Umatilla Dictionary documents the language of the Umatilla people east of the Cascade Mountains in Oregon and Washington. Working for many years with the accumulated scholarship of linguists and anthropologists as well as with elders on the Umatilla Reservation, tribal linguist Noel Rude has painstakingly recorded and rationalized words, pronunciations, phrases, and other elements of the Umatilla language.

The dictionary includes a grammar and comparative information that places the Umatilla language in its linguistic and historical context and compiles all of its known words, phrases, and constructions. Umatilla Dictionary is an important work for people of the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation, the Yakama Nation, and the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs and adds to the growing linguistic work being done by tribes and scholars on endangered languages.

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"The fruit of decades of collaboration between fluent native speakers and professional scholars, including linguists, anthropologists, and botanists, this monumental work is crucial for transmitting the traditional complexities of Umatilla to younger generations…. This painstaking labor of love exemplifies the very best results achievable through intensive, long-term cooperation among specialists in diverse fields. It will undoubtedly prove of great value to scholars both outside and within Oregon's native communities and to libraries maintaining Native American collections, as it provides the cornerstone to all future efforts to foster the Umatilla language….Essential."

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"[A] very welcome and useful dictionary. . . . [T]his well-produced book…is one that anybody with an interest in Sahaptin or in languages of the Northwest in general will find it profitable to consult."