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The Indians of the Columbia Plain
NOTE - the following article talks about the tribes of the
Columbia Plain. This include a part, but not all, of the
territory occupied by the Spokane Indians. Therefore,
the information below, may not apply to all Spokane Indians.
The land of the present-day Spokane Indian Reservation,
and the land around the City of Spokane,
are not considered a part of the Columbia Plain.
Ecology
All of these patterns of life and landscape have shaped the
geography of man through a long period of settlement. This was
not a bountiful land for a people who could only glean directly
from nature. The Columbia Plain had no good animal staple, few
usable plants, and little material for fire and shelter. But it
did have one plentiful resource, and the salmon bound all the
Indian groups of the Plain to the river system; it was either an
anchor or a magnet: holding some permanently along the banks,
drawing others seasonally to replenish their supplies.
Salmon was the staple, but there were other important materials,
few of which could be obtained from the Plain region itself:
deer, elk, and bear; berries, bulbs, and nuts; pine and cedar
timbers; flints, agates, and obsidians. Thus the Indian
settlement pattern was predominantly peripheral. Even those
groups most oriented to the streams were concentrated along the
regional borders near the forested mountains: at The Dalles and
lower Deschutes, and along the Columbia above the Wenatchee.
Those whose river ties were more seasonal also lived around the
fringes, wintering in the low country and canyons, congregating
at favorable fishing sites for short periods, but spending much
of the year hunting and gathering in and along the forested
highlands.
Thus a large portion of the Great Columbia Plain remained
virtually empty. Along the lower Snake and middle Columbia a few
villages were at scattered wide intervals, but the arid
countryside was hardly used at all, and the higher grassy plains
to the north and east were entered only to hunt for rabbits and
grouse and gather the eggs of waterfowl.
Viewed more broadly, the Columbia Plain throughout most of its
prehistory stands out as a rather empty zone within a larger
culture region.(1) That region encompassed the whole of the
interior country between the Cascades and the Continental
Divide, and from the Blue-Salmon River mountain country far into
the upper Fraser drainage in the north (Map 3) .
Although more
than two dozen distinct groups lived within that area, all
shared certain cultural fundamentals. All were riverine fishing
economies, supplemented by hunting and gathering; all used
similar materials, tools, and techniques; in dress and
decoration, social customs and organization, religion and
ritual, political order and attitudes, there was sufficient
identity to indicate a common heritage. Furthermore, within this
region neighboring groups had lived in peace over a long period
of time.
Contacts and Changes
These features suggest a high degree of isolation and stability.
In general that was true, but neither characteristic was
absolute. The borderlands limited and channeled contact with
outside groups. West of the Cascades lived the vigorous,
aggressive, northwest coastal peoples whose highly developed
social systems differed from the interior. Rut the physical
barriers confined sustained contact to two narrow river
corridors: the Fraser and the lower Columbia. By historic time
coastal influences had penetrated up the Fraser, but on the
Columbia, The Dalles had long persisted as a point of cleavage.
Here the Wishram and Wasco of coastal culture (Lower Chinook)
dwelt almost side by side with the Tenino of the interior.(2) They
occupied carefully delimited sites at this richest fishing area,
and they served as intermediaries in the flourishing trade
between coastal and interior peoples. Relations with alien
cultures along the Other border zones were more sporadic and of
a different character. Intermittent warfare was carried on with
the Shoshonean peoples to the south (3) and with several tribes
east of the Rockies, especially the Blackfeet. Yet, just Drier
to historic time, a major cultural change was introduced into
the Great Columbia Plain from these contacts.
Even prior to that change, however, the internal patterns of
this interior zone were not completely stable. Despite the basic
similarities in culture, these peoples. were separated into two
distinct language groups. Each group included several different
spoken tongues. The linguistic boundary cut across the Columbia
Plain, dividing the Salish languages on the north from the
Sahaptin on the south and indicating that two distinct peoples
entered the region at some remote time. Further evidences
suggest that Sahaptin peoples had long been shifting to the
north and west, infiltrating and absorbing Salish groups.
