Page:Wishram by Henry J. Biddle.djvu/18

Rh the citizens of the Territory, and of erecting temporary buildings for curing them." Many of the Wishram Indians moved to the Yakima Reservation, but still returned to exercise their fishing rights during the season. Some remained at their old village site, and some took up land allotments immediately around it. To protect their village, the government withdrew from entry a quarter section of land at its site.

To give some modern testimony as to the location of Wishram, the writer will quote from a letter, just received from Mr. J. T. Rorick. Mr. Rorick was an old settler in the Spedis region, and is now living at the city of The Dalles. He writes:

"I first saw Spedis in 1892. It was then known as Tum-water, but the Indians in referring to it legendary or historically used the name Wisram. My information is based on conversations with Bill Colwash, who claimed to be a lineal descendant of a long line of chiefs—chiefs from a time 'the memory of man runneth not to the contrary,' and Wishram has been their abiding place."

"The name Spedis was given to it when the S. P. & S. Rwy. had completed their line and established a sidetrack there, about 1906, and was in honor of Bill Spedis, a very old and likeable Indian patriarch."

"Mr. A. H. Curtiss, deceased, who located on that side in 1852, if I remember correctly, gave me the impression that he had gathered from the Indians as I had, that it had been an established point where the Colwashes and their tribe had resided from time immemorial, and being one of the best localities on the Columbia for spearing and dip-netting salmon, neighboring tribes, even from remote distances, would come annually for the June and September runs....."

"When I first came to that section, in 1892, there were probably 150 inhabitants of the village, also possibly 100 at Upper Tum-Water at Celilo Falls. At Wisram death