Cayuse Oregon 97801 & 97821
was a railroad station and is a post office about 11
east of Pendleton. The place is one of the few geographical
features in the state named for the Cayuse. In 1924,
Edwin T. Hodge of the University of Oregon applied the
name Cayuse Crater to a vent in the south part of Broken
Mountain in Deschutes County. The Cayuse were a Waiilatpuan
tribe, formerly living at the headwaters of Walla Walla,
Umatilla, and Grande Ronde rivers and between the Blue
Mountains and Deschutes River. The tribe was closely
the neighboring Walla Wallas and Nez Perces but was linguistically
independent. After 1855, the tribe was moved to the
Reservation. Alexander Ross gives the name Cajouse in Adventures
of the First Settlers on the Oregon, pg. 127;
Narrative gives Kayouse; Palmer gives Caaguas and Kioose
in his journal, 1847, pg. 53; Hale gives Cailloux in
Ethnography and Philology, pg. 214; Scouler gives Cayoose;
Wyeth, Cayouse and Ski use; George Wilkes, Kiuse; Farnham,
Skyuse; john Work, Kyauses; Washington Irving gives Sciatogas.
The Cayuses had linguistic affinities with the Molallas
of western Oregon. Indian horses have come to be called
"cayuses" because the Indians of that name were
large breeders of the animals. The name formerly had only
local use but later spread over the Pacific Northwest.
Cayuse in Umatilla County was formerly a stage station
at the foot of what was known as Meacham Hill. Cayuse post
office was established October 29, 1867, with john S.
first postmaster. There is a Cayuse Canyon opening onto
Rock Creek northeast of Condon in Gilliam County. It was
doubtless so named because cayuse ponies pastured there.