Indigenous peoples of the Northwest Plateau
The Kutenai tribe, who live in the southeastern parts of British Columbia and formerly extended to southwestern Alberta, speak an isolate language.
In the United States, Interior Salish people inhabited the Columbia River and its tributaries above Priest Rapids, near present-day Mattawa.
Having no major salmon run, their culture was somewhat different from other plateau people,[2] maintaining oak savannas similar to many California natives.
According to language comparisons, the interior Salish peoples expanded onto the plateau from the vicinity of the lower Fraser River.
The recent expansion of Numic people across the Great Basin displaced several groups on the southern edge of the plateau.
According to their oral tradition, the Kutenai people originated to the east, and moved onto the plateau in late pre-historic times.
There is strong evidence the smallpox epidemic of the 1770s spread across the plateau region, greatly reducing the population.
[7] Members of the Lewis and Clark Expedition were the first Europeans to encounter plateau natives, followed a few years later by Alexander Ross and David Thompson.
While there was some minor violence, serious armed conflicts did not begin until the mass migration of European Americans to the southern portion of the plateau region, starting in the 1840s.
After European contact, natives were classified into tribes led by chiefs, in order to facilitate negotiation and land settlements.
Plateau peoples often had seasonal villages or encampment in different areas to take full advantage of the wild foods.
Women gathered a large variety of edible vegetables and fruits, including camassia, bitterroot, kouse root,[1] serviceberry, chokecherry, huckleberry, and wild strawberry.
Common camas, camassia quamash, is a plant in the lily family with blue flowers, whose bulbs were dug for food.
The white flowering death camas, zygadenus venenosus, is a different but related species also in the lily family, and can be deadly poisonous.
For safety reasons, Plateau peoples gathered these bulbs while aerial parts were still growing in order to correctly identify the edible species.
Most plateau groups also gathered a lichen (Bryoria fremontii), which was cooked in pits similar to, and sometimes together with, camas.
Gathering and processing of wild plants by the women is still a traditional way of life among many of the people of these tribes today.
The men supplemented the diet by hunting and fishing, with salmon making up a major part of their food supply.
Stakes were lined up to make a weir, stopping the salmon from swimming any further, and then the fish were pulled out of the water with a scoop.
Ancestors of the Plateau Indians created the oldest known shoes in the world, the Fort Rock sandals, made of twined sagebrush and dated between 10,390 and 9650 years BP.
In addition to their traditional tools, they later adopted the use of metal items such as pots, needles, and guns acquired from trade with Europeans.
[1] Tule, used for many purposes, is a tall, tough reed that grows in marshy areas and is sometimes called bulrush.
For winter quarters, the people dug a pit a few feet into the ground and constructed a framework of poles over it, meeting in a peak above.
The slanted roofs of cedar homes extended near to the ground, while the spruce-bark houses resembles to adjacent tents.
Along the Columbia River among the Chinook and Sahaptin, both men and women typically wore just a breech cloth in warm weather.
Over time, plateau people generally adopted clothes inspired by plains culture, including buckskin dresses and feathered headgear.
Although some knowledge of traditional arts have been lost as times change, practicing the fine skills are still an important part of their way of life.
