Plateau Indians
Encyclopedia
Indigenous peoples of the Northwest Plateau, also referred to by the phrase Indigenous peoples of the Plateau, and historically called the Plateau Indians (though comprising many groups) are indigenous peoples
of the Plateau
or Intermontane region of Western Canada
and the United States
, whose territories are located in the inland portions of the basins of the Columbia
and Fraser River
s. These tribes live in parts of the Central and Southern Interior of British Columbia
, northern Idaho
, western Montana
, eastern Washington, eastern Oregon
, and northeastern California
. The eastern flank of the Cascade Range
lies within the territory of the Plateau peoples.
Plateau tribes include the following:
Suka tribe is another big tribe big in WA
. They also speak Chinookan languages
, which are often classified as Penutian languages
, but this classification is not universally agreed upon. The Ktunaxa speak the Kutenai language
, which is a language isolate
.
, bitterroot
, kouse root, serviceberry
, chokecherry
, huckleberry
and wild strawberry. The gathering of these plants is still a traditional way of life among many of the people of these tribes today.
In addition to hunting and gathering, these people were fishermen, with salmon
making up a major part of their food supply. When horse
s came to the area, the world of the Plateau people expanded, allowing them to trade with the tribes on the plains east of the Rocky Mountains for things such as bison
meat and hides. Groups of hunters rode far to hunt bison, deer
, and elk
.
, or willow
bark. These materials were also used for hats, bedding, nets, and cordage. Plateau Indians created the oldest known shoes in the world, the Fort Rock sandals, which are dozens of twined sagebrush sandals, dated between 10,390–9650 years BP
.
mat longhouses. Tule, used for many purposes, is a tall, tough reed
that grows marshy areas and sometimes called bulrush
. In winter, semi-subterranean, they dug a pit a few feet into the ground and constructed a framework of poles over it which was then covered with tule mats or tree bark. Earth was piled up around and partially over the structure to provide insulation. The large winter lodges that were shared by several families were rectangular at the base and triangular above. They were built with several layers of tules; as the top layers of tule absorbed moisture, they swelled to keep moisture from reaching lower layers and the inside of the lodge. In later years, canvas
was used instead of tule mats. Beginning the 18th century, Plateau peoples adopted tipi
s made of poles covered with animal skins or mats woven from reeds. Women temporarily stayed in round menstrual huts, measuring about 20 feet in diameter.
The Cayuse were the Natives who lived in the area of the plateau where Walla Walla is today. Their territory was at the crossroads of the Oregon country. The Indian and trapping trails from north, south, east and west crossed their lands. The Plateau Natives lived near the great Columbia River which served as a highway for many of the Native tribes. The Plateau Natives used bows and arrows as hunting tools.
Indigenous peoples of the Americas
The indigenous peoples of the Americas are the pre-Columbian inhabitants of North and South America, their descendants and other ethnic groups who are identified with those peoples. Indigenous peoples are known in Canada as Aboriginal peoples, and in the United States as Native Americans...
of the Plateau
Intermontane Plateaus
Physiographic regions of the U.S. InteriorSee:legendIn some places,high plateaus lie between the mountain ranges, for example,the plateau of Anatolia in Turkey and the plateau of Tibet.These are called "Intermontane plateaus"....
or Intermontane region of Western Canada
Western Canada
Western Canada, also referred to as the Western provinces and commonly as the West, is a region of Canada that includes the four provinces west of the province of Ontario.- Provinces :...
and the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, whose territories are located in the inland portions of the basins of the Columbia
Columbia River
The Columbia River is the largest river in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. The river rises in the Rocky Mountains of British Columbia, Canada, flows northwest and then south into the U.S. state of Washington, then turns west to form most of the border between Washington and the state...
and Fraser River
Fraser River
The Fraser River is the longest river within British Columbia, Canada, rising at Fraser Pass near Mount Robson in the Rocky Mountains and flowing for , into the Strait of Georgia at the city of Vancouver. It is the tenth longest river in Canada...
s. These tribes live in parts of the Central and Southern Interior of British Columbia
British Columbia Interior
The British Columbia Interior or BC Interior or Interior of British Columbia, usually referred to only as the Interior, is one of the three main regions of the Canadian province of British Columbia, the other two being the Lower Mainland, which comprises the overlapping areas of Greater Vancouver...
, northern Idaho
Idaho
Idaho is a state in the Rocky Mountain area of the United States. The state's largest city and capital is Boise. Residents are called "Idahoans". Idaho was admitted to the Union on July 3, 1890, as the 43rd state....
