The Pend d'Oreille ( ), also known as the Kalispel (), are

Indigenous peoples of the Northwest Plateau Indigenous peoples of the Northwest Plateau, also referred to by the phrase Indigenous peoples of the Plateau, and historically called the Plateau Indians (though comprising many groups) are indigenous peoples of the Interior of British Columbi ...

. Today many of them live in

Montana Montana () is a state in the Mountain West division of the Western United States. It is bordered by Idaho to the west, North Dakota and South Dakota to the east, Wyoming to the south, and the Canadian provinces of Alberta, British Columb ...

and eastern

Washington Washington commonly refers to: * Washington (state), United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A metonym for the federal government of the United States ** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered o ...

of the United States. The Kalispel peoples referred to their primary tribal range as ''Kaniksu''. Their traditional territory comprised the drainage systems of the

Flathead River The Flathead River ( fla, label= Salish, člq̓etkʷ ntx̣ʷetkʷ, , kut, kananmituk), in the northwestern part of the U.S. state of Montana, originates in the Canadian Rockies to the north of Glacier National Park and flows southwest into Fla ...

, Clark Fork, and Pend Oreille rivers. It extended from roughly present-day

Plains, Montana Plains ( Salish: ncc̓kʷi) is a town in Sanders County, Montana, United States. The population was 1,106 at the 2020 census. It was founded as ''Horse Plains'' and sometimes called ''Wild Horse Plains'', as the local Native Americans would win ...

, westward along the

Clark Fork River The Clark Fork, or the Clark Fork of the Columbia River, is a river in the U.S. states of Montana and Idaho, approximately long. The largest river by volume in Montana, it drains an extensive region of the Rocky Mountains in western Montana and ...

, to

Lake Pend Oreille Lake Pend Oreille ( ) in the northern Idaho Panhandle is the largest lake in the U.S. state of Idaho and the 38th-largest lake by area in the United States, with a surface area of . It is long, and deep in some regions, making it the fifth-deep ...

and

Priest Lake Priest Lake is a lake in Idaho, United States, in the northernmost portion of the Idaho Panhandle, 80 miles northeast of Spokane, Washington. The northern end of the lake extending to within 15 miles (24 km) of the Canada–US border. Th ...

in Idaho, and the

Pend Oreille River The Pend Oreille River ( ) is a tributary of the Columbia River, approximately long, in northern Idaho and northeastern Washington in the United States, as well as southeastern British Columbia in Canada. In its passage through British Columbi ...

(''Ntxwe'', meaning "river") in eastern Washington and into

British Columbia British Columbia (commonly abbreviated as BC) is the westernmost province of Canada, situated between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains. It has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that include rocky coastlines, sandy beaches, for ...

(

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by to ...

). They lived in many bands — originally, probably eleven — in their historic lands. They are generally divided geographically and culturally in two groupings: * the "upstream people" or Upper Kalispel (or "Upper Pend d’Oreille") are commonly referred to as the Pend d'Oreille. They were also known as ''Kullyspelm'' or ''Ql̓ispé'' ("Camas People"). They are now enrolled in the

federally recognized This is a list of federally recognized tribes in the contiguous United States of America. There are also federally recognized Alaska Native tribes. , 574 Indian tribes were legally recognized by the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) of the United ...

Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes of the Flathead Nation in Montana. and * the "downstream people" or

Lower Kalispel The Kalispel Indian Community of the Kalispel Reservation is a federally recognized tribe of Lower Kalispel people, located in Washington. They are an Indigenous people of the Northwest Plateau. Reservation The Kalispel Reservation, located in U ...

(or "Lower Pend d’Oreille") are commonly referred to as the Kalispel. They were also known as ''Silkatkmlschi'' or ''Sɫq̓etkʷmsčin̓t'' ("People Living along the Shore of the Broad Water"), because they lived by

Flathead Lake Flathead Lake ( fla, člq̓etkʷ, label= Salish, kut, yawuʔnik̓ ʔa·kuq̓nuk) is a large natural lake in northwest Montana. The lake is a remnant of the ancient, massive glacial dammed lake, Lake Missoula of the era of the last interglacia ...

(Čɫq̓étkʷ - "Broad Water"). Today many are enrolled in the Kalispel Tribe of Indians in Washington. Some families are members of the Coeur d’Alene Tribe in Idaho. In addition, some Kalispel are enrolled in the

Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation The Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation is the federally recognized tribe that controls the Colville Indian Reservation, which is located in northeastern Washington, United States. It is the government for its people. The Confederate T ...

in eastern Washington. Prior to colonization by European-Americans, Chewelah was home to a band of the Lower Kalispel people. The band was known as the ''Slet̓éw̓si'', meaning "valley people". The ''Chewelah Band of Indians'' is currently part of the Spokane Tribe of Indians of Washington.

Name

The name ''Pend d’Oreille'' (), which means "hangs from ear", was attributed to them by French-speaking colonists and traders in reference to the large shell earrings worn by these people. The name ''Kalispel'' is an anglicization of their name in their own language (), which means " Camas people". Camas is a flower bulb that was a staple of their diet.Pritzker 257

Language

Their language, Kalispel-Pend d’Oreille, is a Southern Interior Salish language. It is also known as Flathead-Kalispel.

