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The place we call home.
Roberta Conner
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Cayuse, Umatilla and Walla Walla Homeland Heritage
Corridor map.
Developed by Tamástslikt Cultural Institute.
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Thorn Hollow
Maj. Lee Moorhouse. PH 36,
Special Collections & University Archives, University of Oregon,
#M5724 |
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Wallowa Lake,
OR
K. Lugthart photo |
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Sohon
sketch "Crossing
the Snake"
Library of Congress |
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"Paloose
Falls in Washington Territory"
From lithograph of Gustavus Sohon's 1855 rendition, drawn while on the Stevens
Railroad Expedition. |
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Palouse Falls
S. Thompson photo |
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Squaw Creek
Photo courtesy Tamástslikt Cultural Institute |
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Snow on
the Blue Mountains ,
from
Umatilla.
S. Thompson Photo |
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Umatilla River
S. Thompson photo |
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Big sage along
the John Day River
R.J. Ottersberg photo |
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Hat Rock
S. Thompson photo |
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Looking
across Imnahe Canyon towards Seven Devils and Hells Canyon on
the Snake River.
K. Lugthart photo |
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Image from the
Cayuse-Nez Perce Sketchbook, possibly of Seven
Devils.
University of Oregon Special Collections & University Archives SFM 61. |
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Umatilla River > Culture > Homelands

Umatilla River flowing
into the Columbia.
Maj. Lee Moorhouse. PH 36, Special Collections & University Archives,
University of Oregon, #M5738
Tiicám
'land, earth'
Roberta
Conner, Director of Tamástslikt Cultural
Institute, tells how the story of the people is
portrayed in the tribal museum exhibit with the
help of Ispilyay (coyote).
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Our ancient homeland was a diverse landscape, now widely known
as the Columbia Plateau. The snowcapped Cascades to the west,
the Okanagen Highlands to the north, the Great Basin desert
to the south, and the Blue, Wallowa, and Bitterroot ranges
to the east defined its rich topography. Cutting through this
relief were three major waterways, the Columbia, Snake, and
Fraser river systems.
Throughout the year, the land sustained a temperate to semi-arid
climate. Air masses rising from the Pacific Ocean contributed
to its moderately cool winters and dry summers. The vegetation
ranged from the sagebrush and juniper of the lowlands to the
subalpine habitat of the high elevations.
The importance of land and home to the Indian people is exemplified
in their way of speaking about these things. One way to understand
the Indian concept of homeland is to take a glimpse back to
the discussions leading up to the signing of the 1855 treaty.
Many differences in understanding of land, ownership, and
property are apparent in this "talk".
"The Great Father has learned much of you. He first learned
of you from Lewis and Clark; Pee-o-pee-mox-a-mox remembers
Lewis and Clarke, the Lawyer does: they came through your
country finding friends and meeting no enemies." -Governor
Isaac Stevens, from the 1855 Treaty transcript
"…if we enter into a treaty now we can select a good
country for you; but if we wait till the country is filled
up with whites , where will we find such a place?" General
Palmer
"From what you have said I think you intend to win our
country, or how is it to be? In one day the Americans become
as numerous as the grass; this I learned in California; I
know that is not right. You have spoken in a round about way;
speak straight. I have ears to hear you and here is my heart.
Suppose you show me goods shall I run up and take them? That
is the way we are, we Indians, as you know us. Goods and the
Earth are not equal; goods are for using on the earth. I do
not know where they have given land for goods." - Pee-o-pee-mox-a-mox,
at the 1855 treaty council
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Cayuse Sisters |

