(LMemaloOSe)) and "Ill-a-hee" meaning dead and earth, ground, soil, or land.

Memaloose Island is classified as an historic geographic an ancient tribal burying ground for Indians, as long as they have existed on the North American continent. It is located in the Columbia River, one and a half miles west of Lyle. On the Lewis Clark highway at the summit of hills between Lyle and Major Creek, Memaloose Island looms to view like a big stone or concrete building in the middle of the river. From this vantage point in Klickitat County, the Victor Trevitt monument, about six feet high and six square, appears as some sort of a cupola or dome.

The only paleface ever buried in this nature sepulcher was Victor Trevitt. He was a pioneer at The Dalles. He was much among the Indians and learned their ways and manners. His burial on Memaloose Island was in compliance of a request he made before his death. His grave was blasted out of solid rock. His funeral was held there in 1883, with Masonic honors.

When Memaloose was first explored by whites it was said some tribes, groups, or clans of Indians had crude underground caverns for their dead, but most Indians taken to the Island were simply deposited on the surface of its rocky top, in space reserved. It would thus appear that an Indian interred on Memaloose Island was not buried at all -- just laid away on a high shelf, similar to tree burials of the Sioux.

When the whites came with their lumber, wooden shanties were built over some of these burial plots. These were not kept in repair and after a time collapsed, leaving great heaps of bleaching human bones exposed to view.

Since Memaloose was to be flooded, the government moved as many bodies as possible. Six hundred fifty were removed from the Island to a new cemetery a mile north of The Dalles bridge. Myrtle Overbaugh.