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Kalispel The
Salish-speaking aboriginal Kalispel Indians,
numbering about 3,000 souls, occupied a
narrow region that extended 200 miles west
from Montana's Flathead lake, through Idaho
and into Washington State. The bountiful
plateau territory, which included mountains
carpeted with forests, and the river,
furnished the tribe with plentiful fish,
other wildlife and plants for their
subsistence. They were fishers, hunters and
diggers. Other tribes called the Kalispel
"lake and river paddlers," or "camas people"
(camas being "Indian bread," a starchy
root). A
reservation for the Kalispel (without a
treaty) was ultimately established by an
executive order of President Woodrow Wilson
in 1914. They were relegated to a relatively
puny 4,600-acre parcel of mountainside and
flood plain along the Pend Oreille River,
which failed to sustain the tribe. In 1924,
to promote farming, the federal government
divided the reservation into 40-acre parcels
that were allotted to tribal members.
However, the hillside and floodplain land
proved stubbornly resistant to cultivation.
Kutenai, The
Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes are
comprised of the Bitterroot Salish, the Pend
d’Oreille and the Kootenai tribes. The
Flathead Reservation of 1.317 million acres
in northwest Montana is our home now but our
ancestors lived in the territory now known
as western Montana, parts of Idaho, British
Columbia and Wyoming. This aboriginal
territory exceeded 20 million acres at the
time of the 1855 Hellgate Treaty.
Palouse, The Palus
(pronounced /pe'lu:s/) are recognized in the
Treaty of 1855 with the Yakamas (negotiated
at the Walla Walla Council (1855)). A
variant spelling is Palouse, which was the
source of the name for the fertile prairie
of Washington and Idaho.
The Palus tribe
is one of twelve aboriginal tribes enrolled
in the Confederated Tribes of the Colville
Reservation. A variant spelling is Palouse
which was the source of the name for the
fertile prairie of Washington and Idaho.
The people are
one of the Sahaptin speaking groups of
Native Americans living on the Columbia
Plateau in eastern Washington, northeastern
Oregon, and North Central Idaho.
The people were
expert horsemen and the term Appaloosa is
probably a derivation of the term Palouse
horse. Hundreds of tribal horses were
slaughtered to cripple the tribe during the
Indian Wars in the mid to late nineteenth
century.
Pend d'Oreilles also known as the
Kalispel, are a tribe of Native Americans
who lived around Lake Pend Oreille, as well
as the Pend Oreille River, and Priest Lake
although some of them live spread throughout
Montana and eastern Washington. The primary
tribal range from roughly Plains, Montana,
westward along the Clark Fork River, Lake
Pend Oreille in Idaho, and the Pend
d'Oreille River in Eastern Washington and
into British Columbia was given the name
Kaniksu by the Kalispel peoples. The
Kalispel are one of the three tribes of the
Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes of
the Flathead Nation.
The name Pend Oreille is of French origin,
meaning "hangs from ears", which refers to
the large shell earrings that these people
wore. The main part of the reservation on
which these Native Americans live is
northwest of Newport, Washington, in central
Pend Oreille County.
Salish (Flathead)
Snake, The
country inhabited by them is of such vast
extent, and has been so imperfectly
explored, that material for accurate
classification of the Snake tribes is
entirely wanting. Very interesting
descriptions and anecdotes of these Indians
are to be found in Colonel Fremont s notes
of travel and explorations; in Mr.
Schoolcraft's valuable compend of Indian
historical and statistical information; and
in the entertaining adventures of Captain
Bonneville.
The whole
region tenanted by the roving tribes who are
included under the general title of Snakes,
is thus laid down in Schoolcraft s
above-mentioned publication: exclusive of
those residing upon the Snake river, "they
embrace all the territory of the Great South
Pass, between the Mississippi valley and the
waters of the Columbia, by which the land or
caravan communication with Oregon and
California is now, or is destined hereafter,
to be maintained.
The Snake River
is named for the Snake Indians, through
whose country the greater part of the river
flows. The Indians, in turn, were named
"Snake" by their Plains neighbors to the
east, possibly because they reputedly used
snake heads painted on sticks to terrify
their Plains enemies.
Spokane, A name
applied to several small bodies of Salish on
and near Spokane River, north east
Washington. According to Gibbs the name was
originally employed by the Skitswish to
designate a band at the forks of the river,
called also Smahoomenaish.
The Upper Spokan came under the influence of
the Jesuit Fathers De Smet, Point, and their
successors, about 1841, whith the result
that that portion of the tribe is Catholic.
Throughout the Yakimá war of 1856-8 the
Spokan remained quiet, chiefly through the
effort of the Catholic missionaries. In 1872
those of Washington, consituting the larger
body, were gathered with other cognate
tribes upon the Colville reservation,
North-eastern Washington, where they now
reside.
Those in Idaho are associated with the Coeur
d'Aléne and are all Catholic. At Colville
the Lower band is Protestant, while the
Upper band, somewhat smaller in numbers, is
Catholic. From perhaps 1200 souls a century
ago they have declined (1911) to 600, of
whom 96 are on the Coeur d'Aléne
reservation. The religious centre for those
of Colville is the mission of St. Francis
Regis, at Ward, Washington, under Jesuit
management. The centre for Coeur d'Aléne is
the Jesuit mission of the Sacred Heart, at
De Smet, Idaho. In language, primitive
custom, and characteristics the Spokan are
virtually identical with the Coeur d'Aléne
and Kalispel Indians. |
