Cayuse people

Cayuse

The Cayuse Tribe land area
Total population
(2010: 304 alone and in combination)
Regions with significant populations
Washington, Oregon
Languages
English, Cayuse (extinct)
Religion
Animism, Christianity
Related ethnic groups
Umatilla, Walla Walla, Nez Perce

The Cayuse are a Native American tribe in what is now the state of Oregon in the United States. The Cayuse tribe shares a reservation and government in northeastern Oregon with the Umatilla and the Walla Walla tribes as part of the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation. The reservation is located near Pendleton, Oregon at the base of the Blue Mountains.

The Cayuse called themselves the Liksiyu in the Cayuse language. Originally located in present-day northeastern Oregon and southeastern Washington, they lived adjacent to territory occupied by the Nez Perce and had close associations with them. Like the Plains tribes, the Cayuse placed a high premium on warfare and were skilled horsemen. They developed the Cayuse pony. The Cayuse ceded most of their traditional territory to the United States in 1855 by treaty and moved to the Umatilla Reservation, where they have formed a confederated tribe.

According to Haruo Aoki (1998), the Cayuse called themselves Liksiyu in their language. Their name Cayuse was derived from a French word for them, adopted by early Canadian trappers of the area. The tribe has been closely associated with the neighboring Nez Percé and Walla Walla. The Cayuse language is an isolate, independent of the neighboring Sahaptin-speaking peoples.

The Cayuse Indians were a nomadic tribe that occupied territories at the heads of the Walla Walla, Umatilla, and Grande Ronde Rivers, and from the Blue Mountains to the Deschutes River in Washington and Oregon.