The current Spokane Indian Reservation is located in northeastern Washington state, centered at Wellpinit (Sčecuwe).

It developed along the Spokane River, within the historic ancestral land of the tribe, but not within the reservation (see map).

Therefore they are close kin both by language and culture to the neighboring Bitterroot Salish (Flathead) (Tˈatˈʔayaqn)[7] and Pend d'Oreilles.

They were in loose alliance with other Plateau tribes - and sometimes the Kutenai (Sqlˈse),[7] Crow Nation (Stemčiʔ)[7] and Cree-Assiniboine (Iron Confederacy) (Ncoʕʷaqs) joined in - against their common enemy (Sˈmen), the mighty Blackfoot Confederacy (Sčqˈʷišni) and later Lakota people (Hułnʔixʷtˈusm) on the east.

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.

According to Pritzker (2011), these interpretations are most probably popular etymologies (or "faulty translations") derived from an actual self-designation of Spoqe'ind,[10] meaning "round head.

The Spokane bands were semi nomadic, following game and plants on a seasonal basis for nine months of the year, and settling in permanent winter villages for the other three.

Already the Spokane people were dwindling in population from introduced Eurasian diseases, such as smallpox, which were endemic among Europeans.

[11] 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 the federal government and the tribe, the people ceded most of their territory, accepting removal to the Spokane Reservation, which was established in 1881.

Not all the Spokane people moved from their traditional territory, which caused some conflict with white settlers.

[16] The Spokane Tribe is one of several tribal governments in the northwestern United States to offer free bus service on its reservation.

[14] The Spokane diet consisted of fish, local game, and plants, including nuts and roots.

Plants gathered by women provided nearly half of the caloric intake for the Spokane tribe.

[8] A Spokane religion was the Dreamer Cult[citation needed], also called Washani, meaning "worship" or "dancers".

It developed in the Columbia Plateau tribes and emerged from the pressures of colonization during the second half of the nineteenth century.

"[P]rior to contact, Plateau Indian spirituality revolved around 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).

[14] It 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).