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Nebraska
Press Series 1
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People of the Dalles
The Indians of the Wascopam Mission
Robert Boyd, Cloth: 1996,xi,414,CIP.LC
95-38916,0-8032-1236-4
Studies in the Anthropology
of North American Indians Series
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People of The Dalles is a historical
ethnography of the Chinookan (Wasco-Wishram) and Sahaptin
peoples of The Dalles area of the Columbia River (ancestors
to peoples now located on the Warm Springs and Yakama
reservations) between about 1805 and 1848. The book
begins with early historical background reconstructed
from the accounts of explorers and travelers, then presents
the human geography, subsistence and economics, social
structure, life-cycle rituals, and aboriginal religion
of these peoples. This is followed by chapters on cultural
and religious change and a summary chapter on the effect
on the Indians of the Methodist Mission. Much of the
material on which the book is based is taken from the
writings of the Methodist missionaries at Wascopam,
in particular from the papers of the Reverend Henry
Perkins, who was stationed there from 1838 to 1844.
Perkins and his fellow missionaries lived among the
Indians at The Dalles during a crucial period, shortly
after the devastating mortalities caused by the epidemics
of the early 1830s and just before the equally wrenching
wars and removals of the 1850s. Appendices to the volume
include Perkins's major writings on the Wascopam Mission,
a list of sources of material relating to the mission,
and brief biographical sketches of mission personnel
and Indians whose names appear frequently in the historical
record. Robert Boyd has published several articles on
Pacific Northwest Indian ethnohistory.
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