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52-574: The Native American name for the Spokane Falls was "Stluputqu", meaning "swift water". The falls was once the site of a large Spokane people village. The falls consists of the Upper Falls and the Lower Falls. The area around the falls was formerly a rail yard, that was converted to a city park for use as the fairgrounds for the 1974 World's Fair . The park is located predominantly on Havermale Island,

104-419: 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. The Spokane had a matrilocal custom, in which the husband of a Spokane woman, after marriage, would join her and her people as the site of their home together. Occasionally, the wife would move to the husband's people. There was mobility between bands, by which

156-645: A Native American Plateau tribe who inhabit 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 Wellpinit (Sčecuwe). The reservation is located almost entirely in Stevens County , but also includes two small parcels of land (totaling about 1.52 acres [0.62 ha]) in Lincoln County , including part of

208-643: 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). A few examples of spiritual dances include the Prophet Dance and the Spirit Dance , which took place in mid-January. Dancers sought to identify with the Prophet's spirit. In the Spirit Dance a shaman would call upon the spirit to visit an individual. It

260-538: A dialect of Montana Salish . Therefore they are close kin both by language and culture to the neighboring Bitterroot Salish (Flathead) (Tˈatˈʔayaqn) and Pend d'Oreilles . They were in loose alliance with other Plateau tribes - and sometimes the Kutenai (Sqlˈse), Crow Nation (Stemčiʔ) and Cree-Assiniboine (Iron Confederacy) (Ncoʕʷaqs) joined in - against their common enemy (Sˈmen), the mighty Blackfoot Confederacy (Sčqˈʷišni) and later Lakota people (Hułnʔixʷtˈusm) on

312-636: A diary, Gibbs recorded the journey on a copy of John Charles Frémont 's map Map of an Exploring Expedition to the Rocky Mountains in the Year 1842, Oregon and North California in the Years 1843–44 . Gibbs may also have met Peter Skene Ogden during his first days in Fort Vancouver and Oregon City; later correspondence indicates he was well acquainted with Ogden. He found work as the deputy collector of Customs at

364-411: A person or family could spend one winter with a band and the next winter with another. 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

416-600: 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). The Dreamer Cult remained prominent within

468-452: Is one of several tribal governments in the northwestern United States to offer free bus service on its reservation. 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

520-477: The Columbia Plateau tribes and emerged from the pressures of colonization during the second half of the nineteenth century. 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

572-541: The Round Hill School until the age of seventeen, when, after not gaining an appointment to West Point he took an extended tour of Europe. Gibbs graduated Harvard in 1838 with a law degree and returned to New York City to practice law with (Jonathan) Prescott Hall. In 1840, he was instrumental in reviving the New-York Historical Society where he worked as the librarian from 1842 through 1848. He

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624-569: The Spokane River . In total, the reservation is about 615 square kilometres (237 sq mi). The city of Spokane, Washington (Sʎˈetkʷ) 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 Spokane language (Npoqínišcn ) belongs to the Interior Salishan language family , being

676-664: The languages of indigenous peoples in Washington Territory . Known for his expertise in Native American customs and languages, Gibbs participated in numerous treaty negotiations between the U.S. government and the native tribes. Gibbs was born 1815 in Ravenswood (now part of Astoria, Queens , New York City) to mineralogist George Gibbs and Laura Wolcott Gibbs, daughter of Oliver Wolcott Jr. His younger brothers were Oliver Wolcott Gibbs and Alfred Gibbs . He attended

728-646: The California treaty excursion in the Humboldt Bay / Klamath River region, at which time Gibbs presumably sailed to San Francisco to meet McKee, embarking on the excursion in the early part of August, 1851. At the end of the excursion late in October 1851, Gibbs traveled with McKee back to San Francisco, arriving on December 28, 1851. He stayed in Benicia, California through the early months of 1852 transcribing his journal of

780-680: The Central Part of Washington Territory for McClellan on his observations of the Indian Tribes of Washington Territory . He sent the report in early March 1854, and soon thereafter he was hired by Governor Stevens to assist him with negotiating treaties with the Washington Indian tribes. He earned a reputation as the "most apt student of the Indian languages and customs in the Northwest", because his skills with Governor Stevens helped convince

