River regarded themselves as a portion of the Yakima and the head chief
of the Yakima as their chief.[447] The general similarity of the Walla
Walla language to that of the Klickitat and Yakima rather than to that
of the Nez Perce is mentioned by Lewis.
[447] Stevens, XII, p. 200, Pacific R. R. Rept., Pt. I.
Cultural elements, especially those associated with the horse and with
the new mode of life which it made possible, probably came from the
region to the southeast, and show a great similarity to the Plains type
of culture. How much the Plains culture had influenced the Plateau type
before the introduction of the horse, is a question.[448] On the
Columbia River, near the mouth of the Yakima, were numerous Indians who
were visited by Clark in 1805, but he says that while he saw a few
horses, the Indians appeared to make but little use of them. If these
were the Yakima Indians there must have been quite a change in their
manner of living in the next few years.[449] This agrees very well with
the time of the introduction of the horse among the Lower Thompson
Indians towards the close of the eighteenth century, according to
Teit.[450] All this would tend to show that the horse, while common in
the Yakima country, about that time, had not yet affected the earlier
customs of the natives.
[448] Lewis, p. 179.
[449] Lewis, p. 184; Ross, (b), I, p. 19.
[450] Teit, (a), p. 257.
The early culture throughout the great area of which this is a part,
according to Lewis, was of a very simple and undeveloped character,
which probably accounts for the rapidity with which eastern types were
assimilated when once introduced.[451]
[451] Lewis, p. 180.
Summing up: the prehistoric culture of the Yakima area resembled that of
its recent inhabitants, as it will be remembered was the case in the
Thompson River region, the Lower Fraser Valley and the Puget Sound
country including the coast from Comox on Vancouver Island to Olympia.
As a typical plateau culture, being affiliated with the neighboring
cultures to the north, east and south, it presented a sharp contrast to
both the present and past cultures of the coast to the west. Compared
with other branches of the Plateau culture area it must be considered
inferior in complexity to its northern neighbor of the southern interior
of British Columbia and also to the adjacent branch near The Dalles to
the south. While each of these divisions has been influenced by the
others more especially in the past, differentiations due to environment
or specific historical conditions lead to local variations without
obscuring an essential unity of cultural traits.
BIBLIOGRAPHY.
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North America. 5 volumes. 1874-1882.
CATLIN, GEORGE. O-Kee-Pa. A religious Ceremony and other
Customs of the Mandans. Philadelphia, 1867.
COX, ROSS. Adventures on the Columbia River, etc. New
York, 1832.
DE SMET, FATHER. Life, Letters and Travels of Father
Pierre-Jean De Smet, S.J., 1801-1873. Edited by
Chittenden and Richardson. 4 volumes. New York, 1905.
DOUGLAS. D. Sketch of a Journey to the Northwestern part
of the Continent of North America during the years
1824-27. (Oregon Historical Society Quarterly, 5-6,
1904-05.)
EELLS, MYRON. The Stone Age in Oregon. (Smithsonian
Report, for 1886, Washington, 1889, pp. 283-295.)
FRASER, SIMON. Journal of a Voyage from the Rocky
Mountains to the Pacific Coast in 1802.
GATSCHET, ALBERT S. The Klamath Indians of Southwestern
Oregon. (Contributions to North American Ethnology, II,
parts I-II, Washington, 1890.)
GIBBS, GEORGE. (a) Report on the Indian Tribes of the
Territory of Washington. (Pacific Railroad Report, 1, pp.
402-436, Washington, 1855.)
(b) Tribes of Western Washington and Northwestern Oregon.
(Contributions to North American Ethnology, I, pp.
157-241, Washington, 1877.)
HALE, HORATIO. United States Exploring Expedition during
the years 1838-1842. Under the command of Charles Wilkes.
Vol. VI. Ethnology and Philology. Philadelphia, 1846.
JOCHELSON, WALDEMAR. Material Culture and Social
Organization of the Koryak. (Memoir, American Museum of
Natural History, 1908, Vol. X, Part 2, pp. 283-842.)
