Page:Wishram by Henry J. Biddle.djvu/16

Rh comes evident that Wishram was not the name of a village, but the name of a tribe. Indeed Irving says "the village of the Wish-ram." How the name Wishram orig inated is not yet clear. Sapir says these Indians called themselves Ila'xliut, but Wishram was evidently the name the whites applied to them; perhaps Wilkes' statement that Wisham was "the name of the old chief long since dead" may explain it. In any event the site of the ancient village called Wishram seems to be definitely located at the head of the Long Narrows, on the Washington side of the river, and adjacent to an artificial mound. This is the site of the present Indian village of Spedis, and there does not seem to be any doubt whatever that Spedis is Wishram.

None of the writers that have been quoted locate the village of Wishram at either the Little Narrows or the Falls, although Simpson intimates he met some of the tribe there. Indeed, the testimony of Lewis and Clark, of Farnham and Sapir, shows that the Indians above the Long Narrows belonged to a totally different tribe, and spoke a different language. The Wishrams spoke a Chinookan dialect, those above a Sahaptin dialect. To quote further from Wishram Texts:

P. 240. "The Wasco Indians......formerly occupied the southern shores of Columbia River in the region of The Dalles, and formed, with the closely related Wishram (more properly Wi'cxam) or Ila'xliut on the northern shore of the river, the most easterly members of the Chinookan stock."

P. 240, footnote. "Wasco......was the chief village of the Wascos. It was situated a few miles above The Dalles, opposite Nixlu'idix, the main village of the Wishrams."

In regard to the pronunciation of Wishram, or Wisham, which Sapir writes Wi'exam, something will now be said. Sapir explains the Indian sounds arbitrarily represented by letters of our alphabet: "c—like sh in