Reservations

The Pend d'Oreille people have two reservations: the

Flathead Indian Reservation The Flathead Indian Reservation, located in western Montana on the Flathead River, is home to the Bitterroot Salish, Kootenai, and Pend d'Oreilles tribes – also known as the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes of the Flathead Nation. Th ...

in western Montana and the

Kalispel Indian Reservation The Kalispel Indian Community of the Kalispel Reservation is a federally recognized tribe of Lower Kalispel people, located in Washington. They are an Indigenous people of the Northwest Plateau. Reservation The Kalispel Reservation, located in U ...

in Washington. Also, a small number of Kalispel people live on the

Colville Indian Reservation The Colville Indian Reservation is an Indian reservation in the northwest United States, in north central Washington, inhabited and managed by the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation, which is federally recognized. Established ...

in Washington. The main part of the Kalispel Reservation is northwest of

Newport, Washington Newport is a city in and the county seat of Pend Oreille County, Washington, United States. The population was 2,126 at the 2010 census. History Newport was given its name in 1890 because it was selected as a landing site for the first stea ...

, in central Pend Oreille County. The main reservation is an strip of land along the Pend Oreille River, west of the Washington–

Idaho Idaho ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. To the north, it shares a small portion of the Canada–United States border with the province of British Columbia. It borders the states of Monta ...

border. There is also a small parcel of land in the western part of the

Spokane Spokane ( ) is the largest city and county seat of Spokane County, Washington, United States. It is in eastern Washington, along the Spokane River, adjacent to the Selkirk Mountains, and west of the Rocky Mountain foothills, south of the Ca ...

metropolitan area in the city of

Airway Heights Airway Heights is a city in Spokane County, Washington, United States, just west of Spokane. The population was 10,757 at the 2020 census. The city's name was taken from its close proximity to the runways at Fairchild Air Force Base and Spokane ...

, with a land area of . This is the site o
Northern Quest Casino
which is operated by the tribe. The total land area of the

, located at in Pend Oreille County, is . The nearest outside community is Cusick, near the south end of the reservation.

History

The Pend d'Oreille people are believed to have migrated south from

. In 1809, the

North West Company The North West Company was a fur trading business headquartered in Montreal from 1779 to 1821. It competed with increasing success against the Hudson's Bay Company in what is present-day Western Canada and Northwestern Ontario. With great weal ...

established a

trading post A trading post, trading station, or trading house, also known as a factory, is an establishment or settlement where goods and services could be traded. Typically the location of the trading post would allow people from one geographic area to tr ...

in their territory, calling it Kullyspell House. Jesuits established a

Roman Catholic Roman or Romans most often refers to: * Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD * Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a let ...

mission there in 1846. In 1855, the tribe split into the upper and lower divisions, with the upper moving to the Flathead Reservation in Montana. One of the two lower bands joined them in 1887.Pritzker 258 These people made their weapons and tools from

flint Flint, occasionally flintstone, is a sedimentary cryptocrystalline form of the mineral quartz, categorized as the variety of chert that occurs in chalk or marly limestone. Flint was widely used historically to make stone tools and start ...

, and many other things were shaped with rocks. For housing, the Pend d’Oreille lived in

tipi A tipi , often called a lodge in English, is a conical tent, historically made of animal hides or pelts, and in more recent generations of canvas, stretched on a framework of wooden poles. The word is Siouan, and in use in Dakhótiyapi, Lakȟó ...

s in the summer, as well as lodges in the winter time. These houses were all built out of large

cattail ''Typha'' is a genus of about 30 species of monocotyledonous flowering plants in the family Typhaceae. These plants have a variety of common names, in British English as bulrush or reedmace, in American English as reed, cattail, or punks, in ...

s, which were in abundance where the people lived. These cattails were woven into mats called “tule mats”, which were attached to a tree branch frame to form a hut. Today a large community building on the Kalispel reservation bears the name “Tule Hut” in reference to this traditional housing. The tribe traded

bison Bison are large bovines in the genus ''Bison'' (Greek: "wild ox" (bison)) within the tribe Bovini. Two extant and numerous extinct species are recognised. Of the two surviving species, the American bison, ''B. bison'', found only in North A ...

hides for horses and other useful goods. They traditionally made clothing from rabbit pelts and deer hides. They embellished hides with

dye A dye is a colored substance that chemically bonds to the substrate to which it is being applied. This distinguishes dyes from pigments which do not chemically bind to the material they color. Dye is generally applied in an aqueous solution and ...

s, paints, beads, and porcupine quills. The Upper Pend d’Oreille of the Flathead Reservation became engaged in a dispute over off-reservation hunting between the tribes and the state of Montana, resulting in the

Swan Valley Massacre of 1908 The Swan Valley Massacre was an incident in 1908 in which four Pend d'Oreilles Indians, members of an eight-person hunting party, were killed by a state game warden and his deputy in the Swan Valley in northwestern Montana. The state of Montana di ...

. Long after they were dispossessed of their hereditary lands around Lake Pend Oreille, the Pend d'Oreille band of Kalispel continued to gather for an annual pow wow on its traditional grounds just east of what is now Sandpoint City Beach. The three-day event included ceremonies, dancing and traditional stick games. The pow wows in Sandpoint were discontinued in the early 1950s. Since 1975, the Kalispel Tribe has held an annual pow wow at its

Usk, Washington Usk is an unincorporated community in Pend Oreille County, Washington, United States. Usk is located along the Pend Oreille River southeast of Cusick. Usk has a post office with ZIP code 99180. It is near the Kalispel Indian Reservation. There ...

, reservation in July or August. The events are open to the public and include a dance contest, traditional foods, stick games and others.

Notes

References

* Pritzker, Barry M. ''A Native American Encyclopedia: History, Culture, and Peoples''. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000. .
Kalispel Reservation, Washington
United States Census Bureau

External links

Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes
official website
Kalispel Tribe of Indians
official website {{Authority control Interior Salish Native American tribes in Montana Native American tribes in Washington (state) Indigenous peoples of the Northwest Plateau Native American tribes in Idaho