832-575: The Columbia Plateau peoples until the early 1890s, when the major prophets died and their followers began to lose faith in the promise of a world free of white people. The closest contemporary religion to the Washani is the Seven Drums Religion . George Gibbs (ethnologist) George Gibbs (1815–1873) was an American ethnologist , naturalist and geologist who contributed to the study of

884-742: The Colville people (Sxʷyelpetkʷ). Not all the Spokane people moved from their traditional territory, which caused some conflict with white settlers. In the Coeur d'Alene War of 1858, the Spokane had allied with the Coeur d'Alene (Sčicwˈi), Yakima (Yiʔaqmeʔ), Palouse , and Paiute peoples against the European Americans. In the Nez Perce War of 1877, they remained neutral despite pleas from Nez Perce (Saʕaptni) chief Chief Joseph to join him in trying to expel

936-668: 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,

988-926: The Northern Branch of the Pacific Railroad Survey , between the Puget Sound and the Spokane River . He gathered and preserved many specimens which became a part of Cooper's zoological reports of the expedition and were later supplied to the Smithsonian. McClellan's party met up with Isaac Stevens ' (the expedition leader and appointed Territorial Governor) party that had left Minnesota in June to survey west. Both parties arrived in Fort Vancouver in November, 1853. Upon his return to Steilacoom, Gibbs wrote two reports, Indian Tribes of Washington Territory and The Geology of

1040-765: The Port of Astoria, Oregon Territory in Astoria, Oregon , and dabbled with practicing law again. In the spring of 1851, he joined the Oregon Indian Commission (composed of John P. Gaines , Alonzo A. Skinner and Beverly S. Allen) on a treaty excursion, traveling through the Willamette Valley negotiating with the tribes, passing through Oregon City and again ending up in Fort Vancouver in July, 1851. Shortly thereafter, Redick McKee hired Gibbs to accompany him on his portion of

1092-545: 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. The Spokane Tribe

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1144-567: The Spokane children, from 1898 to 1906. The Spokane took prominent part in the so called Coeur d'Alene War (Spokane-Coeur d'Alene-Pend d'oreille-Paloos War) of 1858, a series of encounters between the allied Native American tribes of the Skitswish ("Coeur d'Alene"), Kalispell ("Pend'Oreille"), Spokane, Palouse and Northern Paiute against United States Army forces in Washington and Idaho which centered in ancestral Spokane territories. By treaty between

1196-403: 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. Men of the Spokane tribe created tools, fished, and hunted. After the tribe acquired horses,

1248-694: The U.S., corresponding with George Davidson ; his letters to Davidson are in the Bancroft Library . He also expanded his studies of Indian languages while working at the Smithsonian Institution . He married his cousin Mary Kane Gibbs and moved to New Haven, Connecticut in 1871, where he died in 1873. He donated his map collection, including his annotated "Smith Map" to the American Geographical Society , where it disappeared in

1300-593: The Upper Falls. The north fork of the river splits again at Salmon People Island, snxw meneɂ in Salish , and flows over the two Upper Falls on either side of the island. The north fork converges again after the Upper Falls, and is also rejoined by the diverted south fork (through the outlet on the Upper Falls Intake). The Lower Falls is the site of a second diversion dam, the Monroe Street Dam. Completed in 1890, it

1352-599: The Washington Territory's tribes. That resulted in a report that showed marked population decline, comparing to Hudson's Bay Company information, which was a bit older. The decrease in the population may have been due to epidemics which wiped out a large portion of the tribal population. In early 1855, the Territorial Legislature appointed Gibbs Brigadier General of the Militia . No funds were appropriated for

1404-426: The archives until Carl Wheat found it in 1953. In 1877, John Wesley Powell published Contributions to North American Ethnology, Vol. I which consisted of an article Tribes of the extreme Northwest by William Healey Dall and Tribes of western Washington and northwestern Oregon by Gibbs. The original manuscript of Tribes of western Washington and northwestern Oregon , dated 1865, and other papers were given to

