Center, named Wiwnu Wash, opened at the Mount Hood Skibowl in 2012.
Tenino people today
Today the Warm Springs bands are a part of the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs
The Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs is a recognized Native American tribe made of three tribes who put together a confederation. They live on and govern the Warm Springs Indian Reservation in the U.S. state of Oregon.
Tribes
The confederat ...
. As the 20th Century came to a close the Confederated Tribes of the Warm Springs counted a total membership of 3,405, including descendants of the Tenino, Wasco, and Northern Paiute tribal groups.[D.L. Birchfield, ''The Encyclopedia of North American Indians: Volume 8.'' New York: Marshall Cavendish, 1999; pg. 1029.]
See also
* Native American peoples of Oregon
The Native American peoples of Oregon are the set of Indigenous peoples who have inhabited or who still inhabit the area delineated in today's state of Oregon in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. While the state of Oregon current ...
* Sahaptin peoples
The Sahaptin are a number of Native American tribes who speak dialects of the Sahaptin language. The Sahaptin tribes inhabited territory along the Columbia River and its tributaries in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. Sahaptin-s ...
* Pacific Northwest Indian wars
* Tenino, Washington
Tenino () is a city in Thurston County, Washington, United States. The population was 1,870 at the 2020 census.
Incorporated in 1906, the city sits upon land first established as a food-source prairie for Native Americans living in the area. Th ...
Footnotes
Further reading
* George W. Aguilar, Sr., ''When the River Ran Wild! Indian Traditions on the Mid-Columbia and the Warm Springs Reservation.'' Portland, OR: Oregon Historical Society Press, 2005.
* Katrine Barber, ''Death of Celilo Falls.'' Seattle, WA: University of Washington Press, 2005.
* Donald M. Hines,
The Forgotten Tribes: Oral Tales of the Teninos and Adjacent Mid-Columbia River Indian Nations
'' Great Eagle Publishing Inc., Issaquah, Washington. (1991)
* George P. Murdoch, "Notes on the Tenino, Molalla, and Paiute of Oregon," ''American Anthropology,'' vol. 40 (1938), pp. 395–402.
* Courtland L. Smith, ''Salmon Fishers of the Columbia.'' Corvallis, OR: Oregon State University Press, 1979.
* Robert J. Suphan, ''Ethnological Report on the Wasco and Tenino Indians.'' New York: Garland Publishing, 1974.
External links
* ttp://www.warmsprings.com/ Confederated Tribes of the Warm Springs Reservation of Oregon website www.warmsprings.com/
{{DEFAULTSORT:Warm Springs Tribes
Native American tribes in Oregon