Potash

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Woman and Man of the Kalispel (1861)

The Lower Pend d'Oreille or Lower Kalispel , today mostly simply called Kalispel , form together with the Upper Pend d'Oreille (also called Upper Kalispel or simply Pend d'Oreille ) an Indian tribal group that at the time of the first contact with Europeans lived on Pend Oreille River , Priest Lake and Lake Pend Oreille .

Your tail stretched from Montana over north Idaho to east Washington and included the area of Plains in Montana, the catchment area of ​​the Clark Fork over the Pend Oreille to British Columbia, Canada . Culturally they belong to the southern inland Salish like the neighboring Flathead (Seliš or Salish) , Spokane (Sqeliz) and Coeur d'Alene (Schitsu'umsh or Skitswish) and thus culturally belong to the cultural area of ​​the plateau .

They called themselves Ql̓ispé (pronounced: Kah-LEES-peh), which the Europeans later corrupted in Kalispel . The French called them Pend d'Oreille or Pend Oreille (pronounced: Pon-de-RAY), which means something like 'hangs on the ear (down)'. This name goes back to the large earrings that the potash pebbles wore and which were made from shells.

history

Way of life and groups of the Kalispel

The Kalispel lived in summer in tipis , in winter in villages where they built huts. They were made of bulrushes , the fibers of which were woven into mats called tule mats . Accordingly, the houses were called Tule Huts . As long as there were enough buffalos to be found in their residential area, they lived off the hunt and traded their skins for horses.

The Kalispel were made up of two groups, the Lower (lower) Kalispel and the Upper (upper) Kalispel , each speaking a different dialect. The boundary between the two tribal groups is drawn by researchers at what is now the town of Plains on Clark Fork :

The Lower Kalispel or Lower Pend d'Oreille were often called the "boat or canoe people" by neighboring tribes because they had developed a flat canoe that was particularly suitable for dealing with the high winds on Lake Pend Oreille in northern Idaho . Due to their ability to bake bread from the edible prairie lily , usually called Camas or Quamash , they were also known as the "Camas people". They were also known for their excellent riding skills. One of its main centers of settlement was named after them Lake Pend Oreille in the so-called. Idaho Panhandle, on the northern bank at today's City Sandpoint the tribes of the Flathead, Ktunaxa and Lower Kalispel often pitched their summer camp together to fish, to weave baskets and berries before moving to their winter areas in what is now Montana or Washington in the fall. These annual migrations continued into the 1930s. They also lived on Priest Lake in northern Idaho, along the Lower Clark Fork and inhabited the river basin of the Pend Oreille River and its tributaries in the northeast of Washington to the southeast of British Columbia , Canada . Since their tribal areas were mostly west of the Upper Kalispel in northern Idaho and Lake Pend Oreille was of central importance to them both culturally and as a settlement area, the Americans also referred to them as Western Kalispel , Idaho Kalispel or Lake (Pend Oreille) Kalispel called. The largest part of the Lower Kalispel today forms the Kalispel Tribe of Indians , another group is now part of the Coeur d'Alene Tribe together with the Coeur d'Alene (Schitsu'umsh or Skitswish) .

The Chewelah , originally a band ( English " tribal group ") of the Lower Kalispel , had split off due to internal disputes from these and were in the area of ​​today's eponymous town of Chewelah in Stevens County in the Chewelah Mountains (also known as Calispell Mountains ) as well moved into the Colville River valley in northeast Washington. The Chewelah were referred to by the Kalispel as Slet̓éw̓si - "people in the valley", from which the name Slate'use or Tsent, used by Europeans, is derived. They spoke a variant that was slightly different from the other two Kalispel dialects. Today, as the Chewelah Band of Indians , they are part of the Spokane Tribe of Indians together with the dominant Lower Spokane .