, western Montana
Montana
Montana is a state in the Western United States. The western third of Montana contains numerous mountain ranges. Smaller, "island ranges" are found in the central third of the state, for a total of 77 named ranges of the Rocky Mountains. This geographical fact is reflected in the state's name,...
, eastern Washington, eastern Oregon
Oregon
Oregon is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. It is located on the Pacific coast, with Washington to the north, California to the south, Nevada on the southeast and Idaho to the east. The Columbia and Snake rivers delineate much of Oregon's northern and eastern...
, and northeastern California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
. The eastern flank of the Cascade Range
Cascade Range
The Cascade Range is a major mountain range of western North America, extending from southern British Columbia through Washington and Oregon to Northern California. It includes both non-volcanic mountains, such as the North Cascades, and the notable volcanoes known as the High Cascades...
lies within the territory of the Plateau peoples.
Tribes and bands
Chinook peoples
- Cathlamet, WA
- Clackamas, OR
- ClatsopClatsopThe Clatsop are a small tribe of Chinookan-speaking Native Americans in the Pacific Northwest of the United States. In the early 19th century they inhabited an area of the northwestern coast of present-day Oregon from the mouth of the Columbia River south to Tillamook.-Language:Clatsop in the...
, OR - Kathlamet
- Multnomah
- Wasco-WishramWasco-WishramWasco-Wishram are two closely related Chinook Indian tribes from the Columbia River in Oregon. Today the tribes are part of the Warm Springs Reservation in Oregon and Confederated Tribes and Bands of the Yakama Nation in Washington.-History:...
, OR and WA - WatlataWatlataThe Watlata are a group of Chinookan-speaking Native Americans. They inhabited the meadows of Sams Walker Day Use Site, near Skamania, Washington, and St. Cloud Ranch Day Use Site. An interpretive sign at Sams Walker states that the Watlata lived in earth-sheltered cedar plank homes...
, WA
Interior Salish
- ChelanChelan (tribe)The Chelan tribe , meaning "Deep Water" are an Interior Salish people speaking the Wenatchi dialect, though separate from that tribe. The Chelan were historically located at the outlet of Lake Chelan in Washington.-Ethnography:...
- Coeur d'Alene TribeCoeur d'Alene TribeThe Coeur d'Alene are a Native American people who lived in villages along the Coeur d'Alene, St. Joe, Clark Fork and Spokane Rivers; as well as sites on the shores of Lake Coeur d'Alene, Lake Pend Oreille and Hayden Lake, in what is now northern Idaho, eastern Washington and western Montana.In...
, ID, MT, WA - EntiatEntiat (tribe)The Entiat people are a Native American tribe who exclusively used and occupied an area extending from the Columbia River to the Cascade Mountains along the drainage system of the Entiat River.-Ethnography:...
, WA - FlatheadConfederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes of the Flathead NationThe Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes of the Flathead Reservation are the Bitterroot Salish, Kootenai and Pend d'Oreilles Tribes. The Flatheads lived between the Cascade Mountains and Rocky Mountains. The Salish initially lived entirely east of the Continental Divide but established their...
(Selisch or Salish), ID and MT- Bitterroot Salish
- KalispelPend d'Oreilles (tribe)The 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...
(Pend d'Oreilles), MT and WA
- MethowMethow (tribe)The Methow , a Native American tribe historically lived along the Methow River, a tributary of the Columbia River in northern Washington. The tribe's name for the river was Buttlemuleemauch, meaning "salmon falls river". The river's English name is taken from that of the tribe...
, WA - NespelemNespelem (tribe)The Nespelem people belong to one of 12 aboriginal Confederated Tribes of the Colville Indian Reservation in eastern Washington. They lived primarily near the banks of the Nespelem River, an Upper Columbia River tributary, in an area now known as Nespelem, Washington, located on the Colville Indian...
, WA - Nlaka'pamuxNlaka'pamuxThe Nlaka'pamux , commonly called "the Thompson", and also Thompson River Salish, Thompson Salish, Thompson River Indians or Thompson River people) are an indigenous First Nations/Native American people of the Interior Salish language group in southern British Columbia...
(Thompson people), BC - Nicola people (Thompson-Okanagan confederacy)
- OkanaganOkanagan peopleThe Okanagan people, also spelled Okanogan, are a First Nations and Native American people whose traditional territory spans the U.S.-Canada boundary in Washington state and British Columbia...
, BC and WA - SecwepemcSecwepemcThe Secwepemc , known in English as the Shuswap people, are a First Nations people residing in the Canadian province of British Columbia. Their traditional territory ranges from the eastern Chilcotin Plateau and the Cariboo Plateau southeast through the Thompson Country to Kamloops and the Shuswap...
