Walla Walla
Walla Walla refers to a Native American group that is part of the Sahaptian language family, traditionally located along the lower Walla Walla, Columbia, and Snake Rivers in Washington and Oregon. The name "Walla Walla" translates to "little river." Historically, the Walla Walla lived in village communities and sustained themselves through hunting, fishing, and gathering, with a nomadic lifestyle that adapted to seasonal food availability. Their first recorded interaction with European Americans occurred in 1805, when explorers Lewis and Clark traversed their territory.
The mid-19th century was particularly challenging for the Walla Walla, as they faced devastating epidemics and the influx of miners following the discovery of gold in 1855. This led to violent conflicts over their land, resulting in a treaty that forced the Walla Walla and neighboring tribes onto the Umatilla Reservation in Oregon, significantly reducing their landholdings. Despite receiving limited compensation for their land and the assurance of fishing rights, the Walla Walla's fishing rights were not honored, leading to ongoing disputes.
Today, the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation continue to celebrate their culture through events like the Pendleton Roundup, an annual rodeo. They also engage in broader advocacy efforts, as demonstrated by their support for the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe in opposing the Dakota Access Pipeline, reflecting a commitment to protecting their rights and heritage.
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Walla Walla
- CATEGORY: Tribe
- CULTURE AREA: Plateau
- LANGUAGE GROUP: Sahaptian
- PRIMARY LOCATION: Umatilla Reservation, Oregon
- POPULATION SIZE: 2,997 (Combined population of the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Reservation) (2018-2022 American Community Survey); 383 (Walla Walla) (2010 US Census)
The Walla Walla (sometimes called Walawalałáma or Walúulapam), a branch of the Sahaptian family, lived along the lower Walla Walla, Columbia, and Snake Rivers in Washington and Oregon. Their name means “little river.” As is generally true for the Sahaptian Nations, there is little or no ethnographic evidence or traditional lore to show where the Walla Walla lived in prehistoric times. Their first encounter with White people occurred in 1805 when the explorers Meriwether Lewis and William Clark passed through their territory. Like other Sahaptian Nations, the Walla Walla lived in village communities of varying sizes.
Because these Plateau Indians relied on hunting, fishing, and gathering roots and berries, they moved throughout the year to find food in different seasons. They were skilled with horses. They generally dwelt peacefully with White people, largely because of their refusal to engage in violent retaliation for ill-treatment. The middle of the nineteenth century proved devastating for the Walla Walla. Epidemics of smallpox and measles, probably brought by traders, trappers, and miners, killed many of their people. When gold was discovered in the area in 1855, miners flooded onto Walla Walla lands. The fighting that eventually resulted ended with the shooting or hanging of several chiefs. Under the terms of an 1855 treaty signed at the Walla Walla Council, the Walla Walla, Cayuse, Nez Perce, and other Nations were forced to give up 60,000 square miles (155,400 square kilometers) of their lands and were placed on the Umatilla Reservation in Oregon. They were given three cents per acre for their land, and they were assured the right to fish using traditional methods on reservation land. In actuality, these fishing rights were not protected, and this remained a source of strife for more than one hundred years afterward. By the end of the twentieth century, the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Reservation had lived and worked together for decades. They present an annual rodeo and pageant, the Pendleton Roundup, to demonstrate and pass on traditional culture and skills.
In August 2016, Gary Burke, chairman of the board of trustees of the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation (CTUIR), issued a letter of support to the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe of North Dakota in their efforts to protect their community, lands, and sacred sites from the effects of the Dakota Access Pipeline, a conduit intended to carry crude oil from North Dakota to southern Illinois. The pipeline was originally scheduled to be completed by the end of 2016. American Indians representing Indigenous Nations from across the country joined the Standing Rock Sioux’s efforts to stop the pipeline project from going forward as initially planned. However, the pipeline construction proceeded through many sacred American Indian sites and was completed in 2017.
Bibliography
“About Us.” Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation, ctuir.org/about. Accessed 29 Nov. 2024.
Cate, Ricardo, and Arlo Iron Cloud. “Research Guides: The Dakota Access Pipeline: Native American Perspectives." Research Guides, 19 Oct. 2022, libguides.unm.edu/DAPL. Accessed 29 Nov. 2024.
"The Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation." Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission, critfc.org/member-tribes-overview/the-confederated-tribes-of-the-umatilla-indian-reservation. Accessed 29 Nov. 2024.
Eells, Edwin. “A Most Uncivil Civil War—Registering Walla Walla for the Draft in 1864.” Columbia: The Magazine of Northwest History, vol. 29, no. 2, 2015, pp. 2–7.
"My Tribal Area." US Census Bureau, www.census.gov/tribal/?aianihh=4405. Accessed 29 Nov. 2024.
Sammon, Alexander. “A History of Native Americans Protesting the Dakota Access Pipeline.” Mother Jones and the Foundation for National Progress, 2016, www.motherjones.com/environment/2016/09/dakota-access-pipeline-protest-timeline-sioux-standing-rock-jill-stein. Accessed 29 Nov. 2024.
Sleeper-Smith, Susan. Why You Can’t Teach United States History without American Indians. The U of North Carolina P, 2015.
"The Walla Wallas." Discover Lewis and Clark, lewis-clark.org/native-nations/sahaptian-peoples/walla-wallas. Accessed 29 Nov. 2024.