[1] The tribe's history is tied with Kettle Falls, an important salmon fishing resource,[3] and an important post of the Hudson's Bay Company, which brought the advantages and disadvantages of contact with people of European heritage.
The twelve bands are the Methow, Okanogan, Arrow Lakes, Sanpoil, Colville, Nespelem, Chelan, Entiat, Moses-Columbia, Wenatchi, Nez Perce, and Palus.
As part of the conditions of surrender Chief Joseph and his band were not allowed to return to their home in Oregon and were eventually re-located to the Colville reservation after the so-called "Flight of the Nez Perce" in 1877.
Mooney (1928) estimated the number of the Colville at 1,000 as of 1780, but Lewis and Clark placed it at 2,500, a figure also fixed upon by Teit (1930).
[citation needed] The Colville language or N̓x̌ʷʔiłpcən is one of six dialects of Colville-Okanagan historically spoken by the "Syilx peoples" including Northern Okanagan and Southern/Lower Okanagan (Sinkaietk), Methow, Sanpoil (Nesilextcl'n), Nespelem (sometimes considered a Sanpoil subtribe), Colville, and Sinixt (Senijextee/Arrow Lakes Band) peoples.
Together with Wenatchee-Columbian, Spokane-Kalispel-Bitterroot, and Coeur d'Alene, Colville-Okanagan belong to the four Southern Interior Salishan languages of the Plateau.