However, this encroachment was peaceful and gradual, and the
peoples were so similar that it produced no real disruption.(4)
The Horse
Far more significant was the acquisition of the horse. Through
trades and raids Spanish horses were spread northward from one
Indian culture to another. About the end of the seventeenth
century, Shoshonean tribes in the upper Snake River plain
acquired a few horses, and within two or three decades parties
of Flatheads, Nez Perces, and Cayuses had obtained their first
animals. Brought into the mountain valleys and the richly
grassed plains, these animals thrived, multiplied, and soon
became an integral part of Indian life.(5)
The impact of the horse upon these societies was immense. This
new mobility improved hunting efficiency, enlarged the economic
area, extended trading contacts, and intensified warfare with
traditional enemies to the south and east. Expeditions to the
buffalo range far to the southeast now became annual affairs,
often marked by intermittent fighting with Plains culture
tribes. Increased contacts with these alien peoples brought
further changes. The Indians of the Columbia took over many of
the Plains "horse culture" characteristics, especially the
techniques and rituals associated with warfare. Wealth and
prestige became bound up with horses and war. Access to the
buffalo and increased range and efficiency of hunting enhanced
economic security, and this in turn allowed larger groups to
live together. Numerous autonomous fishing villages tended to
amalgamate into organized bands, necessitating political and
social change, and over-all populations probably began to
increase.
At the opening of historic time these changes had been under way
for little more than half a century. They were still in progress
and unevenly spread over the region, and the peoples of the
Great Columbia Plain mirrored the full gradation of differences
which had appeared. Along the southeast, the Net Perces add
Cayuse, who had obtained horses first and who occupied areas
where a combination of low protected valleys and high, thickly
grassed plains provided superb year-around grazing, were the
most deeply altered. Each was a linguistic unit composed of
several large bands; each band owned hundreds of horses, fishing
was less important, buffalo expeditions were major annual
events, and trading contacts within and beyond the Plain were
extended.
Beyond this southeastern corner, the intensity of change
decreased, the number of horses held were fewer, and the veneer
of new, imported cultural characteristics became shallower. The
Umatilla and Yakima on the west, and the Palus, Spokane, and
Coeur d'Alene to the northeast were in the process of change,
but their herds were smaller and the fishing and gathering
economy was still important. The Tenino, Molala, and Klickitat
in the southwest and Kittitas, Wenatchi, Okanogan, and Columbia
owned few horses and were only slightly affected. A few villages
in the arid center, and the San Poil and Nespelem along the
northern branch, remained as riverine fishing communities almost
untouched by the new influences.
Introduction of this valuable animal resulted in more mobile
relationships which heightened trade, trespass, thievery, and
petty quarrels. Yet peace prevailed and the geographic pattern
of these groups remained stable. However, the higher grassy
plains took on a new value, and tribal limits, formerly vague
zones in the empty interior, now became more sharply defined.
By the beginning of the nineteenth century perhaps twenty-five
to thirty thousand Indians lived in and around the Great
Columbia Plain. The horse was opening a new way of life,
transforming social relations within and without, extending the
perimeters of contact, enlarging available resources, and
promising a new period of social enrichment and progress.
But at this very time a different kind of influence was becoming
vaguely known. Rumors began to spread over the interior of a new
kind of people--of foreign tongue, curious customs, odd clothing
and adornments -- who came in huge boats to the ocean shore and
even up the great river for some distance. At The Dalles the
Chinook traders displayed a few objects -- beads, bracelets,
knives--unlike anything known before. And then one early autumn,
to the delighted interest of the local Indians, a party of these
strange men appeared at the opposite corner of the region.
(1) The broader patterns of Indian culture areas are well
displayed in Robert F. Spencer, Jesse D. Jennings et al., The
Native Americans (New York, Evanston, and London, 1965); for the
interior I have relied upon Verne F. Ray, "Cultural Relations in
the Plateau of Northwestern America," Publications of the
Frederick Webb Hodge Anniversary Publication Fund, S (Los
Angeles, 19S~9), which describes culture areas, traits, and
intertribal relationships. Alvin M. Josephy, Jr., The Nez Perce
Indians and the Opening of the Northwest (New Haven, Conn., and
London, 1965), chap. i., is a masterly synthesis and
presentation of historical and ethnological materials on one of
the most important tribes.
(2) Leslie Spier and Edward Sapir, "Wishram Ethnography,"
University of Washington Publications in Anthropology, 8, No. S
(1950), 151-300.
(3) Verne F. Ray et al., "Tribal Distribution in Eastern Oregon
and Adjacent Regions," American Anthropologist, n.s., 40
(July-September, 1958), 384-415.
(4) Melville Jacobs, "Historic Perspectives in Indian Languages
of Oregon and Washington," Pacific Northwest Quarterly, 28
(January, 1957), 55-74.
(5) Francis D. Haines, "The Northward Spread of Horses Among the
Plains Indians," American Anthropologist, 40 (July, 1938),
429-37; and Josephy, The Nez Perce Indians, pp. 27-29.
from The Great Columbia Plain - a Historical Geography
1805-1920 , D. W. Meinig, Seattle, © 1968
Last Updated
December 21, 2004
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