KANE, PAUL. Wanderings of an Artist among the Indians of
North America. London, 1859.
LEWIS, ALBERT BUELL. Tribes of the Columbia Valley and
the Coast of Washington and Oregon. (Memoirs of the
American Anthropological Association, Vol. 1, Part 2,
1906.)
LEWIS AND CLARK. Original Journals of the Lewis and Clark
Expedition. (Thwaites Edition.) New York, 1904.
LORD, JOHN KEAST. The Naturalist in Vancouver's Island
and British Columbia. 2 vols. London, 1866.
MALLERY, GARRICK. Pictographs of the North American
Indians. (Fourth Annual Report, Bureau of American
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MOONEY, JAMES. The Ghost-dance Religion and the Sioux
Outbreak of 1890. (Fourteenth Annual Report, Bureau of
American Ethnology, Pt. 2, Washington, 1896.)
MOOREHEAD, WARREN K. Prehistoric Implements. A
description of the Ornaments, Utensils and Implements of
Pre-Columbian Man in America. New York. 1900.
ROSS, ALEXANDER. (a) Adventures of the First Settlers on
the Oregon or Columbia River. London, 1849.
(b) The Fur Hunters of the Far West. 2 vols. London,
1855.
SCHOOLCRAFT, HENRY R. Historical and Statistical
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Prospects of the Indian Tribes of the United States.
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SMITH, HARLAN I. and FOWKE, GERARD. Cairns of British
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SMITH, HARLAN I. (a) Shell-Heaps of the Lower Fraser
River, British Columbia. (Memoir, American Museum of
Natural History, 1903, Vol. 4, Part 4, pp. 133-191.)
(b) Archaeology of the Gulf of Georgia and Puget Sound.
(Memoir, American Museum of Natural History, 1907, Vol.
4, Part 6, pp. 301-441.)
(c) Archaeology of the Thompson River Region. (Memoir,
American Museum of Natural History, 1900, Vol. 2, Part 6,
pp. 401-442.)
(d) The Archaeology of Lytton, British Columbia. (Memoir,
American Museum of Natural History, 1899, Vol. 2, Part 3,
pp. 129-161.)
(e) Archaeological Investigations on the North Pacific
Coast in 1899. (American Anthropologist, N. S., Vol. 2,
No. 3, July-September, 1900.)
(f) New Evidence of the Distribution of Chipped Artifacts
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1909).
(g) A Costumed Human Figure from Tampico, Washington.
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20, Article 16, pp. 195-203.)
(h) A Remarkable Pipe from Northwestern America.
(American Anthropologist, N. S., Vol. 8, No. 1,
January-March, 1906, pp. 33-38.)
SPINDEN, HERBERT JOSEPH. The Nez Perce Indians. (Memoirs
of the American Anthropological Association, Vol. 2, Part
3, 1908, pp. 171-274.)
STEVENS, ISAAC I. Report of the Commissioner of Indian
Affairs for 1854, pp. 181-254.
SWAN, JAMES G. The Northwest Coast; or Three Years'
Residence in Washington Territory, New York, 1857.
TEIT, JAMES. (a) The Thompson Indians of British
Columbia. (Memoir, American Museum of Natural History,
1900, Vol. 2, Part 4, pp. 163-392.)
(b) The Lillooet Indians. (Memoir, American Museum of
Natural History, 1906, Vol. 4, Part 5, pp. 193-300.)
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from Oregon to her relations in New York. (Transactions
of the Oregon Pioneer Association for 1891, pp. 79-179,
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Philadelphia, 1845.
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Mortuary Customs of the North American Indians. (First
Annual Report, Bureau of American Ethnology, Washington,
1881, pp. 91-203.)
APPENDIX.
The following appendix contains a detailed account of graves with
catalogue numbers of their contents and other finds, upon which the
preceding descriptions are based.
KENNEWICK.