, BC (Shuswap people) - SinixtSinixtThe Sinixt are a First Nations People...
(Lakes), BC, ID, and WA - Sinkiuse-ColumbiaSinkiuse-ColumbiaThe Sinkiuse-Columbia were a Native American tribe so-called because of their former prominent association with the Columbia River. They called themselves .tskowa'xtsEnux, or .skowa'xtsEnEx , or Sinkiuse. They applied the name also to other neighboring Interior Salish peoples...
, WA (extinct) - Spokane people, WA
- St'at'imcSt'at'imcThe St'át'imc are an Interior Salish people located in the southern Coast Mountains and Fraser Canyon region of the Interior of the Canadian province of British Columbia.St'át'imc culture displayed many features typical of Northwest Coast peoples: the...
, BC (Upper Lillooet) - Lil'wat, BC (Lower Lillooet)
- In-SHUCK-ch, BC (Lower Lillooet)
- WenatchiWenatchiThe Wenatchi Tribe is a group of Native Americans who lived in the region near the confluence of the Columbia and Wenatchee Rivers in Eastern Washington State...
(Wenatchee) - SanpoilSanpoil (tribe)The Sanpoil is one of 12 aboriginal Confederated Tribes of the Colville Indian Reservation. The name Sanpoil comes from the Okanagan [snpʕwílx], "gray as far as one can see". It has been folk-etymologized as coming from the French sans poil, "without fur". The Yakama people know the tribe as...
, WA - Sinkayuse
Suka tribe is another big tribe big in WA
Sahaptin people
- Upper Cowlitz or TaidnapamCowlitz (tribe)The Cowlitz are a group of Native American peoples from what is now western Washington state in the United States. The Cowlitz tribe actually consists of two distinct groups: the Upper Cowlitz, or Taidnapam, and the Lower Cowlitz, or Kawlic....
- Kittitas (Upper Yakima)
- Klickitat TribeKlickitat TribeThe Klickitat are a Native American tribe of the Pacific Northwest. A Shahaptian tribe, their eastern neighbors were the Yakama, who speak a closely related language. Their western neighbors were various Salishan and Chinookan tribes...
, WA - Nez Perce, ID
- Pshwanwapam (Pswanwapam)
- Skinpah (Skin)
- Tenino (Warmsprings)
- Tygh (Upper Deschutes), OR
- UmatillaUmatilla (tribe)The Umatilla are a Sahaptin-speaking Native American group living on the Umatilla Indian Reservation, who traditionally inhabited the Columbia Plateau region of the northwestern United States....
, OR - Walla WallaWalla Walla (tribe)Walla Walla |Native American]] tribe of the northwestern United States. The reduplication of the word expresses the diminutive form. The name "Walla Walla" is translated several ways but most often as "many waters."...
, OR - Wanapum, WA
- Wauyukma
- WyamWYAMWYAM may refer to:* WYAM , a radio station licensed to Hartselle, Alabama, United States* WYAM-LP, a low-power television station licensed to Priceville, Alabama, United States...
(Lower Deschutes) - YakamaYakamaThe Confederated Tribes and Bands of the Yakama Nation, or simply Yakama Nation , is a Native American group with nearly 10,000 enrolled members, living in Washington. Their reservation, along the Yakima River, covers an area of approximately 1.2 million acres...
, WA
Other or both
- CayuseCayuseThe Cayuse are a Native American tribe in the state of Oregon in the United States. The Cayuse tribe shares a reservation in northeastern Oregon with the Umatilla and the Walla Walla tribes as part of the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation...
, OR - Celilo (Wayampam)
- ColvilleColville Indian ReservationThe Colville Indian Reservation is an Indian reservation in the north-central part of the U.S. state of Washington, inhabited and managed by the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation, which is recognized by the United States of America as an American Indian Tribe...
, WA - CowlitzCowlitz (tribe)The Cowlitz are a group of Native American peoples from what is now western Washington state in the United States. The Cowlitz tribe actually consists of two distinct groups: the Upper Cowlitz, or Taidnapam, and the Lower Cowlitz, or Kawlic....
, WA - Fort Klamath, OR
- Kalapuya, northwest OR
- AtfalatiAtfalatiThe Atfalati, also known as the Tualatin were a tribe or band of the Kalapuya Native Americans who originally inhabited the Tualatin Valley in the northwest part of the U.S. state of Oregon...
(Tualatin, northwest OR - Mohawk RiverMohawk people (Oregon)The Mohawk or Mohawk River people were a tribe or band of the Kalapuya Native Americans who originally lived in the Mohawk River area of Oregon in the United States. They spoke a dialect of the Central Kalapuya language....
