Klamath
Encyclopedia
The Klamath are a Native American
Native Americans in the United States
Native Americans in the United States are the indigenous peoples in North America within the boundaries of the present-day continental United States, parts of Alaska, and the island state of Hawaii. They are composed of numerous, distinct tribes, states, and ethnic groups, many of which survive as...
tribe of the Plateau culture area in Southern Oregon
Southern Oregon
Southern Oregon is a region of the U.S. state of Oregon south of Lane County and generally west of the Cascade Range, excluding the southern Oregon Coast. Counties include Douglas, Jackson, Klamath, and Josephine. It includes the Southern Oregon American Viticultural Area, which consists of the...
.
Pre-contact
Prior to the arrival of European explorers, the Klamath people lived in the area around the Upper Klamath LakeUpper Klamath Lake
Upper Klamath Lake is a large, shallow freshwater lake east of the Cascade Range in south central Oregon in the United States. The largest freshwater body in Oregon, it is approximately 20 mi long and 8 mi wide and extends northwest from the city of Klamath Falls...
and the Klamath
Klamath River
The Klamath River is an American river that flows southwest through Oregon and northern California, cutting through the Cascade Range to empty into the Pacific Ocean. The river drains an extensive watershed of almost that stretches from the high desert country of the Great Basin to the temperate...
, Williamson
Williamson River (Oregon)
The Williamson River of south-central Oregon in the United States is about long. It drains about east of the Cascade Range. Together with its principal tributary, the Sprague River, it provides over half the inflow to Upper Klamath Lake, the largest freshwater lake in Oregon...
, and Sprague
Sprague River
The Sprague River is a tributary of the Williamson River, approximately long, in southwestern Oregon in the United States. It drains an arid volcanic plateau region east of the Cascade Range in the watershed of the Klamath River....
rivers. They subsisted primarily on fish and gathered roots and seeds.
The Klamath were known to raid neighboring tribes (such as the Achomawi
Achomawi
The Achomawi are one of eleven bands of the Pit River tribe of Native Americans who lived in northeastern California, USA....
on the Pit River
Pit River
The Pit River is a major river draining from northeastern California into the state's Central Valley. The Pit, the Klamath and the Columbia are the only three rivers in the U.S...
), and occasionally to take prisoners as slaves. They traded with the Chinookan
Chinookan
Chinook refers to several native amercain groups of in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States, speaking the Chinookan languages. In the early 19th century, the Chinookan-speaking peoples lived along the lower and middle Columbia River in present-day Oregon and Washington...
people at The Dalles
The Dalles, Oregon
The Dalles is the largest city and county seat of Wasco County, Oregon, United States. The name of the city comes from the French word dalle The Dalles is the largest city and county seat of Wasco County, Oregon, United States. The name of the city comes from the French word dalle The Dalles is...
.
Contact
In 1826 Peter Skene OgdenPeter Skene Ogden
Peter Skene Ogden , was a fur trader and a Canadian explorer of what is now British Columbia and the American West...
, an explorer for the Hudson's Bay Company
Hudson's Bay Company
The Hudson's Bay Company , abbreviated HBC, or "The Bay" is the oldest commercial corporation in North America and one of the oldest in the world. A fur trading business for much of its existence, today Hudson's Bay Company owns and operates retail stores throughout Canada...
, first encountered the Klamath people, and he was trading with them by 1829. The United States frontiersman Kit Carson
Kit Carson
Christopher Houston "Kit" Carson was an American frontiersman and Indian fighter. Carson left home in rural present-day Missouri at age 16 and became a Mountain man and trapper in the West. Carson explored the west to California, and north through the Rocky Mountains. He lived among and married...
admired their arrows. The Klamath were reported to be able to shoot those arrows through a horse.
