Description
The Umatilla are a Native American tribe who traditionally inhabited the Columbia Plateau region of the northwestern United States, along the Umatilla and Columbia rivers. Before European contact, the members of the Cayuse, Umatilla, and Walla Walla people were 8,000 members strong. The people lived in the Columbia River region for more than 10,000 years, moving in a large circle from the lowlands along the Columbia River to the highlands in the Blue Mountains to fish, hunt and gather food.
Language
Sahaptian
Culture
Until the early 1900’s, our ancestors moved in a yearly cycle, from hunting camps to fishing spots, to celebration and trading camps. In Article I of the Treaty of 1855, the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation (CTUIR) also reserved perpetual off-reservation rights to fish at usual and accustomed sites and to hunt, gather medicines such as roots and berries, and pasture livestock on unclaimed lands. In the way of our elders who came before us, we worship, dance, drum, sing and continue to gather foods, treading along some of the same paths they did to find food for our families and tap into our rich heritage.