202-8114. Flint chip from the surface. No chips of this
quality were found in the Thompson River region.
202-8115. Chipped point made of buff jasper from the
surface (Plate II, Fig. 1).
202-8116. Large grooved pebble from the beach of the
Columbia River.
202-8117. Chipped pebble from the surface.
202-8118. Broken pestle from the surface.
202-8119. Chipped and battered hammerstone from the
surface. (Fig. 43).
202-8120. One half of a sculptured tubular steatite pipe,
purchased from Mr. W. F. Sonderman who dug it up while
building a flume near Kennewick (Fig. 105).
NORTH YAKIMA.
202-8121. Sculptured handle of a digging stick made of
the horn of a Rocky Mountain sheep purchased of Mr. W. Z.
York, at Old Yakima, who bought it from an Indian woman
living near Union Gap below Old Yakima. She, however, may
have brought it from some other locality. (Fig. 126).
202-8122. Tubular steatite pipe (Fig. 104).
202-8123. Pestle made of stone. Presented by Mr. W. M.
Gray of North Yakima. Found where the Moxie Ditch enters
the flume, about 3 miles northeast of the mouth of the
Naches River and southeast of the Yakima River.
202-8124. Fragment of rock painted red. Part of a
pictograph showing a human figure with feather headdress
(Plate XIV, Fig. 1), taken from the basaltic cliffs
southeast of the Naches River above the mouth of Cowiche
Creek, about four miles northwest of North Yakima.
Several other pictographs were photographed here from the
north: Plate XV, Fig. 2 (44480, 4-5), white human heads
with feather headdresses and white and red double star
figure; Plate XIV, Fig. 2 (44483, 4-8), white human heads
with feather headdresses, also (44484, 4-9), Plate XV,
Fig. 1 (44485, 4-10); Plate XVI, Fig. 1 (44486, 4-11),
and Plate XVI, Fig. 2 (44487, 4-12), white and red human
heads with feather headdresses.
202-8125. Six parts of pebbles, from the surface of the
flat on the east side of the Yakima River at "The Upper
Gap" near the northern end of North Yakima, as samples of
what could have been used as material for arrow points.
[Illustration:
Miss Ruth B. Howe Delin.
Fig. 129. Sketch Map of the Yakima Valley. ]
Numbers 202-8126 to 202-8136 are from the quarry shown in
Plate III, Fig. 1 (44488, 5-1 from the south, 44489, 5-2,
and 44490, 5-3). This quarry is on the ridge top north of
the Naches River, about two miles above its mouth (p.
16).
202-8126. Stone, possibly a hammer.
202-8127. Two river pebbles used as stone hammers.
202-8128. Hammerstone (Fig. 40).
202-8129. Pebble used as a hammer.
202-8130. Fragment of a hammerstone, edge smooth.
202-8131. Two fragments of hammerstones.
202-8132. Four pieces of raw material for chipped
implements.
202-8133. Seven pieces of raw material for chipped
implements possibly waste from pieces blocked out to be
transported or possibly too small or of too poor a
quality to be transported.
202-8134. Two pieces of raw material, perhaps chipped.
202-8135. Two pieces of raw material, perhaps too poor to
be transported.
202-8136. Thirty pieces of raw material, some very good,
some very poor, all apparently waste of pieces blocked
out to be transported. No finished or broken implements
were found here.
* * * * *
Grave No. 1. Plate VI, Fig. 3 (1910) from north of west
of the grave before it was disturbed (p. 14). This grave
was about 50 feet up the gully from No. 2, and was
excavated by us May 18. It was marked by a stick which
was very dry but not yet fully decayed. It was located in
the rock-slide on the east slope of the gully, a steep
ravine going down from the south to a little flat
southeast of the Yakima River. This ravine is on the
north side of the hill on the east of the Yakima River at
the mouth of the Naches River. The grave was about a mile
northeast of the mouth of the Naches River, and about 80
feet above the Yakima. From the spot one can see out over
the valley of the Yakima. The grave was on a slight,
bench, terrace, or place that could be so interpreted.
