New spider species receives Yakama name in traditional ceremony
Scientists and Yakama Nation leaders honored newly identified Columbia River Gorge species through a tribal naming ceremony
A newly identified spider species found in the Columbia River Gorge received the Ichiskíin name Trogloraptor tulishpun during a traditional Yakama naming ceremony June 10, according to reporting from Underscore Native News. Arachnologist Greta Binford, a professor at Lewis & Clark College who discovered the species in 2021, invited the Yakama Nation to name the spider rather than selecting a scientific name on her own. The species is only the second identified in the Trogloraptor genus.
Yakama elder Tony Washines named the spider Trogloraptor tulishpun, which translates to "cave predator, master of domain" in Ichiskíin, according to the Underscore Native News reporting. The ceremony, organized with the Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission, brought together Yakama citizens, scientists and researchers to recognize the discovery and celebrate the partnership between Indigenous knowledge and scientific research.
- 1.Lyric Aquino. Underscore Native News, .
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