Native Americans of North America

F

11

Post-Contact History

Spanish and English ships first reached the Northwest Coast from the south in the late 1500s. However, Europeans did not stake territorial claims in the area until the 1770s. In the Nootka Convention of 1790, Spain surrendered its land claims to Britain. Most early contacts between non-Indians and Indians were peaceful and fostered trade relations.

The arrival of fur traders to the Northwest Coast in the late 1700s—first Russian, then British and American—initiated a period of extensive trade with indigenous peoples. The Russians, who explored the region from the north, established trading posts along the Gulf of Alaska. Contacts between Indians and non-Indians further increased with the U.S.-sponsored Lewis and Clark Expedition, which reached the mouth of the Columbia River by land from the east in 1805, and subsequent American and Canadian trade expeditions. In exchange for valuable animal pelts, Northwest Coast peoples received steel axes, firearms, wool blankets, molasses, and whiskey. However, the Tlingit resented Russia’s expansion in the region and attacked Russian outposts, including the settlement of Sitka in 1802. Tlingit resistance, along with increasing competition from British and American fur traders, contributed to Russia’s eventual abandonment of the North American enterprise; they sold Alaska to the United States in 1867.

Increasing contacts with foreign traders exposed indigenous peoples to many contagious diseases and led to rapid population declines. In the mid-19th century, Northwest Coast peoples were subjected to many new pressures as growing numbers of non-Indians from the United States and Canada settled in the region. Non-Indians prospected for gold, sought out new land for timber, farms, and homes, and attempted to spread Christianity among the Native Americans. The completion of transcontinental railroads in the northern United States and southern Canada in the late 1880s further increased non-Indian settlement in the Northwest. Many indigenous peoples were forced onto small reservations. In modern times Northwest Coast peoples have had to struggle for traditional land and fishing rights. They have also rediscovered traditional practices, including arts and rituals.

G

Plateau

G

1

Land and Habitat

The Plateau culture area in western North America is an upland region that encompasses the Columbia Plateau and the basins of the great Fraser and Columbia rivers. The Columbia Plateau is flanked by the Cascade Mountains to the west, the Rocky Mountains to the east, the desert country of the Great Basin to the south, and the forest and hill country of the upper Fraser River to the north.

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The mountains bordering the Columbia Plateau catch large amounts of rain and snowfall. This precipitation drains into a great number of rivers and streams, many of which feed the Columbia River that flows to the Pacific Ocean. The mountains and river valleys have enough water to support forests of pine, hemlock, spruce, fir, and cedar. The plateau land between the mountain ranges consists of flatlands and rolling hills covered with grasses and sagebrush. The climate varies greatly depending on proximity to the ocean and altitude. Game animals were generally small, except in the mountains. Nutritious tubers and roots could be found in meadows and river valleys. Bountiful seasonal runs of salmon in the Columbia, Fraser, and tributary rivers significantly enhanced the region’s available food supply.

G

2

Peoples and Languages

The Plateau was not as densely populated as the Northwest Coast culture area to the west, yet many different tribes inhabited the region. Two language groups were dominant. In the southern regions, stretching from the Columbia River to the Great Basin, lived peoples who spoke languages based on Penutian, a language stock that includes many language families. Penutian-based languages were spoken by the Cayuse, Klamath, Klickitat, Modoc, Nez Perce, Palouse, Umatilla, Walla Walla, and Yakama. North of the Columbia, extending into Canada, the most common language family was Salishan (of uncertain stock). Dialects of Salishan were spoken by many tribes, including the Columbia, Coeur d’Alene, Flathead, Kalispel, Shuswap, and Spokane. Exceptions to this pattern were the Athapaskan-speaking Stuwihamuk in the north; the Chinookian-speaking Wishram in the southwest; and the Kutenai-speaking Kootenai in the northeast. Some linguists believe Kutenai is related to the Algonquian language family.

G

3

Early Peoples

Archaeologists have found ancient traces of human settlement in the Plateau region dated at more than 10,700 years old. Early settlers lived along rivers and lakes, hunted a variety of game, including deer and elk, collected wild plant foods, and possibly traded shells obtained from the Pacific Coast. Fishing has a long history on the Plateau. Some groups may have relied on salmon runs as long as 7,000 or 8,000 years ago, and fishing in the region appears to have increased after about 5,000 years ago.

More than two dozen distinct tribal groups inhabited the Columbia Plateau at the time of European contact. Collective ancestors of peoples speaking languages of the Penutian stock probably settled the area before 8,000 years ago. Another group, ancestors of people of the Salishan language family, may have arrived in the region about 3,500 years ago. Other groups entered the region in later years. Chinookians probably migrated from the west, Athapaskans from the north, and Algonquian-speaking peoples from the east. Indigenous peoples who settled on the Plateau used the many rivers as avenues of trade, and contacts among different tribes were frequent.

G

4

Diet and Subsistence

G4

a

Master Fishers

The limited ground vegetation in the dry, rugged country of the Columbia Plateau supported too few large game animals for them to be a staple food source. However, Plateau Indians managed to survive without farming by fishing the rivers and by gathering wild plant foods in the river valleys and on the grasslands. The most important of the many different kinds of fish found in the rivers were the abundant salmon that swam upriver from the ocean in the spring and summer months to lay their eggs.

Plateau Indians used many fishing techniques: They stood on riverbanks or on platforms and thrust at fish with long-handled spears; they used nets, both handheld nets on long poles and large weighted nets attached to floats; and they used small traps made from poles and brush, as well as large enclosures called weirs. Much of the catch was dried in the sun or over a fire for consumption during the winter months.

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