Cayuse
The Cayuse are a Native American - master of the Columbia Plateau of the Pacific Northwest of the United States . Culturally and linguistically, they were particularly close to the most populous tribe of the plateau, the Nez Percé , whose language they had also adopted. Together with the other tribes of the Sahaptian languages (also Sahaptin , Shahaptian - a subgroup of the Plateau Penuti language family ), such as the Palus (Palouse) , Walla Walla , Yakima , Umatilla and Wayampam , they belonged to the cultural area of the plateau .
Their common tribal name as Cayuse is probably derived from the French-Canadian word Cailloux for "stones" or "rocks" or "rock people" and referred to the rocky / mountainous landscape and plateau of their tribal area in today's southeastern US - Washington State and adjacent northwest Oregon . The Scottish botanist David Douglas (1799-1834) took over the name as Kyeuuse or Kyuuse , early settlers called them Cai-uses, Cayouses, Skyuse, Kaius (and other variants).
The Cayuse themselves called themselves, like many indigenous peoples of America, simply Te-taw-ken ("We, the people"), sometimes rendered as ("The (other peoples) superior people"). According to the linguist Haruo Aoki (1998), however, they originally referred to themselves in their language as Lik-si-yu ("the people"). The neighboring Nez Percé, however, referred to them as Weyiiletpuu or Waiilatpus ("The people of the ryegrass ") and after taking over the Nez Percé (Niimiipuutímt) the Cayuse also called themselves that.
By Lewis and Clark expedition of 1804 bis 1806 traveled for the first time by the white tribal area of Cayuse. On the way to the Pacific coast along the Columbia River, the expedition camped at the mouth of the Walla Walla River in October 1805 . Meriwether Lewis and William Clark gave the tribal name of the Cayuse as "Ye-E-al-po" (Moulton, Clark's Journal, June 6, 1806); "Ye-let-pos" and "Willetpos" (Moulton, Lewis' Journal, June 8, 1806) again - a phonetic notation of Weyiiletpuu or Waiilatpus .
Often the Cayuse were wrongly regarded as the Weyiiletpuu (Wailetpu) or Yeletpo Band of the Nez Percé due to their close family, linguistic and cultural connection ; however, they identify themselves as an independent ethnic group and are not regarded as tribal members by the Nez Percé either.
Tribal area
Like other tribes in the area, the Cayuse were originally settled down and lived in several seasonal summer and winter villages along the rivers, usually was the settlement of a waterfall or along rapids to the salmon fishing easier. After taking over the horse, the Cayuse mostly took over the nomadic way of life and many cultural techniques of the Plains Indians and moved - together with the related and allied Umatilla , Walla Walla and Nez Percé - far east to the northwestern plains of Montana to hunt bison and west to the Pacific west coast to trade with the local tribes as middlemen.
Their original home was along the upper reaches of the Walla Walla River , Umatilla River and Grande Ronde Rivers and from the Blue Mountains westwards to the Deschutes River in Washington and Oregon.
With the introduction of the horse, the Cayuse gangs expanded their tailing area considerably, and wars and raids against the smaller tribes, which remained settled, made them feared neighbors who took tribute from militarily weaker tribes and controlled their hunting, fishing and trade. The bison hunt now begun in the east made them - together with other plateau tribes - bitter enemies of the powerful Blackfoot Confederation (consisting of: Siksika , Kainai , Piegan as well as Sarcee and Gros Ventre ). In the south, the already existing conflicts with the warlike tribes commonly referred to as Snake Indians (their home was largely along the Snake River and in the Snake River Plain and extended further south) of the Northern Shoshone , Bannock and Northern Paiute .
