Umatilla, Paloos, and 2 white men - NARA - 523642

The Umatilla are a

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 ...

-speaking Native American tribe who traditionally inhabited the

Columbia Plateau The Columbia Plateau is a geologic and geographic region that lies across parts of the U.S. states of Washington, Oregon, and Idaho. It is a wide flood basalt plateau between the Cascade Range and the Rocky Mountains, cut through by the Col ...

region of the northwestern

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 Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...

, along the Umatilla and

Columbia Columbia may refer to: * Columbia (personification), the historical female national personification of the United States, and a poetic name for America Places North America Natural features * Columbia Plateau, a geologic and geographic region i ...

rivers."Umatilla," in Barbara A. Leitch, ''A Concise Dictionary of Indian Tribes of North America.'' Algonac, MI: Reference Publications, Inc., 1979; pp. 490-491. The Umatilla people are called Imatalamłáma, a Umatilla person is called Imatalamłá (with orthographic ł representing IPA /ɬ/). Some sources say that ''Umatilla'' is derived from ''imatilám-hlama'': ''hlama'' means 'those living at' or 'people of' and there is an ongoing debate about the meaning of ''imatilám'', but it is said to be an island in the Columbia River. B. Rigsby and N. Rude mention the village of ''ímatalam'' that was situated at the mouth of the Umatilla River and where the language was spoken. The Nez Perce refer to the Umatilla people as ''hiyówatalampoo'' (Aoki (1994:171)).

History

Early development

The Umatilla nation was bordered by the Teninos (Tinaynuɫáma - "People of Tináynu") to the West and the Klickitats (X̣ʷáłx̣ʷayłáma - "Prairie People") to north, across the Columbia River.Hines, Donald M. The Forgotten Tribes, Oral Tales of the Teninos and Adjacent Mid-Columbia River Indian Nations. Great Eagle Publishing. Issaquah, WA. 1991, p. 55. Also by their northern border were the Palouse, Wasco-Wishrams (Wasq̓ułáma - "People of Wasq̓ú"; Wɨ́šx̣amma - "People of Wɨ́šx̣aa/Wɨ́šx̣am (Spearfish)"). They had friendly Cayuse, and Walla Walla tribes to the east. Because their homeland lacked natural defenses, the Umatillas were attacked from the south by groups of Bannocks and Paiutes. Linguistically, the Umatilla language or Imatalamłaamí Sɨ́nwit is part of the

division of the Penutian language family — closely related to other peoples of today's Eastern Oregon,

Eastern Washington Eastern Washington is the region of the U.S. state of Washington located east of the Cascade Range. It contains the city of Spokane (the second largest city in the state), the Tri-Cities, the Columbia River and the Grand Coulee Dam, the Hanf ...

, and the

Idaho panhandle The Idaho Panhandle—locally known as North Idaho—is a salient region of the U.S. state of Idaho encompassing the state's 10 northernmost counties: Benewah, Bonner, Boundary, Clearwater, Idaho, Kootenai, Latah, Lewis, Nez Perce, an ...

. These included the Nez Percé (Šíwaniš - "Stranger"), Cayuse (Wáylatpu / Wáylatpuuma - "Ryegrass People, i.e. Cayuse People"), Walla Walla (Walawalałáma - "People of Walula region along Walla Walla River"),

Palouse The Palouse ( ) is a distinct geographic region of the northwestern United States, encompassing parts of north central Idaho, southeastern Washington, and, by some definitions, parts of northeast Oregon. It is a major agricultural area, primar ...

(Paluuspamá - "People of Palus") and the Yakima (Mamačatłáma - "Yakama People"). These peoples were ravaged by

smallpox Smallpox was an infectious disease caused by variola virus (often called smallpox virus) which belongs to the genus Orthopoxvirus. The last naturally occurring case was diagnosed in October 1977, and the World Health Organization (WHO) c ...

and other infectious diseases contracted from European colonists during the first half of the 19th century. In 1855 the inland Sahaptin-speaking nations were forced to surrender their historic homelands under treaty to the United States government, in exchange for territorial set-asides on reservations.

Reservation period

Today the Umatilla share land and a governmental structure with the Cayuse and the Walla Walla tribes as part of the federally recognized

Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation The Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation are the federally recognized confederations of three Sahaptin-speaking Native American tribes who traditionally inhabited the Columbia River Plateau region: the Cayuse, Umatilla, and ...

. Their reservation is located near

Pendleton, Oregon Pendleton is a city and the county seat of Umatilla County, Oregon. The population was 17,107 at the time of the 2020 census, which includes approximately 1,600 people who are incarcerated at Eastern Oregon Correctional Institution. Pendleton ...

and the Blue Mountains. A number of places and geographic features have been named after the tribe, such as the

Umatilla River The Umatilla River is an tributary of the Columbia River in northern Umatilla County, Oregon, United States. Draining a basin of , it enters the Columbia near the city of Umatilla in the northeastern part of the state. In downstream order, beg ...

, Umatilla County, and

Umatilla National Forest The Umatilla National Forest, in the Blue Mountains of northeast Oregon and southeast Washington, covers an area of 1.4 million acres (5,700 km2). In descending order of land area the forest is located in parts of Umatilla, Grant, Columbia ...

. The impoundment of the Columbia River behind the

John Day Dam The John Day Dam is a concrete gravity run-of-the-river dam spanning the Columbia River in the northwestern United States. The dam features a navigation lock plus fish ladders on both sides. The John Day Lock has the highest lift (at ) of any U.S ...

is called Lake Umatilla.

Notable Umatillas

Donald McKay Donald McKay (September 4, 1810 – September 20, 1880) was a Canadian-born American designer and builder of sailing ships, famed for his record-setting clippers. Early life He was born in Jordan Falls, Shelburne County, on Nova Scotia's ...

–

scout Scout may refer to: Youth movement *Scout (Scouting), a child, usually 10–18 years of age, participating in the worldwide Scouting movement ** Scouts (The Scout Association), section for 10-14 year olds in the United Kingdom **Scouts BSA, secti ...

and leader of the Warm Springs Indians during the

Modoc War The Modoc War, or the Modoc Campaign (also known as the Lava Beds War), was an armed conflict between the Native American Modoc people and the United States Army in northeastern California and southeastern Oregon from 1872 to 1873. Eadweard M ...

Shoni Schimmel Shoni Schimmel (born May 4, 1992) is an American professional basketball player. She is a former All-American college player at the University of Louisville and was selected with the eighth overall pick in the first round of the 2014 draft by t ...

– WNBA player *

Acosia Red Elk Acosia Red Elk (born 1980) is a jingle dress dancer from the Umatilla people of Oregon. A descendant of Hin-mah-too-yah-lat-kekt, she did not become interested in dancing until she was 16, when she taught herself to dance from videos of other jin ...

– World Champion Jingle Dress Dancer, yoga instructor

Footnotes

External links

Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation homepage
{{Authority control Native American tribes in Oregon