Description
The Skinpah were a Sahaptin people living along the northern bank of the Columbia River in what is now south-central Washington. They were first recorded as the Eneeshurs in 1805 by Lewis and Clark, with the first reference to the Skeen name in the form of an 1847 Paul Kane painting titled Mancemuckt, Chief of the Skeen. Their chief village, Sk'in, was located directly across the Columbia from Celilo Falls, adjacent to the Wishram. They were signatories of the Yakama Treaty of 1855 at Walla Walla, and were relocated onto the Yakama Reservation as one of the fourteen constituent bands incorporated into the Yakama Nation.
Language
Sahaptin
Culture
The Skinpah were extensive salmon fishermen, sharing the lucrative Celilo Falls fishing grounds with other Sahaptin and Upper Chinookan peoples. Like other Columbia Gorge communities, they produced powdered salmon cakes. These could be stored for up to a year. Great Basin groups such as the Paiute and Hudson Bay Company traders traded with the Skeen, trading goods such as horses, guns, knives, and cloth. The Skinpah typically wore clothes fashioned from deerskin.