Historic
photograph "Cayuse Sisters", of rock
formation on Columbia, near La Grande, Oregon.
Jerry Gildemeister, photographer Used with permission from Tamástslikt
Cultural Institute. |
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"The Walla Walla Indians call
these the "Rocks of the Ki-use girls," of
which they relate the following legend, which was told
to me by an Indian, whilst I was sketching this extraordinary
scene. It must be borne in mind that all Indian tribes
select some animal to which they attribute supernatural,
or, in the language of the country, medicine powers:
the whale, for instance, on the north-west coast; the
kee-yeu, or war eagle, on the east side of the
Rocky Mountains, supposed to be the maker of thunder;
and the wolf on the Columbia River. Now the great medicine
wolf of the Columbia River—according to the Walla
Walla tradition, the most cunning and artful of all
manitous—having heard that a great medicine grasshopper
was desolating the whole of the country which of right
belonged to himself, and was especially under his protection,
immediately resolved to trace him out, and have a personal
encounter with him. With this view, he proceeded down
the banks of the river, and soon fell in with the object
of his search. Each of these formidable manitous thought
it best to resort to stratagem to overcome his opponent.
Being afraid of each other's "medicine" powers,
they accordingly commenced by exchanging civilities,
and then, with a view of terrifying each other, began
boasting of their wonderful exploits, and the numbers
they had killed and eaten. The grasshopper said to the
wolf that the best way to ascertain who had devoured
the largest numbers would be to vomit up the contents
of their respective stomachs, and he who threw up the
most hair—that being an indigestible substance—by
showing who had swallowed the most animals, should be
considered as the superior. To this proposal the wolf
consented, and they commenced retching and vomiting
up all in their stomachs. The grasshopper, in the violence
of his exertions, naturally closed his eyes, and the
wolf, perceiving this, adroitly drew a great part of
his opponent's share over to his own side without being
detected. The grasshopper, when he perceived how much
larger the pile before the wolf was than his own, gave
up the contest, and proposed to the wolf an exchange
of shirts in token of amity and forgiveness. To this
also the wolf consented, but requested the grasshopper
to take off his shirt first as he was the first proposer;
but the grasshopper refused, and wished the wolf to
commence the ceremony.
"The wolf finally even agreed to this, and striking himself
suddenly on the breasts, his shirt immediately flew off; the
grasshopper was greatly astonished, and not being possessed
of any charm by which he could strip himself so expeditiously,
was obliged to take off his shirt in the common way of drawing
it over his head; the wolf now watched his opportunity, and
while the grasshopper had his head and arms entangled in the
shirt, he killed him.
"The wolf having thus got rid of his troublesome and dangerous
rival, commenced his return home. On arriving within a few
miles of the Walla Walla he saw three beautiful Ki-use girls,
with whom he fell desperately in love: they were engaged in
carrying stones into the river, in order to make an artificial
cascade or rapid, to catch the salmon in leaping over it.
The wolf secretly watched their operations through the day,
and repaired at night to the dam and entirely destroyed their
work: this he repeated or three successive evenings. On the
fourth morning, he saw the girls sitting weeping on the bank,
and accosted them, inquiring what was the matter: they told
him they were starving as they could get no fish for want
of a dam. He then proposed to erect a dam for them, if they
would consent to become his wives, to which they consented
sooner than perish from the want of food. A long point of
stones running nearly across the river is to this day attributed
to the magic of the wolf-lover.
"For a long time he lived happily with
the three sisters (a custom very frequent amongst
Indians, who marry as many sisters in a family
as they can, and assign as a reason that sisters
will naturally agree together better than strangers);
but at length the wolf became jealous of his wives,
and, by his supernatural power, changed two of
them into the two basalt pillars, on the south
side of the river, and then changed himself into
a lark rock, somewhat similar to them, on the north
side, so that he might watch them for ever afterwards.
I asked the narrator what had become of the third
sister. Says he, "Did you not observe a cavern
as you came up?" I said that I had. "That," he
replied, "is all that remains of her" (Kane: 1859)! |

Basaltic Towers,
from woodcut by A. Joliet (Domenech:1860).
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Lewis and Clark in our Homelands |
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"Getting back to the trails of Lewis and Clark, it was
passed on from my Aunt at Lapwai that our grandparents fed
Lewis and Clark's expedition up at what they call Wawáwai,
that's north of Clarkston along the Snake River. When
they saw these people come, they didn't know what they
were and said, Tuk yawo wa(?), "What are they?"
and after they saw Crooked Hair, they told them that they
were an expedition from the east. So they fed the expedition
there and when they left, they went on down the river and
the first group from our people was at the mouth of Tucannon
River. There's a permanent home there at Tucannon and a few
miles down the river was the mouth of Palouse River, and there
was another encampment there. This is where they dug up some
artifacts that were dated back to 12,000 years, but when the
dams came in, they inundated that cave. The only good thing
the dam did was cover up the graveyard or the encampment.
And the other permanent home was at the mouth of the Snake
and Columbia Rivers. Qotutspa is the name of that place. When
Clark was there, they told him there was a large encampment
up the river at the mouth of the Yakima River. From what I
read, when Clark got up there they were harvesting salmon.
Women folks were knee deep in the water and they were gutting
salmon but what the explorers wrote is that the women folks
were topless and just had a hider on and their hair was just
a mess and I guess that doesn't speak very good for our people.
"...The next encampment was at Wanaket, at the mouth of
the Umatilla River. There's a permanent home there. That's
where they saw the hundreds of natives, and farther on down
is Kenaspa, which is by Patterson on the Oregon side. Ákakpa
is on the north side by Patterson, and Qwenankii is further
down on an island of the river. That's where our people
probably were.
"The Grand Ronde Valley was our eden. Everything was there
for the people. Grand Ronde had everything there, the root
camas was just in abundance but when the seasons came there,
then people from here went over to Grand Ronde Valley and
dug the camas. Catherine Creek was a main source of salmon
and steelhead. There were permanent homes all along Catherine
Creek. Grand Ronde River was one of the main sources from
Hilgard to Perry and on down where Elgin was a main crossroads
for the people to travel from Walla Walla over into Wallowa
country" (Dan Motanic: TCI Convocation 2000).
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Homelands Heritage Corridor
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Every place and every thing has a
story.
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Roberta Conner
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Background:
Portion of 1864 Colton's Map of Oregon, Washington,
Idaho, British Columbia and Montana
Courtesy of The University of Montana, Mansfield Library |
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