The Wenatchi: People of the Icicle Confluence

Long before any railroad or homesteader arrived in the Wenatchee River valley, this place belonged to the Wenatchi people, who also call themselves P'Squosa. They built their lives at the confluence of the Wenatchee River and Icicle Creek, at the spot where Leavenworth now stands, because two productive salmon streams meeting in one place made it one of the richest fishing grounds in the region. The Wenatchee River drainage once held one of the great Chinook salmon runs in the Pacific Northwest, fish pushing deep into the Cascades from the Columbia River far below.

The Wenatchi fished, hunted, and gathered across this valley and into the mountains, following seasonal rhythms that had governed this landscape for thousands of years. Their fishery at the Icicle confluence, known as Wenatshapam, was considered so valuable that it was specifically named in treaty negotiations. In eighteen fifty-five, the Yakama treaty negotiated at the Walla Walla Council reserved their Wenatshapam fishery and grouped the Wenatchi with the Yakama Confederation, though their roots in this valley ran thousands of years deeper than any treaty.

The great salmon runs they had always depended on were severely reduced by hydroelectric dams built on the Columbia River in the twentieth century. The valley name, the river name, and the name of the city of Wenatchee downstream all derive from the people who built their civilization here long before anyone else arrived.