Chief Kamiakin

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"Kamiakin" redirects here. For other uses of "Kamiakin", such as the high school, please see Kamiakin (disambiguation)

Chief Kamiakin was a Yakima chief.

[edit] Biography

Kamiakin was born about 1800 near present-day Asotin, Washington. His father was a Palouse Indian and his mother was a Yakima. Kamiakin had two brothers, named Skloom and Show-a-way. As a child, Kamiakin and his brother Skloom left with their mother back to her peoples. During the Yakima War of the 1850s, Kamiakin formed an alliance with 14 tribes living on the plateau. The alliance was formed in order to start an uprising against American officials in the Washington Territory. Following the defeat of the Indians by the U.S. army in 1858, Kamiakin defected to Canada in order to escape arrest and execution. He died in 1877.