Cashmere Apple Days: Museum Park to bear name of last Wenatchi Tribe Chief
By Joanne Prusa
Sept. 21, 2011
Photo by permission of the Cashmere Museum
Apple Days is back at the Cashmere Museum! Come out Saturday morning, October 1, at 10:30 to recognize Wenatchi Chief John Harmelt (pictured.) There will be a Ceremony of Dedication to name the Museum Park in his honor.
John Harmelt was born in what would become the Wenatchee Valley in 1847. He inherited the leadership of his Salish Tribe around 1902 when his father died.
His Native name was changed to English by the white settlers, and his tribe was called Wenatchi from the Yakima Nation dialect. He worked hard to get recognition for his people and pursued restoration of treaty rights and land settlement with Washington D.C. based on an 1855 treaty.
Chief Harmelt did not move with others to a Reservation, but lived in his home in Cashmere where he and his wife died in a house fire in 1937 He was the last Chief of the Wenatchi Tribe.
On Saturday, October 1, we will honor Chief John Harmelt with a dedication of the Museum Park by naming it in his honor.
This Ceremony of Dedication will be held at the Rotary Pavilion, Saturday, Oct. 1 at 10:30 a.m. as a part of Apple Days celebration. Representatives of the Colville Confederated Tribes will participate in the program, and the public is invited to attend.
