Page:Wishram by Henry J. Biddle.djvu/22

130 meaning of this name something like this, "She who watches you as you go by." Photographs of this face, and of two typical Petroglyphs in this neighborhood, are shown on the upper portion of the illustration opposite page 129.

To sum up the evidence set forth in this article, it seems to be proven that the village of the Echelutes, Wishram, Wisham, Niculuita and Spedis, were all one and the same village, and that this village was located on the Washington shore of the Columbia, at the head of the Long Narrows, or Five Mile Rapids. It also appears to be proven that this village was the most easterly settlement of the Chinookan tribes, and that above them began the Sahaptin tribes, extending far to the eastward. Under these circumstances, it would seem to the writer a gross historical error to apply the name of Wishram to any other point than Spedis, particularly to any point higher up the river, where another nation lived.

This Indian village has existed practically on its present site since the day of Lewis and Clark, and, the evidence of the mound shows, for perhaps some thousands of years before that day. It exists today, as it did in the past, because there is good fishing there. The Spedis Indians catch the salmon with dip-nets today precisely as their ancestors did in the remote past, and will continue to catch them there as long as a man of the tribe is left alive.