The Upper Kalispel or Upper Pend d'Oreille were called "people at the confluence" because one of their winter villages stood at the outflow of Lake Pend Oreille . Oral tradition says that the Upper Kalispel lived at times east of the Rocky Mountains , but were driven away by the Blackfeet . They lived east of the Lower Kalispel from Lake Pend Oreille to the southeast along the course of the Clark Fork and its tributaries such as the Bitterroot River and Blackfoot River to the present-day city of Missoula and north along the Swan River and in the Flathead River basin (North Fork, Middle Fork and South Fork Flathead River). The area included several large lakes such as the Thompson Lakes (Upper, Middle and Lower), the Flathead Lake ( člq̓etkʷ , formerly known as Salish Lake ) and Swan Lake and the area of ​​the later Flathead Reservation . They shared the Bitterroot Valley and the areas around the Flathead River with the related Flathead (Seliš or Salish). Since the tribal areas of the Upper Kalispel were for the most part in the northwest of Montana and they formed the eastern tribal group, the Americans used to refer to them as Eastern Kalispel or Montana Kalispel . Today they are part of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes of the Flathead Nation .

For the period around 1780, the number of Kalispel, ie the Lower and Upper Kalispel together, is estimated to be around 1,600. 1805–1806, a number of 853 is assumed; around 1850 it is said to have been around 1,000 again.

Trade contacts and missions

In September 1809, the established fur trading company of Hudson's Bay Company under David Thompson a trading post called Kullyspell House on Lake Pend Oreille. The first missionary to live here was Pierre-Jean De Smet , who in 1846 set up a mission station called Saint Ignatius near what is now Cusick. A year earlier, the Jesuit Reverend Adrian Hoecken had built the Saint Michael's Mission at the Albeni Falls on the Pend Oreille River. From there the house was moved downstream and was now called Saint Ignatius . The mission station was relocated to the Flathead as early as 1854 .

While the Upper Kalispel followed the mission, the Lower Kalispel refused to leave their homes. In contrast to the Upper Kalispel, they also did not meet with the governor of the Washington Territory, Isaac Stevens . It was agreed in Hell Gate on July 16, 1855 that they should live with the Kutenai and the Flathead on a common reservation.

When the Upper Kalispel under the leadership of their chief Alexander the Treaty of Hellgate signed, the Lower Kalispel did not get to it because of the Yakima War broke out.

The Lower Kalispel under Victor (also called Happy Man) continued to live at the old mission station, as they did under his predecessor, the Roman Catholic chief Loyola or Standing Grizzly . They refused to share a reservation with other tribes, although numerous Flathead and Spokane lived with them. In 1872 they turned down a treaty offer, and in 1874 Congress ended its treaty policy entirely. In 1875 around 400 Indians lived here, who largely stayed out of the wars of the 1850s.

In 1864, the Northern Pacific Railroad acquired land rights in their area. In 1881 there were already more than 120 km of track on Lake Pend Oreille. The railroad sold their land to white settlers, so in 1884 Chief Victor demanded compensation for the stolen land. Nevertheless, in 1886 the land surveys continued, and a group of 63 Kalispel, led by Chief Michel , agreed in 1887, in the face of concentrated troops, to sell their land and go to the Flathead Reservation . Marcella , Victor's son and successor, refused, however, and asked for his own reservation. His tribe sat mainly on the east bank of the Pend Oreille opposite Usk . Settlement pressure from white immigrants continued to rise, however, and so in 1914 a separate reserve was set up for the tribe, whose membership was estimated at around 100 in 1911. It was not until 1924 and 1933 that there were larger settlements.

language

Their language, the Kalispel (Qlispé / Qalispé), is a dialect of the Montana Salish ( npoqínišcn-qlispé-séliš , also: Kalispel – Pend d'Oreille , Kalispel – Spokane – Flathead or Spokane – Kalispel – Bitterroot Salish – Upper Pend d ' Oreille ) and is one of the southern inland Salish languages ; other dialects are the Npoqínišcn of the Spokane (Sqeliz) and the Séliš (Salish) of the Flathead (Bitterroot Salish) .

