The Yakima Indian Tribes essays

The Yakima Indian Tribes essays The Yakima Indians lived on the banks of the Columbia, the Wenatchee and the northern branches of the Yakima Rivers, which are located in the east of Washington. The people of Yakima called themselves the Watailmim or people of the people-of-the-narrows, and they also called themselves Pakintleman or the people if the gap which was because of the situation of their village near the Union Gap on the Yakima River. The Yakima Indians mostly fed on Salmon, roots, berries and they crossed the Eastern Rocky Mountains occasionally to hunt the buffalo. The men were usually the ones who hunted and did most of the laborious work. Their shelters consisted of tipis made of animal skin and the shelters had mats for flooring. Since the area in between the mountain ranges recieves little rainfall, there was not a lot of food there for large grazing animals. There in the small spaces that had food, they found elk, bear, and deer. Antelopes and jackrabbits were found in the arid areas between the mountain ranges. They also gathered bulbs of the camas plant and other edible tubers and roots. Salmon and camas were dried in the summer and stored for use in the winter. Winter shelter for the tribes in the plateau area were sunken round houses, which were constructed by digging a large round hole in the ground, placing poles in a circle to support the walls, and covering the cone-shaped roof with dirt. The dwelling was entered through the smoke hole in the roof. In the summer, shelters were brush or mat-covered dwellings that could be taken apart easily and moved. Clothing for the people of the tribe consisted of robes for men and dresses for women. This clothing was usually made from the skins of deer, mountain goats, bighorn sheep and sometimes of woven bark fibers. They also wore leggings, moccasins, shirts, and dresses also made of animal skins. The white people did not start invading their ...