The Yakama


Book Description

Describes the great Yakama tribe, examines their origins, social structures, myths, warriors, victories and defeats




Yakama Rising


Book Description

The Yakama Nation of present-day Washington State has responded to more than a century of historical trauma with a resurgence of grassroots activism and cultural revitalization. This pathbreaking ethnography shifts the conversation from one of victimhood to one of ongoing resistance and resilience as a means of healing the soul wounds of settler colonialism. Yakama Rising: Indigenous Cultural Revitalization, Activism, and Healing argues that Indigenous communities themselves have the answers to the persistent social problems they face. This book contributes to discourses of Indigenous social change by articulating a Yakama decolonizing praxis that advances the premise that grassroots activism and cultural revitalization are powerful examples of decolonization. Michelle M. Jacob employs ethnographic case studies to demonstrate the tension between reclaiming traditional cultural practices and adapting to change. Through interviewees’ narratives, she carefully tacks back and forth between the atrocities of colonization and the remarkable actions of individuals committed to sustaining Yakama heritage. Focusing on three domains of Indigenous revitalization—dance, language, and foods—Jacob carefully elucidates the philosophy underlying and unifying each domain while also illustrating the importance of these practices for Indigenous self-determination, healing, and survival. In the impassioned voice of a member of the Yakama Nation, Jacob presents a volume that is at once intimate and specific to her home community and that also advances theories of Indigenous decolonization, feminism, and cultural revitalization. Jacob’s theoretical and methodological contributions make this work valuable to a range of students, academics, tribal community members, and professionals, and an essential read for anyone interested in the ways that grassroots activism can transform individual lives, communities, and society.




Anakú Iwachá


Book Description

"The Confederated Tribes and Bands of the Yakama Nation, in association with the University of Washington Press."




Death Stalks the Yakama


Book Description

Intro -- Contents -- Preface -- Part One: Introduction -- Part Two: The Yakama -- Part Three: Yakama Death Certificates: Theoretical and Methodological Orientations -- Part Four: Comparison of Yakama Death Rates with Other Populations -- Part Five: Conclusion -- Appendix -- Bibliography -- Index.




Land Divided by Law


Book Description

Wester's environmental history of Yakama and Euro-American cultural interactions during the 19th and early 20th century explores the role of law in both curtailing and promoting rights to subsistence resources within a market economy. Her study, using original source files, case histories, and contemporary writings, particularly describes how the struggle to assert treaty rights both sprang from and impacted the daily lives of the Yakama people. The study is now widely available in this new digital edition (and in paperback), adding a 2014 foreword by Harry Scheiber, professor of law and history at Berkeley. This book, he writes, “is a masterful study of the complex, extended series of confrontations between the native Indian cultures of the Yakima region and the regime of the conquering white nation. Her analysis is based on a blending of materials from rich archival sources and from the literatures of legal history, administrative history, anthropology, ecology, and cultural theory. Most remarkably, the book makes important new contributions to all these fields of scholarship.” "In her remarkable book Land Divided by Law, Barbara Leibhardt Wester eloquently portrays the Yakama Indians of the Columbia River Basin as actors defending a threatened, living landscape from encroachments by settlers. Using federal officials and the courts to advocate for their rights, they reasserted a spiritual heritage of the earth as body, heart, life, and breath. Anyone interested in Native peoples and their interactions with Euro-Americans will want to read this lively, engaging account." —Carolyn Merchant Professor of Environmental History, University of California, Berkeley "This is a remarkable work that brims with insight about the inter-relatedness of nature, work, law, and culture. Wester blends expertise in several different academic disciplines with a superb gift for narrative into her analysis of the Yakama people's defense of their traditional way of life. The book is a testament not only to the skill and resilience of its subjects but also to the power of the author's empathy and respect for them." —Arthur F. McEvoy Associate Dean for Research, and Paul E. Treusch Professor of Law, Southwestern Law School