There were large pits and terraces in the slide above
this grave, like those shown in Plate VII. Indications of
very old charred cedar strips were found across the
grave. Charcoal was found among the rocks, and the grave
was bounded by a sort of circular balcony of rocks of the
rock-slide and had a slight flat or depression in the
center. On top, the stones were large, averaging the size
of a man's head, some 30 pounds, some 100 pounds, some
the size of a man's fist. Below, covering the body, the
rocks were small and many were fine, being chipped small
from the same rock by fire. All except this burned rock
were the common irregular angular rock-slide material. In
the bottom of the grave were found adult human bones,
partly charred black, the parts not so charred were
yellow. Numbers 202-8137 to 202-8152 were found in this
grave.
202-8137. Left half of a charred human jaw, parts are
ivory black and parts yellowish gray.
202-8138. Part of a human vertebra.
202-8139. Some charred and calcined bones of a dog with
the joint end of the tibia showing the articulation
pulled off as in youth. Ashes and black fine masses
resembling pulverized charcoal were found in the bottom
of the grave. The human bones found with these were
probably of two skeletons, but all were much broken and
charred. Some yellow brown mass, composed of rootlets,
maggot sacks, etc., was found at the sides of the grave.
202-8140. At the east side of the grave, a large piece of
partly charred cedar about 8 inches wide by 2 inches
thick was found.
202-8141. Chipped point of obsidian with base broken off,
showing that at least some of the contents of the grave
were of prehistoric culture.
202-8142. Finely chipped point made of brown chert found
in fire refuse of this grave (Plate II, Fig. 5).
202-8143. Scorched point made of bone (Fig. 9).
202-8144. Part of a point similar to 202-8143 and found
with it.
202-8145. Part of a point similar to 202-8143 and found
with it.
202-8146. Part of a point similar to 202-8143 and found
with it.
202-8147. Tube of rolled brass having the diameter of a
lead pencil. Proving this grave to have been made since
the prehistoric people were able to reach the whites in
trade.
202-8148. Tube similar to 202-8147 (Fig. 75).
202-8149. Charred tube made of bone about 1-1/4 inches
long.
202-8150. Tube similar to 202-8149 (Fig. 97).
202-8151. Scorched tube made of bone and ornamented by
incisions running from one end to the other in a spiral
course. The tube is charred and about 1-1/4 inches long
(Fig. 98).
202-8152. Slate disk perforated in the center and at each
side. The object is about 1 inch in diameter and 1/8 inch
thick (Fig. 77).
* * * * *
Grave No. 2. Rock-slide grave, about 50 feet down the
ravine from grave No. 1 and about 40 feet above the
flume. It had grass growing in the center. The grave
seemed caved in and as if thoroughly walled like a well.
It contained nothing, apparently having been rifled.
Before excavation this seemed to be more like a grave
than No. 1. (See photograph taken from the southwest.)
* * * * *
Grave No. 3. Rock-slide grave.
99-4314. Bleached skull and jaw of an adult purchased of
a boy who said it was from a rock-slide grave on the
north side of the Yakima Ridge lying east of the Yakima
River above the Upper Gap.
* * * * *
Grave No. 4. Rock-slide grave about 6 feet southeast of
grave No. 5 at Selah Canon. As this grave had been opened
and the skeleton had been disturbed, no accurate
description as to its position can be given. Some of the
rock-slide material was quite large, weighing from 200 to
300 lbs; depth, 4 feet; diameter, 3 feet. Decayed wood
was found in the grave and long poles on the side of the
grave. The grave was probably not very old.
99-4315. Part of skull and skeleton of a youth which was
partly bleached. Found in Grave No. 4.
