Saturday, April 11, 2009

Yakima vs. Yakama

The Yakama are officially known as "The Confederated Tribes and Bands of the Yakama Nation." Yakama used to be spelled "Yakima" but was changed in 1994. Some older works spell the name Yakima and a large city in central Washington is spelled Yakima, but current custom is to spell it Yakama because of pronunciation rules.

As a confederated nation, there are actually 14 tribes that live on the Yakama Reservation. The Sioux and Iroquois are similarly structured in that the commonly used name refers to a confederacy/nation made up of several smaller tribes. I'm not sure how the 14 tribes on the Yakama reservation get along, but it appears that they have one government that represents all the different tribes. The 14 tribes once lived on 11.5 million acres in central Washington but ceded most of the land after some wars in the 1840s and 50s with the USA, and now live on a 1.2 million acre reservation near Mt. Adams in South-Central Washington. I'll hopefully learn more about their history and inter-tribal relations and I'll post more in the future, maybe after the Summer.

1 comment:

natalie said...

Joshua,

Thank you for starting this blog and rest assured that it is being read. There are so many hidden horrors going on in our very own country. Thank you for shining light on these people who are in such great need. Our family will be praying for you this summer and the people in which you will come into contact.

In Him,
Natalie Benson
Macon, GA