Yakima Indians

Yakama

Yakama Warrior ca. 1913, photographed by Lucullus V. McWhorter
Total population
(10,851 (2000 Census))
Regions with significant populations
United States ( Washington)
Languages
English, Ichishkíin Sínwit
Related ethnic groups
Klickitat Tribe Klickitat

The Yakama is a Native American tribe with nearly 10,851 members, inhabiting Washington state.

Yakama people today are enrolled in the federally recognized tribe, the Confederated Tribes and Bands of the Yakama Nation. The Yakama Indian Reservation, along the Yakima River, covers an area of approximately 1.2 million acres (5,260 km²). Today the nation is governed by the Yakama Tribal Council, which consists of representatives of 14 tribes.

Many Yakama people engage in ceremonial, subsistence, and commercial fishing for salmon, steelhead, and sturgeon in the Columbia River and its tributaries within land ceded by the tribe to the United States. Their right to fish is protected by treaties and has been re-affirmed in late 20th-century court cases such as United States v. Washington (the Boldt Decision, 1974) and United States v. Oregon (Sohappy v. Smith, 1969).

Scholars disagree on the origins of the name Yakama. The Sahaptin words, 'E-yak-ma,' means "a growing family", and iyakima, means "pregnant ones". Other scholars note the word, yákama, which means "black bear," or ya-ki-ná, which means "runaway".

They have also been referred to as the Waptailnsim, "people of the narrow river" and Pa’kiut’lĕma, "people of the gap" which describes the tribe's location along the Yakima River. The Yakama refer to themselves as the Mamachatpam.

The Yakama people are similar to the other native inhabitants of the Columbia River Plateau. They were hunters and gatherers well known for trading salmon harvested from annual runs in the Columbia River. In 1805 or 1806, they encountered the Lewis and Clark Expedition at the confluence of the Yakima River and Columbia River.