Wasco–Wishram

The Wasco-Wishram are two closely related Chinook Indian tribes from the Columbia River in Oregon.

United States military expansion in the 1800s brought European diseases, which took a great toll on the Wasco and Wishram populations.

Both tribes were forced by the United States in 1855 to sign treaties ceding the majority of their lands.

[1] Wasco comes from the word Wacq!ó, meaning "cup" or "small bowl," the name of a distinctive bowl-shaped rock near the tribe's primary historic village.

In 1974 a landmark court case confirmed the rights of Northwest Coast tribes to fish as they have historically done.

[2] Wishram are predominantly enrolled in the Confederated Tribes and Bands of the Yakama Nation in Washington state.

[6] Wasco-Tlingit artist Pat Courtney Gold takes traditional Wasco-Wishram designs and weaves them into contemporary baskets.