1456-452: The area. Since the early 20th century, their population has been steadily increasing: in 1985 tribal enrolled membership was reported as 1,961. In 2019 the tribe reported its population to be around 2,900 people. The name Spokane is first recorded in 1807. According to George Gibbs , 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

1508-631: The command of Colonel William W. Loring , its previous commander, Brigadier General Persifor F. Smith , having been given command of the Pacific Division of the Army. The Regiment had been dispatched to the Oregon Territory , and both Gibbs and Major Osbourne Cross documented its overland travel along the Oregon Trail to Fort Vancouver to which they arrived on October 4 of that year. In addition to

1560-457: The east-most boundary is established by the first fork in the river. This is the site of the Upper Falls Dam, a diversion dam constructed in 1920 that directs the water into the Upper Falls intake on the south channel of the Spokane River. The Upper Falls Power Plant incorporates a Francis turbine capable of generating 10 MW . The water not diverted to the south fork by the dam flows over

1612-459: The east. The precontact population of the Spokane people is estimated to be about 1,400 to 2,500 people. The populations of the tribe began to diminish after contact with settlers and traders due to mortality from new infectious diseases endemic among the Europeans, and to which the Spokane had no acquired immunity. By 1829 a Hudson's Bay Company trader estimated there were about 700 Spokane people in

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1664-640: The encounter with the Lewis and Clark Expedition, fur traders and settlers arrived. In 1810, the North West Company opened the Spokane House near the confluence of the Spokane and Little Spokane (Nxweme'a'tkxy - "river where the Steelhead trout run") rivers as a trade post. The Pacific Fur Company established Fort Spokane (Čˈłyaqˈ) in 1811. Much later, the structure was used as an Indian boarding school for

1716-504: The expedition for McKee, and also preparing a map of the excursion. On February 23, 1852, he sent the transcript and map to McKee, who was to take them to Washington, D.C. and give them to Henry Schoolcraft , whom Gibbs knew through their mutual association in the New-York Historical Society. He corresponded with Schoolcraft to ensure that the vocabularies sent with the transcript were correctly spelled (Schoolcraft published

1768-686: The federal government and the tribe, the people ceded most of their territory, accepting removal to the Spokane Reservation , which was established in 1881. In 1877, the Lower Spokane people (Scqesciłni) agreed to move to the Spokane Reservation. In 1887 the Upper (Sntʔtʔúlixʷ) and Middle Spokane people (Snxʷme̓nʔey) agreed to move to the Colville Reservation predominately inhabited by

1820-569: The fossil plants Gibbs collected on the survey. Gibbs returned to New York for a short time in 1862. He volunteered to defend the home of John C. Fremont during the New York City draft riots on July 15, 1863, after which he returned to Washington D.C., where he spent most of the last decade of his life. After the Civil War he served on a commission settling claims of the Hudson's Bay Company against

1872-796: 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. Horses were introduced to the Spokane tribe from either the Nez Perce , Kalispel , or Flathead tribe. By about 1800, the Spokane tribe was acquiring herds, showing that they had fully embraced use of these animals. 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. Some of

1924-519: The name have been proposed. Most frequently, the name has been translated as "Sun children", "Children of the Sun", or "Muddy people". According to Pritzker (2011), these interpretations are most probably popular etymologies (or "faulty translations") derived from an actual self-designation of Spoqe'ind , meaning "round head." The interpretation of "children of the Sun" was reported by Thomas Symons (1882), who attributed it to Ross Cox (1831), who mentioned

1976-522: The name of a chief in the region as Illim-Spokanée "Son of the Sun". The word for "Sun" is recorded as spukani for Bitterroot Salish , but as sokemm in Okanagan , and as ałdarench in Coeur d'Alene, all members of the Interior Salish branch of Salish. The word sqeliz , meaning "people", is also recorded as an autonym. For thousands of years the Spokane people lived near the Spokane River in

2028-400: The natives to sign the treaty. Before the treaty was signed, there was a vigorous debate about how many reservations should be built. Gibbs brought an argument to the table that because there was much variety in the Indians' customs and languages, and in their needs for fishing rights, amongst others, many small reservations should be built. He also was given a job of sending out a census on

