The Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation is the

federally recognized tribe 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 Unite ...

that controls 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 ...

, which is located in northeastern

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 ...

, United States. It is the government for its people. The Confederate Tribes of the Colville Reservation consist of twelve individual tribes. Those tribes are: *

Arrow Lakes The Arrow Lakes in British Columbia, Canada, divided into Upper Arrow Lake and Lower Arrow Lake, are widenings of the Columbia River. The lakes are situated between the Selkirk Mountains to the east and the Monashee Mountains to the west. Bea ...

(Lakes,

Sinixt The Sinixt"Sinixt Nation…" (also known as the Sin-Aikst or Sin Aikst,Reyes 2002, ''passim.'' "Senjextee", "Arrow Lakes Band", or — less commonly in recent decades — simply as "The Lakes") are a First Nations People. The Sinixt are ...

) * Chelan * Colville * Entiat * Nespelem *

Okanagan The Okanagan ( ), also known as the Okanagan Valley and sometimes as the Okanagan Country, is a region in the Canadian province of British Columbia defined by the basin of Okanagan Lake and the Canadian portion of the Okanagan River. It is par ...

* Methow * Sinkiuse-Columbia *

Nez Perce The Nez Percé (; autonym in Nez Perce language: , meaning "we, the people") are an Indigenous people of the Plateau who are presumed to have lived on the Columbia River Plateau in the Pacific Northwest region for at least 11,500 years.Ames, K ...

* Palus * San Poil *

Wenatchi The Wenatchi people or Šnp̍əšqʷáw̉šəxʷi / Np̓əšqʷáw̓səxʷ ("People in the between") are Native Americans who originally lived near the confluence of the Columbia and Wenatchee Rivers in Central Washington state. They spoke Interio ...

. The tribes' traditional territories in the Pacific Northwest once encompassed most of what is now known as eastern Washington state and extended 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 ...

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 ...

, and

Oregon Oregon () is a U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. The Columbia River delineates much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington (state), Washington, while the Snake River delineates much of it ...

. Eight of these related bands are the names of rivers that flow off of the eastern slopes of the North Cascades or the Okanagon Highlands. Several of these rivers have small towns or communities where the rivers flow into the Columbia River. Beginning in the Southwest the rivers in order as you go north and then east are the: Wenatchee (Town of Wenatchee), Entiat (Town of Entiat), Chelan (Town of Chelan), Methow (Town of Methow, upstream of the confluence with the Columbia), Okanogan (Town of Okanogan, upstream of the Confluence), Nespelem (Tribal community of Nespelem, upstream of the confluence), Sanpoil (Tribal community of Sanpoil, on the Sanpoil arm of Lake Roosevelt), and Colville (Town of Colville, upstream of the confluence). The Arrow Lakes are upstream on the Columbia River a little ways above the border in British Columbia. The Moses Coulee, Moses-Columbia, is an Ice Age Canyon (coulee) just south of the Columbia River west of Coulee City on U.S. Highway 2. Not to be confused, Coulee City is located in the Grand Coulee, a similar and more famous Ice Age Canyon that lies east of the Moses Coulee. The Nez Perce are the descendants of Chief Joseph band which came from Northeast Oregon. 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. The Nez Perce (not including the small group re-located to Colville) are located on the Nez Perce Indian Reservation in West central Idaho along the Clearwater River. In 1872, the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation was formed by executive order under President

Ulysses S. Grant Ulysses S. Grant (born Hiram Ulysses Grant ; April 27, 1822July 23, 1885) was an American military officer and politician who served as the 18th president of the United States from 1869 to 1877. As Commanding General, he led the Union A ...

for the purpose of occupying the Colville Reservation. It was a large area encompassing a wide variety of habitats and resources. Later the reservation was reduced, and some of the best lands were excluded, made available for settlement by European Americans.

Notable tribal members

Lucy Covington Lucy Friedlander Covington (November 24, 1910 – September 20, 1982) was a Native American tribal leader and political activist. She was a member of the Colville tribe which has a reservation in north-eastern Washington state. Covington wa ...

(1910-1982, Moses-Columbia) Native American Rights Activist *

Joe Feddersen Joe Feddersen (born 1953) is a Colville sculptor, painter, photographer and mixed-media artist. He is known for creating artworks strong in geometric patterns reflective of what is seen in the environment, landscape and his Native American herita ...

(b. 1953,

) sculptor, painter, photographer, and mixed-media artist *

Chief Moses Chief Moses (born ''Kwiltalahun'', later called ''Sulk-stalk-scosum'' - "The Sun Chief") (c. 1829 – March 25, 1899) was a Native American chief of the Sinkiuse-Columbia, in what is now Washington state. The territory of his tribe extended ...

(1829-1899, Moses-Columbia) Native American Chief *

Lawney Reyes Lawney L. Reyes (1931 – August 10, 2022) was an American Sin-Aikst artist, curator, and memoirist, based in Seattle, Washington. Biography Lawney Reyes was born in 1931 to Mary Christian, Sin-Aikst (now known as the Sinixt). Historically ...

(1951-2022,

), artist, author, activist * Luana Reyes (1933–2001,

), health care activist and educator * Stella Runnels (1918-2010), nurse and activist, who established the health clinic during the

Occupation of Alcatraz The Occupation of Alcatraz (November 20, 1969 – June 11, 1971) was a 19-month long protest when 89 Native Americans and their supporters occupied Alcatraz Island. The protest was led by Richard Oakes, LaNada Means, and others, while John T ...

. *

Bernie Whitebear Bernie Whitebear (September 27, 1937 – July 16, 2000), birth name Bernard Reyes, was an American Indian activist in Seattle, Washington, a co-founder of the Seattle Indian Health Board (SIHB), the United Indians of All Tribes Foundation, and ...

(1937–2000,

), Native American rights activist

Notes

External links

Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation
official website {{DEFAULTSORT:Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation Federally recognized tribes in the United States Native American tribes in Washington (state) Syilx governments

Notable tribal members

See also

Notes

External links