Indian Tribes of Washington (1848)

George Gibbs describes the Spokanes in 1854

"The Spokehnish, or Spokanes, lie south of the Schwoyelpi, and chiefly upon or near the Spokane river. The name applied by the whites to a number of small bands, is that given by the Coeur d'Alenes to the one living at the forks. They are also called Sinkoman by the Kootenaies.

These bands are eight in number:

the Sin-slik-hoo-isb, on the great plain above the crossings of the Coeur d'Alene river;
the Sintootoolish, on the river above the forks;
the Sma-hoo-men-a-ish, (Spokenish) at the forks;
the Skai-schil-t'nish, at the old Chemakane mission;
the Ske-chei-a-mouse, above them on the Colville trail;
the Schu-el-stish;
the Sin-poil-schne, and
Sin-spee-lish, on the Columbia river.

The last-named band is nearly extinct. The Sin-poil-schne (N'pochele, or Sans Puelles) have already been included among the Okinakanes, though, as well as the Sin-spee-lish below them, they are claimed by the Spokanes. The three bands on the Columbia all speak a different language from the rest.

Most of the Indians, at the time of our visit, were absent on their hunt, and we had no opportunities of estimating their number by inspection. Judging from those that we saw, and the information received from various sources, they probably amount, excluding those enumerated at Okinakane, to four hundred and fifty.

They were a wilder-looking race than the tribes to the westward. The men are generally spare, even when young, and soon become withered.

Their principal chief is Spokane Garry, whose name was bestowed upon him by Governor Sir George Simpson, by whom he was sent, when about twelve years old, to the Red river for education, where he spent five years. Garry is now about forty-two years of age, is very intelligent, and speaks English fluently. He bears an excellent character, and is what he claims to be, a chief. Of petty chiefs there are, besides, an abundance, each band having two or three.

Garry himself accompanied us to the forks of the Spokane, where his band usually reside. A few lodges, chiefly old men and women, were there at the time. His own, in neatness and comfort, was far beyond any we had seen. His family were dressed in the costume of the whites, which in fact now prevails over their own. Many of the Spokanes, besides their intercourse with the fort, visit the American settlements, where they earn money by occasional work, most of which is spent in clothing, blankets, &c. The chief offered us the hospitality of his house with much cordiality - a cup of tea or coffee and bread. The "Spokane House," which is a landmark upon all the maps of this country, was an old Hudson's Bay fort, situated at his village, but has long since been destroyed.

This tribe claim as their territory the country commencing on the large plain at the head of the Slawntehus--the stream entering the Columbia at Fort Colville; thence down the Spokane to the Columbia, down the Columbia half-way to Fort Okinakane, and up the Spokane and Coeur d'Alene, to some point between the falls and the lake, on the latter.

There is in this direction a question of boundary between them and the Coeur d'Alenes, which appears to be as complicated as some of those between more civilized nations. No resort to arms has, however, occurred, and the territory continues under joint occupation. An additional source of coolness between them arises from a difference in religion - the Spokanes being Protestants, or of the "American religion," and the Coeur d'Alenes Catholics. The latter taunt the former as heretics, whose faith is worthless. Garry narrated to us the evils arising from this state of feeling, with a forbearance and Christian spirit of toleration which would have honored any one. This tribe have at present no missionary among them, but they seem to have been consistent to what they learned under the tuition of Messrs. Walker and Eels, of the Chemakane mission.

The country of the Spokanes, though in most respects unattractive to settlement by the whites, is well suited to the pursuits of the Indian.

The high plain, which extends from the Spokane river to Lewis's fork of the Columbia, and which belongs chiefly to them and the Nez Perces, though bleak and exposed to violent winds, affords grazing for their stock and an abundance of the roots used by themselves for food, while their river supplies them with salmon. They obtain buffalo hides for their lodges, and skins of elk, carraboo, and deer, for their own clothing, in their semi-annual hunts to the eastward.

Of the larger game there is but little in their own country. The buffalo, it would seem, in former times penetrated at least occasionally thus far to the westward, though now they never come through the northern passes. We were informed by an old Iroquois hunter, at Fort Colville, who has been some forty-eight years in the company's service, that the last bull was killed some twenty-five years ago in the Grand Coulee."

from George Gibbs, "Report of Mr. George Gibbs to Captain Mc'Clellan, on the Indian Tribes of the Territory of Washington.", US Report, Washington, 1854, p.20-21.

NOTE - in the interest of legibility, this document has been reformatted from the original.