Wynoochee
The Wynoochee were a Native American tribe in the southwest of what is now the US state of Washington . Culturally they belonged to the coastal Salish . They lived on the Wynoochee River , which flows into the Chehalis River .
history
The Wynoochee were closely related to the Whiskah , so that in 1870 the superintendent responsible for Indian Affairs , Samuel Ross, suspected that the two groups had originally formed a common tribe. He reported that the Hoquiam , Whiskah, Satsop and Wynoochee tribes totaled 350 members at that time. Their chief was Sam. It is possible that the Wynoochee, who caught oysters in addition to their traditional way of life , received gifts from Indian agents from 1853, especially spirits.
The Wynoochee were not involved in the treaties that the Washington Territory concluded with numerous tribes since 1854. In 1874, according to the report of the agent responsible HD Gibson to the Commissioner of Indian Affairs of September 28, they belonged to one of the two Indian agencies called "Chehalis" and "Shoal Water Bay". Gibson advocated the dissolution of the reservations and the relocation of the groups there to the Puyallup Reservation .
Often these groups were referred to as "Grays Harbor Indians". One of them named Chinoise traveled to Oakville in the 1980s to show that the Indians who refused to move still wanted a reservation.
It is apparently no longer possible to determine when the tribe of the Wynoochee finally dissolved.
literature
- Robert H. Ruby / John A. Brown: A Guide to the Indian Tribes of the Pacific Northwest , University of Oklahoma Press 1992, p. 271, ISBN 0-8061-1967-5 .