SAHAPTIN

also spelled Shahaptin group of North American Indian tribes inhabiting what is now southeastern Washington, northeastern Oregon, and west central Idaho, in the basin of the Columbia River and its tributaries, and speaking related Sahaptian languages of Penutian stock. Major groups included the Cayuse, Molala, Palouse (or Palus), Nez Perc (q.v.), Tenino, Umatilla, Wallawalla, and Yakima (q.v.). The Sahaptin were southern members of the so-called Plateau culture area, lying between the Rocky Mountains and the Cascade Range. A semi-arid region of sagebrush and grass, with only scattered pine, their lands were nevertheless cut by the world's greatest salmon-producing river, the Columbia, so that even groups in deserts had a regular food supply. They also hunted such game as deer and gathered berries and roots. The western groups (Molala, Tenino, and Yakima) had only a vague sense of tribal unity, effective usually only for common defense; the primary political unit was the autonomous village composed of a band of related families. The eastern tribes (Nez Perc, Palouse, Cayuse, and Umatilla), influenced by the Plains culture over the Rockies, had superimposed on this village society a somewhat stronger tribal cohesion; there was a tribal chief and council, and families tended to marry intertribally. Moreover, whereas the western groups tended virtually toward pacifism, the eastern groups were warlike and adopted much of the Plains-type warfare, with its grading of war honours and bravery and its resort to such practices as scalping and war dances. The major foes of the Sahaptins were the Shoshoni and Paiute to the south. Their religious belief centred on guardian spirits, whose existence was revealed in visions. Shamans, or medicine men, were respected religious and social leaders. From the middle of the 19th century onward, most of the Sahaptin, along with other Plateau tribes in the United States, were forced onto the large Nez Perc, Colville, Yakima, Umatilla, and Warm Springs reservations and other smaller reservations. Because peoples of different tribes were often collected indiscriminately, it is now often difficult to distinguish between their descendants.