Coeur d'Alene (people)
The Coeur d'Alene (self-name Schitsu'umsh ) are an Indian tribe of the Salish language group in the Pacific Northwest and closely related to the Spokane . Culturally, they belong to the inland Salish . They have been mixed with a group of the Upper Spokane since the reservation was established, their official name being The Coeur D'Alene Tribe, Coeur D'Alene Reservation, Idaho .
In their own language (Snchitsu'umshtsn) they call themselves Schitsu'umsh or Skitswish , which means something like "The discovered people" or "those who are found here". The name Coeur d'Alene (literally: heart of the awl ) was given to them by French and Iroquois fur traders at the beginning of the 19th century, who thereby expressed the observed skill and tenacity in price negotiations with the tribe.
According to the Coeur d'Alene Indian Tribe, the tribe has over 2190 members.
history
The Schitsu'umsh, estimated to have around a thousand members around 1780, lived in three groups in villages along the Coeur d'Alene , St. Joe, Clark Fork and Spokane Rivers and on the banks of the lakes Lake Coeur d'Alene and Lake Pend Oreille and Hayden Lake , in an area that now includes eastern Washington state , northern Idaho and western Montana .
First contacts with white fur traders and missionaries
On May 6, 1806, during the expedition led by him and Meriwether Lewis near the confluence of the Potlatch and Clearwater , William Clark wrote in his diary: "At this place we met three men from a nation called Skeets-so-mish Schitsu'umsh ". He also noted that they had their residence at the beginning of Clark's River (Clark Fork). They had informed him that this river flows into a large lake in the mountains (Lake Coeur d'Alene). He also wrote that these people were like the Chopunnish ( Nez Percé ) in clothing and appearance , although their language was completely different.
With the arrival of French and Iroquois fur traders, they were given the name "Coeur d'Alene". In 1809 the fur trader and cartographer David Thompson of the Northwest Company named them "Pointed Hearts". Nowadays the ethnic group prefers the original name "Schitsu'umsh".
From 1770 various epidemics hit the Coeur d'Alene. As with other Indians, their immune systems were not prepared for European diseases. An estimated 5,000 Coeur d'Alene existed before the first epidemics, but in 1827 John Warren Dease , an employee of the Hudson's Bay Company , estimated their number to be only 400. Samuel Parker, a missionary, estimated them to be 700 in 1835/36 if Charles Wilkes came in 1841 , Ruby and Brown followed, with his estimate of 450 probably closer to reality.
Although the Coeur d'Alene resisted the settlement, they traded with the white traders in Fort Spokane to the west, in Spokane House, Fort Colville and in Kalispel.
In April 1842 came the Jesuit Pierre De Smet , who together with two other missionaries built the first church on the Saint Joe River in November. The missionaries taught the Indians agriculture. Chief Stellam tried to resist turning his people into farmers.
Increased influx of white settlers and gold prospectors
After the end of the California gold rush , the prospectors looked for gold in other regions of the American West, so that around 1860 the immigration of white settlers to the Spokane area increased sharply. The Coeur d'Alene and their neighboring tribes felt threatened in their way of life and founded a 1000-strong defense alliance with the Spokane, smaller groups of Yakama , Kalispel , and Palouse ( Spokane-Coeur d'Alene-Paloos War , Yakima War , also Spokane War or Coeur d'Alene War ).
In May 1858 attacked around 1000 Coeur d'Alene, Spokane, Yakama, Palouse and Northern Paiute 164 soldiers of the US Army under Major Edward Steptoe (1816-1865), who had been deployed after Palouse had killed white settlers. A larger force under Colonel George Wright (1803-1865) with 600 soldiers and some Nez Perce scouts defeated the Indians on September 1, 1858 ( Battle of Four Lakes ). The Indians, this time fewer than 500 warriors, had no chance against the new bolt- action rifles , were pushed back and some were killed. Not a single soldier lost his life in the process.