2080-514: The newly inaugurated Franklin Pierce planned to reappoint the previous Customs Collector. Also, while there, he conferred with Ogden on a matter on which Schoolcraft had requested information. Midway through 1853, Gibbs moved to Steilacoom, Washington , where he was hired by George McClellan to work along with James Graham Cooper as an ethnologist, geologist and naturalist in McClellan's section of

2132-487: 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. A Spokane religion was the Dreamer Cult , also called Washani, meaning "worship" or "dancers". It developed in

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2184-521: The position, and he never actively led a militia. He was, however, an active opponent to Governor Stevens' reaction to the skimishes. In 1857 Gibbs joined The Northwest Boundary Survey of the Canada–United States border , which began on the Pacific coast and included in its ranks Joseph Smith Harris . He served in the field until 1860, then relocated to Washington D.C. where he continued to work for

2236-399: The region he traveled with McKee; the notebook with those stories is also in the Smithsonian. In late 1852, Fillmore appointed Gibbs as the Collector of Customs, and he returned from the Klamath River region to Humboldt Bay and took a ship to San Francisco, then back up the coast to Astoria, Oregon where he arrived in mid-December. In April, 1853, while at Fort Vancouver, he received news that

2288-401: The settlers. Prior to colonization by European-Americans, Chewelah was home to a band of the Kalispel people. The band was known as the slet̓éw̓si, meaning "valley people". The Chewelah Band of Indians is currently part of the Spokane Tribe. Around the 1950s, uranium was discovered on the reservation. With the development of nuclear weapons and other tools, it was considered highly valuable. It

2340-434: 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

2392-424: The survey until mid-1862. The Smithsonian collection of Gibbs' papers from that time period includes the notes of his research on the growth of forests in the Washington Territory, dated to 1860. Three journal notebooks with notes from the Pacific Railroad Survey and the Northwest Boundary Survey are at the Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library , Yale University . John Strong Newberry wrote an article about

2444-400: The territory of present-day eastern Washington and northern Idaho , surviving by hunting and gathering. Spokane territory once sprawled over three million acres (12,000 km²) of land. The Spokanes lived along the river in three bands known as the Upper, Middle and Lower Spokane Indians. The Spokane bands were semi nomadic , following game and plants on a seasonal basis for nine months of

2496-506: The transcript, which referenced "the Smith map" several times, in 1853. ). While waiting for the spring rains to ebb, Gibbs wrote Observations on the Indians of the Klamath River and Humboldt Bay, Accompanying Vocabularies of Their Languages archived in the Smithsonian Institution . He then traveled to back to the Klamath/Rogue River region and finally pursued his original objective in coming west; prospecting for gold. He also collected stories of travels of other explorers and settlers through

2548-404: The year, and settling in permanent winter villages for the other three. The first Europeans whom the Spokane people had contact with were fur traders and explorers. The Lewis and Clark Expedition encountered the Spokane tribe in 1805. Already the Spokane people were dwindling in population from introduced Eurasian diseases, such as smallpox , which were endemic among Europeans. Shortly after

2600-405: Was a supporter of the Whig Party , which led to a later appointment by President Millard Fillmore . In the spring of 1849, weary of practicing law, Gibbs was drawn to the West by the California Gold Rush . His brother Alfred being attached to the Regiment of Mounted Riflemen , he traveled to Fort Leavenworth , arriving on May 8, 1849, and attached himself to the Regiment which was then under

2652-439: Was mined (under leases arranged on behalf of the Spokane by the federal government) from 1956 to 1962 out of an open pit . This practice was ended, and from 1969 to 1982, uranium was mined at the Midnite Mine . The now inactive mine is on the list of Superfund cleanup sites, as the mining process left the grounds and underground water highly contaminated by metals, radionucleides and acidic drainage . The creation of dams on

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2704-469: Was the first dam built on the Spokane River and is currently the longest-running hydroelectric generation facility in Washington state . Its Kaplan turbine has a generating capacity of 14.82 MW. Both Upper Falls and Lower Falls dams are operated by the power company Avista . This Spokane County, Washington state location article is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Spokane people The Spokan or Spokane people are

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