Klickitat Tribe

Klickitat

A Klickitat warrior, 1899
Total population
c. 600 in 1780; c. 400 in 1910
Regions with significant populations
United States ( Washington)
Languages
English, Klickitat
Related ethnic groups
Yakama

The Klickitat (also spelled Klikitat) are a Native American tribe of the Pacific Northwest. Today they are enrolled in the federally recognized Confederated Tribes and Bands of the Yakama Nation.

A Shahaptian tribe, their eastern neighbors were the Yakama, who speak a closely related language. Their western neighbors were various Salishan and Chinookan tribes. Their name has been perpetuated in Klickitat County, Washington, Klickitat, Washington, Klickitat Street in Portland, Oregon, and the Klickitat River, a tributary of the Columbia River.

The Klickitat were noted for being active and enterprising traders, and served as intermediaries between the coastal tribes and those living east of the Cascade Mountains.

The ethnonym "Klikitat" is said to derive from a Chinookan word meaning "beyond," in reference to the Rocky Mountains. The Klickitat, however, call themselves Qwû'lh-hwai-pûm or χwálχwaypam, meaning "prairie people" (X̣ʷáɬx̣ʷaypam).

The Yakama called them Xwálxwaypam or L'ataxat.

Other names for the Klickitat include:

The ancestral lands of the Klickitat were situated north of the Columbia River, at the headwaters of the Cowlitz, Lewis, White Salmon, and Klickitat rivers, in present-day Klickitat and Skamania Counties. They occupied their later base after the Yakama crossed this river. In 1805, the Klickitat were encountered by the Lewis and Clark Expedition. Lewis and Clark found them wintering on the Yakima and Klickitat Rivers and estimated their number at about 700.