, northwest OR - SantiamSantiam peopleSantiam people are an indigenous people of the Northwest Plateau, living in Oregon.They are a Kalapuyan tribe, whose traditional homelands were on the banks of the Santiam River, which feeds into the Willamette River....
, northwest OR - Yaquina, northwest OR
- Atfalati
- Kutenai (Kootenai, Ktunaxa), BC, ID, and MT
- Lower Snake people: Chamnapam, Wauyukma, Naxiyampam
- Modoc, CA and OR
- Molala (Molale), OR
- Nicola AthapaskansNicola AthapaskansThe Nicola Athapaskans, also known as the Nicola people or Stuwix, were an Athabascan people who arrived in the in the migrated into the Nicola Country of what is now the Southern Interior of British Columbia from the north a few centuries ago but were slowly reduced in number by constant raiding...
(extinct), BC - PalusPalus (tribe)The Palus are a Sahaptin tribe recognized in the Treaty of 1855 with the Yakamas . A variant spelling is Palouse, which was the source of the name for the fertile prairie of Washington and Idaho.- Ethnography :...
(Palouse), ID, OR, and WA - Upper Nisqually (Mishalpan)
- [Okanagan]Northwest
Languages
Plateau tribes primarily spoke Interior Salish languages or Sahaptian languagesSahaptian languages
Sahaptian is a sub-grouping of two languages of the Plateau Penutian family spoken by Native American peoples in the Columbia Plateau region of Washington, Oregon, and Idaho in the northwestern United States.-Family division:Sahaptian includes 2 languages*Kittitas *Klickitat*Nez Percé**Nez Percé...
. They also speak Chinookan languages
Chinookan languages
Chinookan is a small family of languages spoken in Oregon and Washington along the Columbia River by Chinook peoples.-Family division:Chinookan languages consists of three languages with multiple varieties. There is some dispute over classification, and there are two ISO 639-3 codes assigned: and...
, which are often classified as Penutian languages
Penutian languages
Penutian is a proposed grouping of language families that includes many Native American languages of western North America, predominantly spoken at one time in Washington, Oregon, and California. The existence of a Penutian stock or phylum has been the subject of debate among specialists. Even the...
, but this classification is not universally agreed upon. The Ktunaxa speak the Kutenai language
Kutenai language
The Kutenai language is named after and is spoken by some of the Kootenai Native American/First Nations people who are indigenous to the area of North America that is now Montana, Idaho, and British Columbia....
, which is a language isolate
Language isolate
A language isolate, in the absolute sense, is a natural language with no demonstrable genealogical relationship with other languages; that is, one that has not been demonstrated to descend from an ancestor common with any other language. They are in effect language families consisting of a single...
.
Traditional cultures
Foods
The people of the Plateau moved from place to place throughout the year to gather edible vegetables and fruits, including camassiaCamassia
Camassia is a genus of six species native to western North America, from southern British Columbia to northern California, and east to Utah, Wyoming and Montana...
, bitterroot
Bitterroot
Bitterroot is a small, low plant with a pink to white flower. It is the state flower of Montana, United States....
, kouse root, serviceberry
Serviceberry
Amelanchier , also known as shadbush, shadwood or shadblow, serviceberry or sarvisberry, wild pear, juneberry, saskatoon, sugarplum or wild-plum, and chuckley pear is a genus of about 20 species of deciduous-leaved shrubs and small trees in the Rose family .Amelanchier is native to temperate regions...
, chokecherry
Chokecherry
Prunus virginiana, commonly called chokecherry, bitter-berry, or Virginia bird cherry, is a species of bird cherry native to North America, where it is found almost throughout the continent except for the Deep South and the far north.-Growth:It is a suckering shrub or small tree growing to 5 m tall...
, huckleberry
Huckleberry
Huckleberry is a common name used in North America for several species of plants in two closely related genera in the family Ericaceae:* Vaccinium* GaylussaciaHuckleberry may also refer to:-Plants:...
and wild strawberry. The gathering of these plants is still a traditional way of life among many of the people of these tribes today.
