Spokane people

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The Spokan or Spokane people are a Native American Plateau tribe who inhabited the eastern portion of present-day Washington state and parts of northern Idaho in the United States of America.

The current Spokane Indian Reservation is located in northeastern Washington state, centered at

The city of Spokane, Washington (Sʎˈetkʷ^{[citation needed]}) is named after the tribe. It developed along the Spokane River, within the historic ancestral land of the tribe, but not within the reservation (see map).

The

The name Spokane is first recorded in 1807. According to George Gibbs,^{[citation needed]} the name was used by the Coeur d'Alene for one specific band of the Spokane, later transferred to all allied bands.

A number of possible interpretations of the name have been proposed. Most frequently "Sun children", "children of the Sun",

The word sqeliz, meaning "people", is also recorded as an autonym.^{[citation needed]}

History

For thousands of years the Spokane people lived near the

The first Europeans whom the Spokane people had contact with were

The creation of dams on the Spokane and related waterways, to generate hydroelectric power and provide water for irrigation in the arid eastern part of the state, has also affected the Spokane people. Construction of the Little Falls dam resulted in the end of most of the salmon run at Spokane Falls. The Grand Coulee Dam, on the Columbia River, blocked salmon from migrating upriver and ended all salmon runs on the Spokane River.^[6]

Organization

The Spokane tribe was divided into three geographic divisions, upper, lower, and middle. Each area was divided into bands, which were composed of groups of related families or kin groups.

The Upper Spokane or Sntʔtʔúlixʷ (Sntu't'ulixi) ("People of the Falls") resided along the Little Spokane River and all the country east of the Lower Spokane to within the borders of the Coeur d'Alene and Kalispel, sometimes their name is given as Sineka'lt ("[People] at the Rapids"). The Middle Spokane or Snxʷme̓nʔey (Snx'w'meney) ("People of the steelhead river, i.e. Little Spokane River") occupied the area near Spokane Falls to Hangman (Latah) Creek and Deep Creek to Tum Tum, Middle Spokane territory includes Spokane House, the site of the first permanent white settlement in Washington State, another variant of their name is Snxwemi'ne ("People of the steelhead trout place"). The Lower Spokane or Scqesciłni (Scqecioni) ("People of Little Falls") traditionally occupied the lower Spokane River from Little Falls to the confluence of the Columbia River, also known as Squasi'lni ("Fishers", after a settlement name).

Individual bands were led by a Ilmixʷm or chief and a sub chief, who were both selected to lead based on their leadership qualities. Decisions were made by consensus of the group.^[9]

The Spokane had a

The Spokane diet consisted of fish, local game, and plants, including nuts and roots. The men hunted whitetail deer and mule deer, which provided essential protein and other nutrients in the winter. Individual hunters would track the deer and kill them using a bow and arrow. Fish, especially salmon, were a huge part of the Spokane diet and also a large part of the trade economy. The Spokane people also ate trout and whitefish. They would smoke or dry the fish for trade or for storage in winter. Fish eyes were considered delicacies. Plants gathered by women provided nearly half of the caloric intake for the Spokane tribe.[6]

Gender roles

Men of the Spokane tribe created tools, fished, and hunted. After the tribe acquired horses, the men cared for and trained these animals, and horses became a measure of wealth. The animals allowed the people to travel wider territories, and were used also to carry or pull their supplies. The men rode the horses during hunting and warfare.

Spokane women made coiled baskets out of birch bark (or from cedar roots). They wove wallets and bags from strips of processed animal hide. They would also sew mats and other items which were sometimes traded with other Native peoples and white traders and settlers.[9] Some of the plants they gathered were camas roots and local berries and barks. The women used digging sticks to uproot and gather their food. It was a fundamental tool for their lives, and it was a rite of passage for young girls to be given their first digging sticks. Women's graves were often marked with these sticks.^[6]

Religion

A Spokane religion was the

The Dreamer Cult developed as a mix of traditional spirituality and aspects of Christianity. The Dreamer prophets rejected non-Native culture and belief systems. The prophets advocated returning to traditional ways of life. "[P]rior to contact, Plateau Indian spirituality revolved around a complex of Winter dances, personal vision quests, and seasonal feasts tied to the annual subsistence cycle and the acquisition of guardian spirit powers"(Fisher).[13]

A few examples of spiritual dances include the

It is believed the prophet Smohalla in a vision

"foresaw the disappearance of the whites, the resurrection of the Indian dead, and the restoration of the world to a pristine state. This millennial transformation required no acts of violence — indeed, most Dreamers counseled pacifism — but to achieve it, the Indians had to obey the instructions of the Creator as conveyed through the prophets" (Fisher).

