The Warm Springs tribes are several Sahaptin Native American tribes of northern Oregon. They were also known as the Walla Walla (not to be confused with the related Walla Walla tribe).[1] The Warm Springs tribes are the Upper Deschutes (Tygh), the Lower Deschutes (Wyam), the Tenino, and the John Day (Dock-spus).[2] In 1855, the Warm Springs and Wasco tribes treated with United States in the Treaty with the Tribes of Middle Oregon,[2] which was negotiated by Oregon Superintendent of Indian Affairs Joel Palmer. The Warm Springs are now a part of the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs, which governs the Warm Springs Indian Reservation.
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The Warm Springs bands lived along the tributaries of the Columbia River and spoke Sahaptin.[3] The Warm Springs people moved between winter and summer villages, and mostly ate game, roots and berries.[3] Salmon, however, was also an important staple for the Warm Springs bands and they built elaborate scaffolding over waterfalls, such as at Celilo Falls, which allowed them to harvest fish with long-handled dip nets.[3] Contact between the Warm Springs bands and the Wascoes was frequent, and although they spoke different languages (the Wascoes are a Chinookan people) and observed different customs, they could converse and traded heavily.[3]