Takeover of the horse
It is believed that the Cayuse - mediated by their southern enemy, the Northern Shoshone - were the first tribe on the Columbia Plateau to acquire Mustangs . Soon afterwards they developed - like the Nez Percé and Palus - into successful horse breeders; The horse breed named after them - the Cayuse Horse - is characterized by special surefootedness, endurance, frugality, resilience and speed. The qualities of the now more well-known Appaloosa of the Nez Percé and Palus, on the other hand, are to become fast and agile, especially over short distances, as was particularly needed in the past when hunting bison, as well as the characteristic color patch pattern. In contrast to the Appaloosa, the Cayuse Horse was not characterized by extra color patterns or other breed characteristics and was therefore mostly considered inferior by the whites or the term Cayuse Horse was used as a derogatory term for Indian pony. The Cayuse were also known as excellent riders.
history
Until the 1840s, the Cayuse were a feared tribe among the smaller tribes in the area. They also acted as middlemen in trade with other tribes. Around 1847 a measles epidemic ripped off a large part of the tribe and left only about 400 survivors. Thereupon the Cayuse killed the missionary Marcus Whitman and his family in the area of the Sahaptin in the so-called " Whitman massacre " , whom they blamed for the measles epidemic. Due to the high losses from measles and the fighting with the whites, the Cayuse were finally forced to sign a peace treaty with the USA and to move to the Umatilla reservation .
today
Today the Cayuse together with the Umatilla and Walla Walla form the federally recognized tribe of the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation (CTUIR) . The Umatilla reservation covers approximately 702 km² and is located in Umatilla County in northeast Oregon; the common tribal and administrative headquarters is east of Pendleton near the Blue Mountains . Almost half of the reserve land is owned by non-Indians and the reserve encompasses large parts of the Umatilla River basin. According to their own information, the united tribes currently (2015) have 2,965 tribal members, around half of whom live on and near the Umatilla reservation. The reservation is also home to 300 Indians who are enrolled as members of other tribes such as the Confederated Tribes and Bands of the Yakama Nation , Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs, and Nez Perce Tribe of Idaho . In addition to the named tribes, around 1,500 non-Indians also have their residence on the Umatilla reservation.
In 2006, the Confederate tribes of the Umatilla Reservation were granted the historical treaty right to hunt bison north of Yellowstone National Park in parts of the Absaroka-Beartooth Wilderness for cultural reasons .
language
Their original language - the Cayuse or Waiilatpu (an) - is now considered an isolated language and has been extinct since 1960 . The earlier assumption that their language would form a Waiilatpuan branch of the Plateau-Penuti of the Penuti language family together with the language of the Molala (also: Molale, Molalla, Molele) is no longer supported today. The similarities between the two languages at the vocabulary level are attributed to language contact , which led to borrowings using foreign words , loan words , loan translations , etc. As early as 1805 , most of the Cayuse had given up their mother tongue by changing the language and adopted the Weyíiletpuu , a variety of the Lower Nez Perce or Lower Niimiipuutímt dialect (also: Downriver or Western dialect) of the Nez Percé .
Others
The Cayuse are also namesake for a military helicopter of the United States Army , the Hughes OH-6 "Cayuse", in the context of the customary practice there to designate helicopter types with names of Indian tribes.
See also
Web links
literature
- Jennifer Karson (Ed.): Wiyáx ayx t / Wiyáakaa'awn. = As Days Go By. Our History, Our Land, Our People. The Cayuse, Umatilla and Walla Walla. Tamástslikt Cultural Institute u. a., Pendleton OR et al. a. 2006, ISBN 0-295-98623-9 .
References and footnotes
- ^ Robert H. Ruby, John A. Brown: A guide to the Indian tribes of the Pacific Northwest (= The Civilization of the American Indian Series . Vol. 173). Revised edition. University of Oklahoma Press, Norman OK et al. a. 1992, ISBN 0-8061-2479-2 .
- ^ Ronald B. Lansing: Juggernaut: the Whitman Massacre trial, 1850
- ↑ [Haruo Aoki (1998): A Cayuse Dictionary based on the 1829 records of Samuel Black, the 1888 records of Henry W. Henshaw and others, Manuscript. The Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation]
- ↑ Tamastslikt Cultural Institute (Museum of the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation) - THE MYSTIQUE OF LANGUAGE
- ↑ Cayuse Indians
- ↑ Homepage of the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation - Cayuse, Umatilla and Walla Walla
- ↑ Sean Reichard: Crow Tribe Wants to Join Tribal Hunts of Yellowstone Bison. Article on yellowstoneinsider.com, February 16, 2018, accessed February 18, 2020.
- ↑ Native Languages - Cayuse Indian Language (Waiilatpu)