The Chelan (pronounced sha-lan) are an Interior Salish people speaking the Wenatchi dialect, though separate from that tribe.
They were frequently on the move, traveling in and out of the mountains with the seasons, collecting plants, fishing small streams, and hunting game.
The watery highway of Lake Chelan provided a relatively easy transportation route from the Columbia River deep into the Cascades.
Occasionally, to trade with or visit coastal relatives, the Chelans would canoe up to the head of the lake where they knew of a route that followed a swift stream between high peaks.
Their traditional enemies were Shoshone, Kwalhioqua (also known as Willapa who lived in the hills north of the lower Columbia River), the Blackfoot Confederacy, and Nez Perce at times, at others they were allies.
In addition to the Chelan, the tribes are known, in English, as the Colville, the Nespelem, the Sanpoil, the Sinixt (Arrow Lakes people), the Palus, the Wenatchi, the Entiat, the Methow, the Southern Okanagan (Sinkaietk), the Sinkiuse-Columbia (Moses-Columbia), the Nez Perce of Chief Joseph's band, and the Wapato's.