Klikitat

The Klikitat, who called themselves xwa'lwaypam, or Steller's Jay People, lived north of the Columbia along the eastern Cascades. They dug camas roots, gathered berries, fished for salmon and hunted elk. Elk hides passed through trade networks as material for protective armour, while baskets expressed another specialised local craft. Horses extended movement across mountain passes. Lewis and Clark encountered Klikitat people in their homeland in 1805–1806. In February 1814 the fur trader Alexander Henry recorded a mounted party including Klikitat hunters in the Willamette Valley, the first written notice of their presence west of the Cascades. The mountain trails they used were becoming continuous horse routes with clearings for forage. Such journeys connected different resource zones and neighbouring peoples.