Spokane (people)
| Sqeliz | |
|---|---|
|
|
| Total population | |
| (2,708) | |
| Regions with significant populations | |
 United States ( Washington) |
|
| Languages | |
|
English, Spokan or Spokane language (dialect of Kalispel-Pend d'Oreille language) |
|
| Religion | |
| Dreamer Faith, traditional tribal religion, Christianity | |
| Related ethnic groups | |
| Bitterroot Salish, Coeur D'Alene, Kootenai, Pend d'Oreilles, and other Interior Salish tribes |
The Spokan or Spokane people are a Native American Plateau tribe who inhabited the eastern portion of the Washington state and parts of northern Idaho in the United States of America. The current Spokane Indian Reservation is located in eastern Washington, centered in Wellpinit. The reservation is located almost entirely in Stevens County, but also includes two small parcels of land (totaling about 1.52 acres) in Lincoln County, including part of the Spokane River. In total, the reservation is about 615 square kilometers or 237 square miles.
The city of Spokane, Washington takes the tribe's name, which means “children of the Sun” or “Sun People”. Spokan or Spokane is a name the Native people gave themselves and one of their native legends says it came from the noise a snake made when a person beat on a hollow tree where the snake was hiding. The Spokane language belongs to the Interior Salishan language family. 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 diseases the Spokane people had never been exposed to previously; thus in 1829 a Hudson Bay trader guessed there were about 700 Spokane people in the area. Populations have been steadily increasing and tribal membership in 1985 was around 1,961 and in 2000 the US census reported the resident population of the reservation to be around 2,000 people.
For thousands of years the Spokane people lived near the Spokane River in eastern Washington and northern Idaho surviving by hunting and gathering. Spokane territory once sprawled out over three million acres (12,000 km²) of land. The Spokane bands were semi nomadic moving around for 9 months of the year and settling in permanent winter villages for the other 3. The first contact the Spokane people had with white men was 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 diseases like smallpox. Shortly after 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 Rivers as a trade post. The Spokane House was followed by the Pacific Fur Company’s Fort Spokane in 1811 which later became a boarding school for the Spokane children from 1898 to 1906. The Spokane Reservation was established in 1881. In 1877 the Lower Spokane people agreed to move to the Spokane Reservation and in 1887 the Upper and Middle Spokane people agreed to move to the Colville Reservation, but not all the Spokane people actually moved from the land causing some conflict with white settlers including the Coeur d’ Alene War of 1858 when the Spokanes teamed up with the Coeur d'Alenes, Yakimas, Palouses, and Paiutes but remained neutral in the Nez Perce War of 1877 despite pleas from Chief Joseph.
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