Umatilla << yoo muh TIHL uh >> are a Native American people of the Columbia Plateau region in northwestern United States. Umatilla ancestral lands once stretched across the interior regions of the southern Columbia Plateau, extending along the middle Columbia and Snake Rivers and their tributaries located in Oregon, Washington, and Idaho.
The Umatilla traditional diet included fish, game, roots, greens, and fruits. They fished for salmon, found in huge numbers in local rivers. They hunted deer and elk and gathered edible plants for food. The Umatilla trapped other animals—including beaver and fox—for fur. The Umatilla traded with Plains Indians for buffalo meat and hides and Coastal Indians for various seafoods. By the 1800’s, the Umatilla and other nearby tribes acquired and raised horses.
Contact with European fur traders introduced diseases such as smallpox and measles to tribes along the Pacific Coast. These diseases spread to the Umatilla, causing many deaths. The Lewis and Clark expedition , an early exploration of the northwestern United States, first met the Umatilla in 1805. Many American settlers soon followed, leading to conflicts over land. In 1855, the Umatilla, Cayuse, and Walla Walla tribes were forced to sign a treaty with the United States government that ceded (gave away) most of their traditional lands. The treaty established a reservation (land set aside for the groups by treaty) near Pendleton, Oregon. Today, many Umatilla live on or around the reservation. The Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation have their own tribal government, laws, police, and social services.
