Hobbies And Interests
Food Gathering Tools
The tribes on the Columbia Plateau lived by hunting and gathering wild plants. Yakama hunters took bear, deer, and elk with spears and arrows. Skillful craftsmen knapped points of stone and volcanic glass. They hunted smaller animals such as hares and birds with snares, slings and nets.
According to the Yakima Valley Museum the people spent much of their time searching for food. The harsh climate and rugged conditions of the Columbia Plateau region set the rhythm of their lives. In spring they migrated to areas where edible roots could be harvested with digging sticks.
The seasons led the people to follow their food sources. When the salmon ran the Yakama camped along the rivers and fished with harpoons and nets. During the warmer months the people scattered across the countryside to gather and store food. Fish and game got smoked and dried, berries and roots harvested and stored in well crafted birch baskets.
In winter the Yakama traveled to their winter villages with the food they had stored. Meat from hunting and the stored food sustained the people during the harsh northern winters.
Building Tools
The Yakama and other plateau tribes made tools for shaping the wood they used to build houses and canoes. Sharp stone adzes attached to wooden handles planed and shaped wood. Stone axes are tools the Yakama used to cut poles for the construction of winter village pit houses.
After the Yakama began to interact with Europeans trade brought steel knives and tools. Annexation of the land by the United States brought further changes to the way the Yakama lived.
The Yakama and thirteen other tribal groups were pressured to take up farming and the government-built American style blacksmith shops, schools and houses. The changes introduced by the move ended the traditional Yakama way of life because their traditional gathering sites and hunting grounds were lost.
Baskets and Nets
Some of the most useful tools used by the native peoples of the Columbia Plateau are crafted from cedar bark. Baskets made from cedar and cherry tree bark held food stores and water. Cedar bark provided material to make strong ropes and gill nets for catching fish.
Much of the craft work made by the Yakama is lost because the material decays quickly but one site near Puget Sound contains well-preserved artifacts very similar to those made by the Yakama.
According to American Archeology Magazine, winter 2008 issue, the mud in this dig site preserves 600-year-old baskets and bark fishing nets. The inner bark of cedar trees when shredded can be woven into material for making nets, baskets and even clothing.