Death Stalks the Yakama


Book Description

Clifford Trafzer's disturbing new work, Death Stalks the Yakama, examines life, death, and the shockingly high mortality rates that have persisted among the fourteen tribes and bands living on the Yakama Reservation in the state of Washington. The work contains a valuable discussion of Indian beliefs about spirits, traditional causes of death, mourning ceremonies, and memorials. More significant, however, is Trafzer's research into heretofore unused parturition and death records from 1888-1964. In these documents, he discovers critical evidence to demonstrate how and why many reservation people died in "epidemics" of pneumonia, tuberculosis, and heart disease. Death Stalks the Yakama, takes into account many variables, including age, gender, listed causes of death, residence, and blood quantum. In addition, analyses of fetal and infant mortality rates as well as crude death rates arising from tuberculosis, pneumonia, heart disease, accidents, and other causes are presented. Trafzer argues that Native Americans living on the Yakama Reservation were, in fact, in jeopardy as a result of the "reservation system" itself. Not only did this alien and artificial culture radically alter traditional ways of life, but sanitation methods, housing, hospitals, public education, medicine, and medical personnel affiliated with the reservation system all proved inadequate, and each in its own way contributed significantly to high Yakama death rates.




Who Are the Yakama? | Native American People Grade 4 | Children's Geography & Cultures Books


Book Description

In this book, you will be learning about the Yakama people. Understand that the Yakama gained historical distinction when they tried to resist US forces during the Yakama Indian Wars. Read about their history, culture and tradition. Learn from their way of life and how the modern times have affected them. Secure a copy of this book today.




Ichishkíin Sinwit Yakama / Yakima Sahaptin Dictionary


Book Description

Sahaptin, or Ichishk�in S�nwit (literally, "this language"), is a Plateau Penutian language spoken in south-central Washington and northern Oregon. This dictionary documents the dialect of Sahaptin that is spoken by the Yakama people. Ichishk�in S�nwit Yakama / Yakima Sahaptin Dictionary is the first modern published dictionary of any Sahaptin dialect. The dictionary is divided into three sections: a Sahaptin-English section; an English-Sahaptin section; and a section listing roots used in the formation of Sahaptin words. The Sahaptin-English section contains approximately 3,500 headwords, over 4,500 example sentences, more than 100 images, and over 9,200 sound files available online. Copious cross-references alert readers to related words elsewhere in the Sahaptin-English section. The English-Sahaptin and roots sections serve as indices to the Sahaptin-English section. In the English-Sahaptin section, users can look up the Sahaptin equivalents of English words. In the root section, users can see words from different parts of the dictionary that share the same component of meaning. The dictionary also contains essays by noted Plateau linguist Bruce Rigsby (professor emeritus, University of Queensland) on the histories and current usage of the terms "Sahaptin" and "Yakima / Yakama."







Finding Chief Kamiakin


Book Description

"Born to T'siyiyak, a champion horse racer, and Com-mus-ni, the daughter of legendary Chief Wlyawllkt, Kamiakin from an early age helped tend his family's expanding herds. He wintered with relatives in tule mat lodges in the Kittitas and Ahtanum valleys. During other times of the year he shared in communal springtime root gathering, summertime salmon fishing, and autumn berry-picking and hunting." "Kamiakin adhered to ancestral tradition. Alone as an adolescent on Mount Rainier's icy heights, he dreamt of the Buffalo's power, completing his quest for a guardian spirit. Muscular and sinewy, he became a skilled equestrian and competitor in feats of agility. He married and established a camp on Ahtanum Creek, raising potatoes, squash, pumpkins, and corn in irrigated gardens." "As Kamiakin matured, he rose in prominence among the Yakamas; leaders of both Sahaptin and Salish bands sought his counsel. Through personal aptitude as well as family bonds, he emerged as one of the Plateau region's most influential chiefs. He cautiously welcomed White newcomers and sought to learn beneficial aspects of their culture. His dignified manner impressed the Whites he knew - traders, missionaries, and soldiers." "In the 1840s, the arrival of unprecedented numbers of Oregon Trail immigrants stirred a cataclysmic upheaval threatening his people's retention of lands and their ancient customs. On May 29, 1855, the Walla Walla Treaty Council commenced with a gathering of government officials and Plateau headmen, while some 5,000 Indians camped nearby. Two weeks later, Kamiakin signed the Yakima Treaty of 1855 with great reluctance; he also resolved to resist threats to his people's freedom and transgressions on their lifeways. Finding Chief Kamiakin is his saga."--BOOK JACKET.