Finding Chief Kamiakin: The Life and Legacy of a Northwest Patriot

Born to T'siyiak, a champion horse racer and Com-mus-ni, the daughter of Chief Wiyáwiikt, Kamiakin helped relatives tend his family's rapidly expanding herds. He wintered in tule mat lodges in the Kittitas and Ahtanum valleys, shared in spring root gathering, went salmon fishing in the summer, and participated in fall hunting and berry picking.

The young Indian also learned ancestral traditions. Alone as an adolescent on the treacherous, icy heights of Mount Rainier, he dreamt of the Buffal...