* * * * *
Grave No. 5. Rock-slide grave in Selah Canon and about 6
feet northwest of grave No. 4. Apparently this grave had
been rifled. The adult skull lay to the west and was
broken. The skeleton was flexed, the feet were toward the
east and the knees south of the vertebrae, that is, the
skeleton was on the right side. The grave which was about
75 feet up the hillside, and 1-1/2 miles east of the
Yakima River on the south side of Selah Canon, was about
3-1/2 feet deep by 3-1/2 feet in diameter. Long poles lay
on the side of the grave while decayed wood, leather
thongs and dried flesh yet adhering to some of the bones,
in this kind of a grave even in such a dry region as
this, especially the last two, suggest the grave to be
recent.
99-4316. Jaw and skeleton of an adult. Found in grave No.
5.
* * * * *
Grave No. 6. Rock-slide grave about 100 feet up the
hillside at the top of a rock-slide on a point south of
the Yakima River about 2 miles northeast and above the
mouth of the Naches River. The bones were found in
excavating an adjacent barren grave, 5 feet to the
northeast and had probably been thrown out of this one on
top of it. Pieces of cedar were scattered around the
grave, which had been rifled. Its depth was 5 feet,
diameter 5 feet.
99-4317. Skull and one hip bone of an adult. Probably
from grave No. 6.
* * * * *
Grave No. 7. Rock-slide grave situated northeast of North
Yakima and about half a mile northeast of grave No. 6.
There is a road near the edge of the grave. The grave had
been rifled and pieces of wood were found lying near it;
the bones were scattered around and broken. None of them
were in anatomical order. Numbers 202-8153 to 202-8156
were found in this grave.
202-8153. One brass bell.
202-8154. Three glass beads.
202-8155. Two shell beads.
202-8156. Three dentalium shells.
* * * * *
Grave No. 8. Rifled rock-slide grave. The skeleton which
had been wrapped in cedar bark had been taken away.
Nothing besides the cedar bark was found. The grave was
found near No. 7 and about a half mile northeast of No.
6. Wood was lying near by. There was a road near the edge
of the grave which had been rifled.
* * * * *
Grave No. 9. Rock-slide grave found near No. 7 which was
situated about half a mile northeast of No. 6. The grave
contained nothing but charcoal. There was wood lying near
by. There was a road near the edge of the grave which had
been rifled.
* * * * *
Grave No. 10. Rock-slide grave excavated June 2, 1903.
This grave was 150 feet up the hill from the Naches
River, half a mile above its mouth and on the north side.
It was 5 feet long by 6 feet wide and 4 feet deep and had
been disturbed and many of the bones thrown out. Dry
poles and cedar boards lay around the top. Numbers
99-4318, 202-8157 to 202-8169 were found in this grave.
99-4318. An adult skull and skeleton with abnormality on
right malor and with one rib expanded, part of a young
adult skeleton and part of a child's skeleton were found.
Some of the bones were bleached. The adult and the child
were on the bottom. These two bodies had been wrapped in
bark and placed in a hole one foot deep in the ground
below the slide. The adult's head was to the west
southwest. On top and to the east northeast was the young
adult. Human hair was also found in grave No. 10.
202-8157. Four parts of the hearth of a fire drill,
similar to that used in the Thompson River region. See
Teit, (a) p. 203, for descriptions of fire drills (See
also Fig. 38.)
202-8158. Wolf or dog bones, some of them bleached.
202-8159. Part of a decorated wooden bow (Fig. 114).
202-8160a, b. Two pieces of a basket. Doubtless of a
finer stitch than those from the Thompson River Indians.
See Teit, (a), Fig. 131a and Figs. 143 to 146.
202-8161. Piece of coarse coil basket with splint
foundation and bifurcated stitch (Fig. 17).
202-8162. Piece of a stitched rush mat (p. 86).
The bill of a saw-bill duck was found but not preserved.
202-8163. Copper tubes with six beads, short sections of
dentalium shells, which were found from the top to the
bottom of the grave. These beads were strung.
202-8164. Four bone tubes found near the bottom and
mostly to the east northeast of the grave.
