Cayuse was a railroad station and is a post office about 11 miles east of Pendleton. The place is one of the few geographical features in the state named for the Cayuse. In 1924, Prof. Edwin T. Hodge of the University of Oregon applied the name Cayuse Crater to a vent in the south part of Broken Top 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 associated with the neighboring Walla Wallas and Nez Perces but was linguistically independent. After 1855, the tribe was moved to the Umatilla Reservation. Alexander Ross gives the name Cajouse in Adventures of the First Settlers on the Oregon, pg. 127; Townsend's Narrative gives Kayouse; Palmer gives Caaguas and Kioose in his journal, 1847, pg. 53; Hale gives Cailloux in his 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. Native American horses have come to be called "cayuses" because the Cayuse tribe 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 and was at the foot of what was known as Meacham Hill. Cayuse post office was established October 29, 1867, with john S. White 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.