Treaty with the United States
The United StatesUnited States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, the Klamaths, Modocs, and Yahooskin
Yahooskin
The Yahooskin are a band of Snake Indians comprising part of the federally recognized Klamath Tribes in Klamath County, Oregon. In 1864 they, along with the Klamath and Modoc, signed a treaty with the Federal government which established an Indian reservation in Southern Oregon for them, in...
band of Snake
Snake Indians
Snake Indians is the common name given by American immigrants on the Oregon Trail to the bands of Northern Paiute, Bannock and Shoshone Native Americans in the Snake River and Owyhee River valleys of southern Idaho and Eastern Oregon...
tribes signed a treaty in 1864, establishing the Klamath Reservation, to the northeast of Upper Klamath Lake. The treaty had the tribes cede the land in the Klamath Basin
Klamath Basin
The Klamath Basin is the region in the U.S. states of Oregon and California drained by the Klamath River. It contains most of Klamath County and parts of Lake and Jackson counties in Oregon, and parts of Del Norte, Humboldt, Modoc, Siskiyou, and Trinity counties in California. The drainage basin...
, bounded on the north by the 44th parallel
44th parallel north
The 44th parallel north is a circle of latitude that is 44 degrees north of the Earth's equatorial plane. It crosses Europe, the Mediterranean Sea, Asia, the Pacific Ocean, North America, and the Atlantic Ocean....
, to the United States. In return, the United States was to make a lump sum payment of $35,000, and annual payments totalling $80,000 over 15 years, as well as providing infrastructure and staff for the reservation. The treaty provided that, if the Indians drank or stored intoxicating liquor on the reservation, the payments could be withheld and that the United States could locate additional tribes on the reservation in the future. The tribes requested Lindsay Applegate
Lindsay Applegate
Lindsay Applegate was a pioneer known for blazing the Applegate Trail, an alternative end of Oregon Trail in the U.S. state of Oregon. The trail was blazed with his brothers Charles and Jesse in 1846.-Early life:...
as the agent to represent the United States to them. The Indian agent estimated the total population of the three tribes at about 2,000 when the treaty was signed.
Post-treaty history
Since termination of recognition of their tribal sovereignty in 1954, the Klamath and neighboring tribes have reorganized their government and revived tribal identity. The Klamath, along with the Modoc and Yahooskin, have formed the federally recognized Klamath TribesKlamath Tribes
The Klamath Tribes, formerly the Klamath Indian Tribe of Oregon, are a federally recognized confederation of three Native American tribes who traditionally inhabited Southern Oregon and Northern California in the United States: the Klamath, Modoc, and Yahooskin...
confederation. Their tribal government is based in Chiloquin, Oregon
Chiloquin, Oregon
Chiloquin is a city in Klamath County, Oregon, United States. Chiloquin was the pioneer version of a Klamath family name Chaloquin, which was the name of a Klamath chief who was alive at the time of the treaty of 1864...
.
Some Klamath live on the Quartz Valley Indian Community
Quartz Valley Indian Community
The Quartz Valley Indian Community is a federal reservation in Siskiyou County, California. It consists of Klamath, Karuk, and Shasta Indians.The community area is about and numbers around 264.-External links:*...
in Siskiyou County, California
Siskiyou County, California
Siskiyou County is a county located in the far northernmost part of the U.S. state of California, in the Shasta Cascade region on the Oregon border. Yreka is the county seat. Because of its substantial natural beauty, outdoor recreation opportunities, and Gold Rush era history, it is an important...
.
Language
The Klamath spoke one dialect of the Klamath–Modoc language, the other being spoken by the Modoc people, who lived south of the Klamath. Once thought to be a language isolate, Klamath–Modoc is now considered a member of the Plateau Penutian language family.Both the Klamath and the Modoc called themselves maqlaqs, meaning "people." When they wanted to distinguish between themselves, the Klamath were called ?ewksiknii, "people of the [Klamath] Lake," and the Modoc were called moowatdal'knii, "people of the south."
Classifications
The Klamath people are grouped with the Plateau IndiansPlateau Indians
Indigenous peoples of the Northwest Plateau, also referred to by the phrase Indigenous peoples of the Plateau, and historically called the Plateau Indians are indigenous peoples of the Plateau or Intermontane region of Western Canada and the United States, whose territories are located in the...
—the peoples who originally lived on the Columbia River Plateau
Columbia River Plateau
The Columbia Plateau is a geologic and geographic region that lies across parts of the U.S. states of Washington, Oregon, and Idaho. It is a wide flood basalt plateau between the Cascade Range and the Rocky Mountains, cut through by the Columbia River...
. They were most closely linked with the Modoc people.