In addition to hunting and gathering, these people were fishermen, with salmon
Salmon
Salmon is the common name for several species of fish in the family Salmonidae. Several other fish in the same family are called trout; the difference is often said to be that salmon migrate and trout are resident, but this distinction does not strictly hold true...
making up a major part of their food supply. When horse
Horse
The horse is one of two extant subspecies of Equus ferus, or the wild horse. It is a single-hooved mammal belonging to the taxonomic family Equidae. The horse has evolved over the past 45 to 55 million years from a small multi-toed creature into the large, single-toed animal of today...
s came to the area, the world of the Plateau people expanded, allowing them to trade with the tribes on the plains east of the Rocky Mountains for things such as bison
American Bison
The American bison , also commonly known as the American buffalo, is a North American species of bison that once roamed the grasslands of North America in massive herds...
meat and hides. Groups of hunters rode far to hunt bison, deer
Deer
Deer are the ruminant mammals forming the family Cervidae. Species in the Cervidae family include white-tailed deer, elk, moose, red deer, reindeer, fallow deer, roe deer and chital. Male deer of all species and female reindeer grow and shed new antlers each year...
, and elk
Elk
The Elk is the large deer, also called Cervus canadensis or wapiti, of North America and eastern Asia.Elk may also refer to:Other antlered mammals:...
.
Basketry and textiles
Plateau tribes excelled in the art of basketry. They most commonly using hemp dogbane, tule, sagebrushSagebrush
Sagebrush is a common name of a number of shrubby plant species in the genus Artemisia native to western North America;Or, the sagebrush steppe ecoregion, having one or more kinds of sagebrush, bunchgrasses and others;...
, or willow
Willow
Willows, sallows, and osiers form the genus Salix, around 400 species of deciduous trees and shrubs, found primarily on moist soils in cold and temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere...
bark. These materials were also used for hats, bedding, nets, and cordage. Plateau Indians created the oldest known shoes in the world, the Fort Rock sandals, which are dozens of twined sagebrush sandals, dated between 10,390–9650 years BP
BP
BP p.l.c. is a global oil and gas company headquartered in London, United Kingdom. It is the third-largest energy company and fourth-largest company in the world measured by revenues and one of the six oil and gas "supermajors"...
.
Tools
Tools were made from wood, stone and bone. Arrows for hunting were made from wood and tipped with arrow-heads chipped from special rocks. Antlers from animals were used for digging roots.Housing
Traditional Plateau housing included summer tuleTule
Schoenoplectus acutus , called tule , common tule, hardstem tule, tule rush, hardstem bulrush, or viscid bulrush, is a giant species of sedge in the plant family Cyperaceae, native to freshwater marshes all over North America...
mat longhouses. Tule, used for many purposes, is a tall, tough reed
Phragmites
Phragmites, the Common reed, is a large perennial grass found in wetlands throughout temperate and tropical regions of the world. Phragmites australis is sometimes regarded as the sole species of the genus Phragmites, though some botanists divide Phragmites australis into three or four species...
that grows marshy areas and sometimes called bulrush
Bulrush
-Wetland plants:* Bolboschoenus, a genus in the sedge family * Cyperus, a genus in the sedge family * Scirpus, a genus in the sedge family * Schoenoplectus, a genus in the sedge family...
. In winter, semi-subterranean, they dug a pit a few feet into the ground and constructed a framework of poles over it which was then covered with tule mats or tree bark. Earth was piled up around and partially over the structure to provide insulation. The large winter lodges that were shared by several families were rectangular at the base and triangular above. They were built with several layers of tules; as the top layers of tule absorbed moisture, they swelled to keep moisture from reaching lower layers and the inside of the lodge. In later years, canvas
Canvas
Canvas is an extremely heavy-duty plain-woven fabric used for making sails, tents, marquees, backpacks, and other items for which sturdiness is required. It is also popularly used by artists as a painting surface, typically stretched across a wooden frame...
was used instead of tule mats. Beginning the 18th century, Plateau peoples adopted tipi
Tipi
A tipi is a Lakota name for a conical tent traditionally made of animal skins and wooden poles used by the nomadic tribes and sedentary tribal dwellers of the Great Plains...
s made of poles covered with animal skins or mats woven from reeds. Women temporarily stayed in round menstrual huts, measuring about 20 feet in diameter.
Trade
Later, they used metal items like pots, needles, and guns from trade with Europeans in addition to their natural tools.Arts today
Today the Natives still make their traditional clothing, bags, baskets, and other items. Although some knowledge of the art has been lost in the past, it is still an important part of their way of life. Mothers and grandmothers decorate their children's celebration and dancing costumes. Many different beaded things, drums, woven bags and other crafts are used in traditional celebrations and special occasions. They used these regalia for days such as the Spirit Dance, which occurred once a year.The Cayuse were the Natives who lived in the area of the plateau where Walla Walla is today. Their territory was at the crossroads of the Oregon country. The Indian and trapping trails from north, south, east and west crossed their lands. The Plateau Natives lived near the great Columbia River which served as a highway for many of the Native tribes. The Plateau Natives used bows and arrows as hunting tools.