Oregon cave spider gets named through Yakama ceremony

tulishpun naming – In Oregon’s Columbia River Gorge, an evolutionary biologist found a cave spider unlike any she’d seen before. The new species—linked to the trogloraptor family—was named “tulishpun,” meaning cave predator in Sahaptin, after collaboration with the Confederated

A biologist bent down to lift rocks in Oregon’s Columbia River Gorge and ended up holding more than an academic surprise.

A few years ago. Greta Binford was taking a hike in the Gorge when she saw a spider that “just looked different from anything that I normally see when I roll over rocks and logs in this area.” Binford is an evolutionary biologist at Lewis & Clark College who studies spiders. so the moment wasn’t just curiosity—it was recognition that something in front of her didn’t match the pattern she knew.

“The first thing I thought was, wow. And it looks like trogloraptor,” Binford said.

Trogloraptor is a family of spiders that only contains one species, and that species lives about 350 miles away. Over the next few years, Binford found more of these spiders and discovered they were trogloraptor—but not the known one. What she had uncovered was a new species.

When a new species is discovered, the name is part science and part honor. Binford’s lab decided not to treat it as a simple academic milestone. Instead, they planned a community naming.

“We had an idea really spearheaded by my student, Madeline Jones, who suggested, why don’t we reach out to the local tribes and see if they have an idea for a name?” Binford said.

The answer came from the Confederated Tribes and Bands of the Yakama Nation: “trogloraptor tulishpun.” In Sahaptin—the Native language traditionally spoken in the land where the spider was found—“tulishpun” means cave predator.

That translation shaped the next step of the process, too. Donella Miller, a member of the Yakama Nation and a biologist with the Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission, said the lab’s decision meant more than a label.

“Honestly, acknowledging the first people, you know, the Indigenous people who live in that area and bringing them into it, it kind of seems like this is what should have been done all along,” Miller said.

But Miller also connected the name to ceremony in a way that lingered with the group.

“I jokingly said—when I said, you know, we’re giving the spider a Indian name. That means we’re going to have to have the naming ceremony,” Miller said.

This past week, that ceremony happened.

Several dozen tribal members and scientists gathered under the hemlocks and fir trees near where the spider was found for a traditional naming ceremony. Anthony Washines, the Yakima elder who came up with the spider’s name, spoke first.

“At this time, we’ll open this ground, the sacred ground that we’re standing on, and then we’ll begin,” Washines said.

He also framed what the event meant beyond biology—an acknowledgement that the land and its creatures are linked.

Naming ceremonies, Prichep noted, are usually for people. But they can also work as a formal introduction of a name and a way to welcome a new member of the community. In the recordings from the ceremony, Washines described the act as witness and recognition.

“You’re being a witness to this brother being acknowledged,” he said.

Then came the name itself. The group repeated it together: “tulishpun.”

Gifts and food were shared, and a traditional naming song was sung. A few spiders were gathered to receive their name and then returned back to the nearby caves.

Washines said he understood that some people might see a spider as small, but the meaning runs deeper.

“We were literally herded to a reservation up in the high-desert plateau, which was not our land. But he stayed here and remained. He still took care of this land,” he said.

For him, the spider’s survival wasn’t abstract. It was continuity.

Prichep contrasted the day with the usual way new species are celebrated—often with a pizza party in a lab. maybe a nod from the dean. an academic milestone sealed behind institutional walls. For tulishpun, the celebration didn’t stay in the lab. It became a community event. a gathering of scientists and citizens “of human and animal. ” meant to name what makes up this land and honor the connections between them.

“Washines knows people will see tulishpun as a small thing,” Prichep reported. But every creature, he said, has its place.

For NPR News, Deena Prichep reported from Cascade Locks, Oregon.

Oregon Columbia River Gorge cave spider trogloraptor Sahaptin Yakama Nation Madeline Jones Greta Binford traditional naming ceremony Lewis & Clark College Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission