Description:
The mighty Columbia River cuts a deep gash through the Miocene basalts of the Columbia Plateau, coursing as well through the lives of the Indians who live along its banks. Known to these people as Nch'i-Wana (the Big River), it forms the spine of their land, the core of their habitat.
At the turn of the century, the Sahaptin speakers of the mid-Columbia lived in an area between Celilo Falls and Priest Rapids in eastern Oregon and Washington. They were hunters and gatherers who survived by virtue of a detailed, encyclopedic knowledge of their environment. Eugene Hunn's authoritative study focuses on Sahaptin ethnobiology and the role of the natural environment in the lives and beliefs of their descendants who live on or near the Yakima, Umatilla, and Warm Springs reservations.
Brief description: Eugene Hunn is emeritus professor of anthropology at the University of Washington. He is the author of Nch'i-Wana, "The Big River" Mid-Columbia Indians and Their Land (University of Washington Press, 1990) and A Zapotec Natural History: Trees, Herbs, and Flowers, Birds, Beasts, and Bugs in the Life of San Juan Gbëë (University of Arizona Press, 2008); and coauthor of Cáw Pawá Láakni / They Are Not Forgotten: Sahaptian Place Names Atlas of the Cayuse, Umatilla, and Walla Walla (University of Washington Press, 2014).