YAKIMA

Sahaptian-speaking Indian tribe that lived along the Columbia, Yakima, and Wenatchee rivers in south-central Washington. They were members of the Plateau culture area and were primarily salmon fishers. Although culturally much like other Sahaptin Indians of the Plateau, the Yakima acquired historical distinction in the Yakima Indian Wars (185558), a failed attempt by the Indians to resist U.S. forces intent upon clearing the Washington Territory for white prospectors and settlers. The conflict stemmed from a treaty that had been negotiated in 1855, according to which the Yakima and 13 other tribes were to be placed on a reservation and confederated as the Yakima Nation. Before the treaty could be ratified, however, a number of tribes united under the Yakima chief Kamaiakan, who declared his intention to drive all whites from the region. After initial Indian successes, the uprising spread to other tribes in Washington and Oregon. Three years of raids, ambushes, and engagements followed, until September 1858, when the Indians were decisively defeated at the Battle of Four Lakes (on a tributary of the Spokane River). In 1859 the treaty of 1855 was effected, with the Yakima and most of the other tribes confined to reservations and their fertile ancestral lands opened to white appropriation. Since that time, all of the residents of the Yakima Reservation have been termed Yakima, and the descendants of the original tribe cannot be distinguished. city, seat (1886) of Yakima county, south-central Washington, U.S., on the Yakima River. In 1884 the Northern Pacific Railway selected the site of Yakima City (now Union Gap) as a construction headquarters. This was abandoned and a new settlement (4 miles north), known as North Yakima, became a railroad depot and cattle-shipping point. Irrigation, introduced in 1891, turned the Yakima Valley into a highly productive area supporting apples, pears, cherries, sugar beets, mint, hops, livestock, and dairying. Food processing became important. The city, named for the Yakima Indians (whose reservation lies southwest), was incorporated in 1883 as North Yakima (the prefix was dropped in 1918). It is the site of Yakima Valley College (1928) and is a tourist centre and a gateway to Mount Rainier National Park. Pop. (1990) city, 54,827; Yakima MSA, 188,823.