At the end of 1873 the tribe had to cede exactly 2,389,924 acres of their territory, their reservation , which is now in northern Idaho , in the counties of Kootenai and Benewah and includes among other things a third of Lake Coeur d'Alene, only extended to 598,500 Acre .
In 1887 the tribe, whose treaty was not ratified, ceded 184,960 acres again, mainly in the north, in return for payment of $ 233,884.97 . In 1887 and again in 1894, many Spokans moved to the tribe's reservation, including about 32 Catholic families.
Between 1905 and 1909, numerous properties were privatized, and 97 Spokane and 541 Coeur d'Alene were given land. Some, such as Chief Moctelme (1907 to 1932), unsuccessfully resisted the dissolution of the tribal area in private land.
In 1934, the tribe rejected the Indian Reorganization Act by a narrow majority , which included the election of a tribal council and chief. Instead, an election committee determined the most important positions.
The Indian Claims Commission ruled the tribe that the compensation they had paid for the land they gave was far too low. She paid an additional $ 4,427,078.03. In 1981 the tribe received small reparations for the disastrous management of Indian property by American authorities ($ 173,978.79).
present
The Coeur d'Alene Reserve covers an area of 345,000 acres in northern Idaho, and includes farmland (growing wheat, barley, beans, lentils) and foothills of the Rocky Mountains, as well as Lake Coeur d'Alene and the rivers Coeur d'Alene and St. Joe.
Chief James Allan has served as Chairman of the Coeur d'Alene Tribe since May 2005 . He was born in Spokane in 1972 and grew up on the Coeur d'Alene reservation. Two years earlier, Chief James Allan had been elected to the Coeur d'Alene Tribal Council (the tribal council of the Coeur d'Alene).
The children attend the Sacred Heart Mission School in Desmet or the public school on the reservation town of Tekoa , Washington. A program to preserve the language has long been part of the attempts at revitalization, as part of which the Whaa-laa Days take place every year in the second week of July , celebrations and competitions, such as B. in war dances.
With rezKast , the tribe started a website in July 2008 that is heavily based on YouTube , but specializes in Indian content.
The tribe operates hotel and tourist leisure facilities. A bilingual radio station (KWIS FM 88.3) is also in operation. It is one of 33 Indian stations in the USA.
19th century culture and way of life
The homes of the Coeur d'Alene originally consisted of earth huts. They lived primarily from fishing, but also from hunting big game. The waters of northern Idaho were rich in salmon and trout, which they hunted with fishing rods, nets, and spears.
Around 1760 the Coeur d'Alene kept horses. With the buffalo hunt on the prairie, they switched to living in tepees . Their opponents were the Blackfoot and the Absarokee , but arguments were rare.
Sherman Alexia
Sherman Alexie , born in 1966, is an important contemporary Indian writer. He is a Spokane / Coeur-d'Alene Indian. His work The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian received the National Book Award in 2007 .
literature
- Robert H. Ruby / John A. Brown, A Guide to the Indian Tribes of the Pacific Northwest , University of Oklahoma Press 1992, pp. 32-34
- Rodney Frey: Landscape Traveled by Coyote and Crane: The World of the Schi̲tsu'umsh: Coeur D'Alene Indians , Coeur D'Alene Tribe of the Coeur D'Alene Reservation, Idaho, Coeur d'Alene Tribe, ed. Vd University of Washington Press 2001, ISBN 9780295981710
See also
Web links
- The Official website of The Coeur d'Alene Tribe - official website of the tribe
Individual evidence
- ↑ Shitsu'umsh. The Official Website of The Coeur d'Alene Tribe. Overview
- ↑ Diary entry of May 6, 1806 in the original Journals of the Lewis and Clark Expedition ( online access ( memento of the original from March 7, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this note. )
- ↑ US Army defeats Native Americans at Battle of Four Lakes on September 1, 1858.
- ↑ See rezKast A Native video & music sharing site .
- ^ Tribe gets OK for radio station
- ^ Mary Ann Gwinn: Seattle's Alexie wins the National Book Award , in: Seattle Times November 15, 2007
