Columbia Plateau peoples
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| Columbia Plateau peoples | |
|---|---|
| Name | Columbia Plateau peoples |
| Regions | Columbia Plateau |
| Languages | Sahaptian, Plateau Penutian, Salishan, Yakama, Nez Perce |
| Related | Interior Salish, Plateau tribes |
Columbia Plateau peoples are the Indigenous inhabitants of the intermontane Columbia Plateau of what is now the northwestern United States, centered on the Columbia River and its tributaries. They include diverse nations who speak Sahaptian, Plateau Penutian, and Interior Salish languages and who maintained intricate seasonal rounds, trade networks, and cultural institutions across what became Oregon, Washington, and Idaho. Contact with Euro-American explorers, fur traders, missionaries, and the United States government profoundly altered lifeways through treaties, warfare, removal, and assimilation policies; many nations today pursue language reclamation, cultural revitalization, and legal sovereignty.
Overview
The Plateau region encompasses the Columbia River, Snake River, Okanogan River, Yakima River, and Walla Walla River basins and lies between the Cascade Range, Blue Mountains, Rocky Mountains, and Coast Range. Prominent peoples in this geography include the Nez Perce (Nimiipuu), Yakama, Umatilla, Warm Springs, Colville, Spokane, Coeur d'Alene, Kalispel, Sahaptin-speaking peoples, and numerous bands historically identified as Palouse, Cayuse, Walla Walla, Umatilla, and Wenatchi. Euro-American contact involved explorers and traders such as Lewis and Clark, David Thompson, and companies like the North West Company and the Hudson's Bay Company.
Indigenous groups and languages
Languages on the Plateau comprise branches of Sahaptian, including Nez Perce, Sahaptin, and Umatilla, as well as Interior Salish varieties such as Columbia-Moses and Kalispel–Pend d'Oreille. Ethnolinguistic groups include the Nez Perce Tribe, Umatilla Confederated Tribes, Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs, Yakama Nation, Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation, Spokane Tribe, Coeur d'Alene Tribe, Kalispel Tribe, Sinixt, Palus (Palouse), Cayuse, Walla Walla, Molala, and smaller bands historically associated with riverine and plateau ecologies. Scholars such as Edward Sapir and Franz Boas classified several Plateau languages within broader typologies debated alongside proposals like Plateau Penutian; contemporary linguists include Michael Krauss and Noah Webster-era lexicographers in discussions of documentation and revitalization.
Traditional lifeways and economy
Plateau subsistence centered on salmon from the Columbia River and Snake River; key fisheries at Celilo Falls and The Dalles supported trade with interior groups like the Shoshone and coastal peoples such as the Chinookan peoples. Seasonal rounds combined spring fishing, summer root and seed gathering of bitterroot and camas, autumn hunting of elk and deer in the Blue Mountains, and storage strategies using camas ovens and pit caches. Material culture featured tule and spruce-root basketry, conical cedar-plank houses in riverine villages, and horse culture after the introduction of the horse reshaped mobility and hunting; trade networks exchanged obsidian from Obsidian Cliff and Craters of the Moon areas, eulachon grease, and horses. Technologies and artifacts include bone harpoons, cedar canoes, salmon drying racks, and woven mats; ceremonial regalia and trade goods incorporated copper, shell beads procured via links to Coastal Salish and Chinook traders, and introduced metal tools acquired from the Hudson's Bay Company and American fur traders.
Social organization and cultural practices
Social structures varied by community but often featured patrilineal and matrilineal kin groups, exogamous bands, and chiefs or headmen recognized for leadership in war, trade, and ceremonial life; notable leaders include Chief Joseph (Hin-mah-too-yah-lat-kekt) of the Nez Perce, Chief Kamiakin of the Yakama, and Looking Glass (Tashwinna) of the Nez Perce. Ceremonial life involved powwows, seasonal First Salmon ceremonies, funerary practices, and healing rituals performed by shamans and medicine people; peyote and other introduced religious movements intersected with traditional spirituality and later with the Ghost Dance movement. Oral traditions preserved histories such as the Nez Perce War narratives and creation stories linked to landscape features like Mount Adams, Mount Hood, and Moses Lake; names and place stories were transmitted through winter storytelling cycles in communal houses.
Contact, colonization, and treaties
Contact intensified with the Lewis and Clark Expedition, the Astor Expedition, and the inland fur trade, bringing diseases like smallpox that devastated populations before and after the Whitman Massacre. Treaty-making and removal followed patterns exemplified by the Treaty of Walla Walla (1855), Treaty of Stevens, and other agreements that established reservations such as the Nez Perce Reservation, Yakama Indian Reservation, Umatilla Indian Reservation, Warm Springs Reservation, and the Colville Reservation. Conflicts include the Cayuse War, the Yakima War, the Nez Perce War, and legal struggles culminating in cases like United States v. Winans and later fishing rights litigation represented by parties such as Sohappy v. Smith and the broader Boldt Decision arena. Assimilation policies imposed by the Bureau of Indian Affairs, boarding schools like Carlisle Indian Industrial School models applied regionally, allotment under the General Allotment Act (Dawes Act), and resource dispossession reshaped demography and sovereignty.
Contemporary communities and revitalization
Today Plateau nations govern through tribal councils such as the Confederated Tribes and Bands of the Yakama Nation council, the Nez Perce Tribal Executive Committee, and the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation administration, engaging in legal advocacy, natural-resource co-management, and cultural programs. Language revitalization efforts involve immersion schools, master-apprentice programs, and documentation projects supported by institutions like the Smithsonian Institution, Library of Congress, regional universities such as University of Washington, Washington State University, Oregon State University, and tribal colleges including Chief Dull Knife College-style models and local community colleges. Contemporary legal and environmental milestones include restoration litigation over salmon runs, the removal of Condon Dam-type structures, tribal co-management of fisheries under accords like the Boldt Decision implications, and collaborations with agencies like the National Park Service and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Cultural revival encompasses powwows, cedar basketry apprenticeships, camas restoration projects, repatriation actions under NAGPRA, and artistic renaissances involving artists such as James Lavadour and Elders teaching traditional song, dance, and language.