North American Plateau Indian people living mainly in Oregon, U.S. The name Klamath may be a variant of their name for the region (spelled Clemmat or Tlamath); it is the name by which they were known to the Chinook .
They called themselves Maqlaq, meaning "The People," usually with an adjective (such as Ewksikni, "of the Lake"). They were primarily fishers and hunters of waterfowl. The Klamath were divided into relatively autonomous villages, each with its own leaders and medicine man ; the villages would ally for war, and members of different villages often intermarried. Families lived in earth-covered lodges in winter and domed houses of poles and matting in summer. Modoc . Together with the Modoc and the Yahooskin band of Snake Indians, they form an entity known as the Klamath Tribes. Some 2,700 people claimed sole Klamath descent in the 2000 U.S. census.