The three groups of Kalispel also spoke slightly different dialect variants:

Todays situation

The Lower Kalispel, however, lived in the Kalispel Indian Community, Kalispel Reservation . However, this reserve was not established until March 23, 1914. It is located around 60 km north of Spokane on the Pend Oreille. In 1989 232 people lived there.

In 1934, the Lower Kalispel accepted the Indian Reorganization Act with a 36-2 vote. In 1939 the Kalispel Indian Council , their tribal council, was established. The tribal constitution was revised in 1967. In 1974 they submitted to the Indian agent of the Spokane Indian Agency - before that they belonged to the Northern Idaho Indian Agency with regard to tribal jurisdiction .

In 1963, the tribe received $ 3 million for 2,247,000 acres of land lost . Together with 24 other tribes from the northwest, the Kalispel sued the Indian agency in 1970 for mismanagement. In 1981 they received $ 114,127.80 in compensation for this. In reparation for the total loss of the strip of land on the Pend Oreille River between Usk and Cusick, which was approximately 10 miles long and on which the Box Canyon Dam was built in 1955 , the promise of compensation by the Supreme Court . 436 acres of land have already been approved for a wildlife sanctuary. The tribe, along with other Upper Columbia tribes, developed a management plan to protect the area. At the same time, the Lower Kalispel bred buffalo again.

In 1965, only one Kalispel had graduated from high school , and tribal gatherings needed an interpreter . Only one house had running water, the annual income was $ 1,400 per capita, and there was a single telephone. In 1974 the Lower Kalispel received 12 buffaloes from the US Park Service . In 1979 the tribe set up their first general store called Sen-tu-me, but, like Kalispel Metal Products, which was founded in 1974, it was only able to last until 1984. In 1987 the Kalispel Agricultural Enterprise was founded as an organization for buffalo breeding . In 1993 the herd again consisted of 100 animals.

In 1996 the reserve was enlarged by 40 acres of trust land in Airway Heights . Since 1998 the tribe has received compensation for the use of its land through the Box Canyon reservoir. The Northern Quest Casino opened in 2001, expanded in 2004 and a wellness center followed in Usk the next year.

Reservations

Today the Upper Kalispel tribe belongs to the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes of the Flathead Nation , which consists of four ethnic groups . Most of what is now the Upper Kalispel Reservation is northwest of Newport in Washington . It is an area of ​​18.638 km² along the Pend Oreille west of the Washington- Idaho border . In addition, there is a small area of ​​0.202 km² near Spokane , more precisely in Airway Heights . There is the Northern Quest Casino operated by the tribe .

Most of the Lower Kalispel today have their own reserve, about 60 km north of Spokane on the Pend Oreille, and now form the Kalispel Tribe of Indians . In 2000, 202 people lived in the reserve. Another, significantly smaller group of the Lower Kalispel , is now part of the Coeur d'Alene Tribe together with the Coeur d'Alene (Schitsu'umsh or Skitswish) .

The Chewelah are now part of the Spokane Tribe of Indians as the Chewelah Band of Indians together with the dominant Lower Spokane .

See also

literature

  • Robert C. Carriker: The Kalispel People , Phoenix, Arizona: Indian Tribal Series 1973
  • John Fahey: The Kalispel Indians , Norman: University of Oklahoma Press 1986.
  • Robert H. Ruby / John A. Brown: A Guide to the Indian Tribes of the Pacific Northwest , University of Oklahoma Press 1992, pp. 86-89

Web links

supporting documents

  1. ↑ Formerly called Horse Plains or Wild Horse Plains , as the grass plains around the city used to be a popular winter quarters for the herds of horses of the local Indian tribes
  2. ↑ The name Missoula itself is derived from the Salish word "nmesuletk", which roughly means "place of frozen water" and probably refers to Lake Missoula , a prehistoric lake in western Montana.
  3. ↑ Kalispel Reservation, Washington , United States Census Bureau, archive.org, June 8, 2011.