202-8165. Point made of bone found to the west northwest
in grave (Fig. 7).
202-8166. A perforated cylinder made of steatite found at
about the center of the grave (Fig. 99).
202-8167. Fishbone.
202-8168. Three pieces of yellow jasper (raw material).
202-8169a, b, c. Three small arrow points, one found on
center, one in east northeast part and one in south of
grave. _a_ is of brownish fissile jasper (Plate II. Fig.
2).
* * * * *
Grave No. 11. Rock-slide grave located on the north side
of the Naches River, a little over half a mile above its
mouth. The place is about 600 feet west southwest of
grave No. 10 and 150 feet above the river. It was 6 feet
by 4 feet in diameter and 4 feet deep. Apparently it had
been rifled as nothing was found in it except a skull and
a few bones.
99-4319. Skull, a lower jaw, and a few broken bones which
were scattered among the rocks. The skull was found in
the west southwest part of the grave with the face down.
The lower jaw was found in the southern part of the grave
about 1 foot higher up in the rocks.
* * * * *
Grave No. 12. Bluff pebble grave. We examined a ring of
river boulders on the twenty-acre farm of Mr. James
McWhirter, a boy about fifteen years old, twelve miles up
the Naches River on the crest of the foothill terrace
north of the road, and overlooking the bottom along the
north side of the Naches River. This grave was about 150
feet high above the river by about half a mile from it.
At first it looked like a little underground house site
or a shallow cache pit. (Museum negative, no. 44441, 1-2
for general locality.) James, who called our attention to
the pile of boulders, said that some one threw off part
in an abandoned attempt to dig the grave. We thought the
grave practically undisturbed and it proved to have been
the least disturbed of any we had found up to this point.
The outside of the ring was 10 feet east and west by 5
feet north and south. The inside of the ring or the space
surrounded was 6 feet east and west by 4 feet north and
south. Probably this grave was a boulder heap, the aspect
of a ring being given by the removal of the stones, i.e.,
this central space may be where stones were thrown off.
River boulders were found from top to bottom. The
boulders varied in weight from about 7 to 30 pounds. Most
of them were disk-shaped but some were oval. Numbers
99-4320 and 202-8170, 1 were found in this grave.
99-4320. An adult skeleton was found 4 feet deep with the
head towards the west, resting on its occiput. The skull
which was broken, faced south by east, with the mouth
open. The knees were north; the body was on its left side
and flexed. Over the north side of the knees was an
elliptically-shaped piece of cedar burned on the upper
side. It was about 2 feet wide by 4 feet long. A few
fragments of the skeleton of a child were found in the
grave. All the bones in the grave were very soft and as
the ends were broken off we discarded all but the skull
and a few of the bones of the child. Two shell disks
(202-8170,1) were found about 6 inches apart near the
neck, one at the south shoulder, and one at the south
side of the skull of the adult.
202-8170. Pendant of disk shape made of oyster shell with
one perforation near the edge (Fig. 94).
202-8171 Pendant of disk shape made of shell with two
perforations near one edge (Fig. 93).
* * * * *
Grave No. 13. Cremation circle, similar to several of the
others on the terrace northwest of the mouth of the
Naches River. This consisted of a ring of angular rocks
among which were no river pebbles, resembling a small
underground house site, 8 feet in diameter outside, 6
feet in diameter at the top of the rocks, 4-1/2 feet in
diameter inside, both east-west and north-south. It is
widest and built of largest stones on the side towards
the lower part of the terrace, suggesting that the ring
had slid down but the nearly level terrace would argue
against this idea. This grave was like a rock-slide
grave, filled with soil, but on a gently sloping terrace
instead of a steep slide. Photograph no. 44495, 5-8, from
the south shows a telegraph pole to left and a flume
across the Yakima River to the right. See also graves No.
14 and 15. Child bones, found two feet deep in volcanic
ash, were decayed and discarded. The tibiae were about
2-1/2 inches long.
* * * * *