The Watlala people, also called the Cascade Indians, were a Chinookan tribe that lived at the Cascades of the Columbia and Willamette Rivers in Oregon.

In 1805-06, Lewis and Clark estimated that they numbered about 2,800. However, as there were also other tribes who lived at or near the cascades and the people were very changeable due to the location being a popular fishing spot, it was impossible to identify them with certainty.

Several other known bands, which may have been the Watlala or later, have been included under them, including the Cathlakaheckit, Cathlathlala, Cathlayackty, Clahclellah, Katlagakya, and Yehuh. In 1829, the Native Americans of the region suffered an epidemic, which was called “ague fever,” of unknown nature, which killed, in a single summer, some four-fifths of the population. Whole villages disappeared, and those that were left were consolidated. After the epidemic, the Watlala seemed to have been the only remaining tribe, the remnants of the others having probably united under that name. However, they were commonly called Cascade Indians by the whites.

In 1854, they were reported to number only 80 people. In 1855, they joined the Wasco Treaty under the names of the “Ki-gal-twal-la band of the Wascoes” and the “Dog River band of the Wasco” and were removed to the Warm Springs Reservation in Oregon. Afterward, they were no longer enumerated separately, and those who didn’t join the Wasco were thought to have joined the Wishram tribe.

 

© Kathy Alexander/Legends of America, updated March 2025.

Also See:

Index of Tribes

Indian Wars

Native American Photo Galleries

Native Americans – First Owners of America

See Sources.