People of the Dalles: The Indians of Wascopam Mission : a Historical Ethnography Based on the Papers of the Methodist MissionariesThis volume presents a historical ethnography of the Chinookan (Wasco-Wishram) and Sahaptin peoples of The Dalles area of the Columbia River (ancestors to peoples presently located on the Warm Springs and Yakama reservations) between about 1805 and 1848. It begins with early historical background reconstructed from the accounts of explorers and travellers, then presents five chapters describing human geography, subsistence and economics, social structure, life-cycle rituals, and aboriginal religion. These are followed by chapters on cultural and religious change and a summary chapter on the methods and effects of the Methodist Mission on the Indians. Most of material on which the book is based is taken from the writings of the Methodist missionaries at Wascopam, in particular the papers of the Reverend Henry Perkins, who was stationed there from 1838 to 1844. Perkins and his fellow missionaries lived among the Indians at The Dalles during a crucial period, shortly after the devastating mortalities caused by the epidemics of the early 1830s and just before the equally wrenching wars and removals of the 1850s. In that interlude, the culture of the Wascopam peoples changed at a rapid pace, largely related to the introduction of Euro-American ideas and manufacturers; much of that process of change is documented in the missionaries' writings. For very few Native American groups are such detailed records covering equivalent periods available. Appendices to the volume reprint Perkins's major monographs on the Wascopam Mission, provide a list of sources of material relating to the mission, and present brief biographical sketches of mission personnel and Indians whose names appear frequently inthe historical record. |
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aboriginal Alvan Waller American appears Appendix Archives arrived brother Lee camp meeting canoes Canse Collection Cascades Catholic Cayuses ceremony chap chief Chinook Jargon Claticut Columbia Plateau Columbia River culture dancing Daniel Lee dead documents early edited Elijah Elvira entry ethnographic ethnohistorical Eugene Hunn fishing Fort Nez Percés Fort Vancouver guardian spirit Hajda Henry Brewer Henry Perkins horses Hudson's Bay Company Indians Jason Lee Kiksht Klickitat language Lee and Frost Lee's letter Lewis and Clark lower Columbia McLoughlin Methodist miles missionary Mudge Narcissa natives Nez Perces Northwest Coast October Oregon Historical Society Oregon Mission Pacific Northwest Pacific Northwest Conference Percés Perkins's personal communication Piupiumaksmaks Portland pray prayer preaching religious Sahaptin salmon season shaman slaves Spier and Sapir Tawatoy trade translation tribe Tumsowit Upper Chinookan upstream Vancouver Walla Walla Wasco Wasco-Wishram Wascopam Wascopam Mission Washington White Whitman wife Willamette winter villages Wishram Yacooetar Yakama