The Archaeology of the Yakima ValleySmith, Harlan Ingersoll
History
The Archaeology of the Yakima Valley
Smith, Harlan Ingersoll
Yakima River Valley (Wash.) -- Antiquities
Near North Yakima we examined graves in the rock-slides along the Yakima
and Naches Rivers; a site, where material, possibly boulders, suitable
for chipped implements had been dug and broken with pebble hammers, on
the north side of the Naches about one mile above its mouth; pictographs
on the basaltic columns on the south side of the Naches River to the
west of the mouth of Cowiche Creek; petroglyphs pecked into basaltic
columns in Selah Canon; ancient house sites on the north side of the
Naches River near its mouth, and on the north side of the Yakima River
below the mouth of the Naches; remains of human cremations, each
surrounded by a circle of rocks on the point to the northwest of the
junction of the Naches and Yakima Rivers; recent rock-slide graves on
the eastern side of the Yakima River above Union Gap below Old Yakima
(Old Town); the surface along the eastern side of the Yakima River, as
far as the vicinity of Sunnyside; graves in the domes of volcanic ash in
the Ahtanum Valley near Tampico; and rock-slide graves in the Cowiche
Valley.
We then moved our base about thirty miles up the Yakima River to
Ellensburg, Mr. Albert A. Argyle examining the surface along the western
side, en route. From Ellensburg, rock-slide graves and human remains,
surrounded by circles of rocks, as well as a village site upon the
lowland, were examined near the mouth of Cherry Creek. A day spent at
Clealum failed to develop anything of archaeological interest in that
vicinity, except that a human skeleton had been removed in the sinking
of a shaft for a coal mine.
From Ellensburg we went to Fort Simcoe by way of North Yakima and near
the Indian Agency observed circles of rocks, like those around the
cremated human remains near North Yakima, and a circular hole surrounded
by a ridge, the remains of an underground house. Crossing the divide
from Ellensburg and going down to Priest Rapids in the Columbia Valley,
no archaeological remains were observed except chips of stone suitable
for chipped implements which were found on the eastern slope of the
divide near the top and apparently marked the place where material for
such implements, probably float quartz, had been quarried. On the
western side of the Columbia, on the flat between Sentinal Bluffs and
the river at the head of Priest Rapids, considerable material was found.
This was on the surface of the beach opposite the bluffs and on a
village site near the head of Priest Rapids. Graves in the rock-slides,
back from the river about opposite this site, were also examined. Some
modern graves were noticed in a low ridge near the river, a short
distance above the village site. Crossing the Columbia, some material
was found on the surface of the beach and further up, petroglyphs pecked
in the basaltic rocks at the base of Sentinal Bluffs were photographed.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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