Region: Northwest Coast
Associated Cultures: Wasco, Wishram, White Salmon, Hood River, Warm Springs, Yakama, Chinook
2006
In compliance with 20 U.S.C. 80q et seq. (Public Law 101-185), the National Museum of the American Indian
Act, this report provides an inventory and assessment of objects from the Memaloose islands in Oregon and
Washington, donated by Edward Spitzka in 1921, in the National Museum of Natural History (NMNH), Smithsonian
Institution (SI). The Confederated Tribes of the Warm Springs Reservation submitted a repatriation request
in February of 1988 for the return of human remains from the Memaloose islands. After further consultation, funerary objects were also added to the request and both human remains and funerary objects from the Memaloose islands were evaluated in a 1993 Repatriation Office report. Sixty-six catalog numbers of human remains and 164 catalog numbers of funerary objects from Upper and Lower Memaloose islands were repatriated to the Confederated Tribes of the Warm Springs Reservation and the Confederated Tribes and Bands of the Yakama Nation in 1994. In June of 1999, representatives of the Confederated Tribes of the Grand Ronde Reservation visited the NMNH and viewed Chinookan objects listed with a provenience of "Mameluke Island" in the Ethnology Division of the NMNH collections. Based on the information they reviewed during this visit, they felt that the objects were likely from one of the Memaloose islands. They submitted a repatriation request in August 1999. The Confederated Tribes of the Grand Ronde Reservation have since withdrawn their repatriation request. However, these objects still fall within the
original request from the Confederated Tribes of the Warm Springs Reservation.
This report documents 13 objects from ten catalog numbers in the collection of the NMNH
potentially from the Memaloose islands, Washington or Oregon. These objects are cataloged in the Ethnology
Division of the NMNH collections. Although they were collected by Joseph Simms, they were donated to the
NMNH by Edward Spitzka in 1921, after the death of the collector in 1920.
Based on the available evidence, ten objects in eight catalog numbers were taken from one
of the Memaloose islands on the Columbia River. These islands include Upper Memaloose Island in Klickitat
County, Washington, and Lower Memaloose and Grave islands in Wasco County, Oregon. The Repatriation Office
is unable to identify the specific island from which the objects were obtained. All three islands were used
exclusively for burial purposes during the historic period. Furthermore, most of the objects were broken
or have holes bored, drilled or carved through them, a mark of "killing" or "decommissioning" an item to
be placed in a grave. The objects are, therefore, likely to be funerary, having been intentionally placed
with human remains at the time of death or later. The provenience of the remaining three objects in two
catalog numbers discussed in this report is not certain and they cannot be determined to be funerary.
Based on an evaluation of information from consultations with Native American tribes
and ethnohistoric and artifactual evidence, the funerary objects from the Memaloose islands discussed in
this report are culturally affiliated to the Confederated Tribes and Bands of the Yakama Nation and the
Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs Reservation. All three of the Memaloose islands discussed here were
used historically by both of these tribes. This is consistent with the finding of the 1993 NMNH Repatriation
Office report evaluating human remains and funerary objects from Upper and Lower Memaloose islands. This
report also confirms that Grave Island was likely used by the Confederated Tribes of the Warm Springs
Reservation as a burial area.
A relationship of shared group identity links the Wasco, Wishram, White Salmon and Hood
River peoples buried on the Memaloose islands and the present-day Wasco, Wishram, White Salmon and Hood
River peoples represented today by Confederated Tribes and Bands of the Yakama Nation and the Confederated
Tribes of the Warm Springs Reservation. The Repatriation Office recommends that the NMNH offer for return
the ten funerary objects from the Memaloose islands still at the NMNH to the Confederated Tribes of the
Warm Springs Reservation and the Confederated Tribes and Bands of the Yakama Nation.
Repatriation Update
These funerary objects were repatriated to the Confederated Tribes of the Warm Springs Reservation and the Confederated Tribes and Bands of the Yakama Nation on May 9, 2007.
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