Seven Drums Religion.^[13]

Mythology

Stories

• "Spokane Lake of Long Ago" told by Chief Lot[14]
• "The Origin of the Spokane River"^[15]

Creation story

The Creator, Amotkan made light only after all the animals had congregated to create it for Woodpecker up it, but the pole was too hot for him. They next sent Coyote up the pole. But he was too noisy, all the time shouting down to his children. Bear volunteered, but he found it too cold atop the pole. The sound of thunder shattered their efforts then. It loosened a piece of red rock, which turned into a handsome red man. He wanted a brother, so Amotkan gave him one made from the root of an herb called spowaunch. The two brothers went to a lodge occupied by a witch, Lady Bullfrog. She became so enamored of the brother formed of the root that she leaped onto his face—and stuck there. In pulling loose, she tore out one of his eyes. He then volunteered to ascend into the sky to be light for the earth, for he did not want people to see his face, now missing one eye. Thus, he became the sun, and when people looked at him, they had to close one of their own eyes. The other man joined his lonely brother in the sky. But before he did so, Lady Bullfrog had jumped onto his face, too. He became the moon. Today, if one looks carefully at the moon, one can see Lady Bullfrog clinging to his face. Because he was lonesome, Coyote, after several failures, made Spokane man… Coyote then mixed all these elements together [pitch, clay, hot rock, and reeds] and—adding berries, smoke, and fire—created the Spokane man. With these same elements, he created Spokane woman, and Amotkan, the Creator, gave her life. Man and woman soon became wild, caring little for the safety of the others who had sprung from them. A flood came then and covered the land, destroying all except a few people. The survivors banded together for safety, elected a leader, and multiplied. In time, the leader divided the people into small groups. They became the various tribes.
— Spokane

creation mythos as retold in The Spokane Indians: Children of the Sun (Ruby) ^[12]

Notable tribal members

• Sherman Alexie (Spokane-Coeur d'Alene), author and filmmaker
• Gloria Bird, poet and scholar
• Betty David, fashion designer
• Chief Garry or Spokane Garry
  , (Spokan name: Slough-Keetcha), 19th-century Middle Spokane tribal leader and later of the Upper Spokane tribe too, diplomat and spokesman
• Charlene Teters, artist and anti-mascot activist

See also

• Spokane Indians (baseball team)
• Coeur d'Alene War (aka the Spokane War)
• The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian (book)

Notes

1. ^ spokanetribe.com/ (October 2006)
2. ^ As of 2019, " Spokane Tribe " (retrieved March 16, 2015)
3. ^ Pritzker, 280
4. ^ Pritzker, 281
5. ^ Spokane Tribe Language and Culture
6. ^ ^{a b c d e} Encyclopedia of American Indian History. Gale Virtual Reference Library: ABC-CLIO. 2008. Retrieved May 23, 2016.
7. ^ David C. Wynecoop, Children of the Sun: A History of the Spokane Indians, 1969 p. 7.
8. ^ variously ^{[clarification needed]} Spoqe'ind, Spoqín, Sp'q'n'iʔ, Sp'q'n'i; Plateau People' Web Portal - Spoqín (Spokan)
9. ^ ^{a b c d e f g} Pritzker, Barry M. (2011). The Encyclopedia of North American Indian Wars, 1607-1890: A Political, Social, and Military History. Gale Virtual Reference Library: ABC_CLIO. pp. 752–753. Retrieved May 23, 2016.
10. ^ Thomas William Symons, Report of an Examination of the Upper Columbia River, United States Army Corps of Engineers, 1882, p. 128.
11. ^ Vocabulary Words in the Salishan Language Family (native-languages.org)
12. ^
    ISBN 0-8061-0905-X
    .
13. ^ ^{a b c d} Fisher, Andrew H. (2008). Encyclopedia of American Indian History. Gale Virtual Reference Library: ABC-CLIO. pp. 380–381. Retrieved May 23, 2016.
14. ISBN 0-520-00243-1
    .
15. ISBN 0-520-00243-1
    .

References

• Clark, Ella. Indian Legends of the Pacific Northwest. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1953. Print.
• Fisher, Andrew H. "Dreamer Cult." Encyclopedia of American Indian History. Ed. Bruce E. Johansen and Barry M. Pritzker. Vol. 2. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO, 2008. 380-381. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Web. May 23, 2016.
• Pritzker, Barry M. A Native American Encyclopedia: History, Culture, and Peoples. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000.
  ISBN 978-0-19-513877-1
  .
• Pritzker, Barry M. "Spokanes." The Encyclopedia of North American Indian Wars, 1607-1890: A Political, Social, and Military History. Ed. Spencer C. Tucker, James Arnold, and Roberta Wiener. Vol. 2. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO, 2011. 752-753. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Web. May 23, 2016.
• Ruby, Robert H and Brown, John A. The Spokane Indians: Children of the Sun. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1970. Print.
• Spokane Reservation, Washington United States Census Bureau

External links

• Spokane Tribe of Indians, official site
• History and Culture, presented in the Website of the Wellpinit School District
• Spokane Tribe of Indians Language Program
• Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). "Spokan Indians" . Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company.
• The Spokan Indians, by John Alan Ross, published 2011,
  ISBN 978-0-9832311-0-3
  , the definitive ethnography
• Spokane Salish Blog