Nespelem (people)
The Nespelem (also Nespelim or Nespilim ) are one of the 12 groups that belong to the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Indian Reservation in Washington , recognized as an Indian tribe in the USA . They originally lived on the eponymous Nespelem River , which flows into the Columbia .
They are culturally part of the inland Salish and are closely related to the Sanpoil , who lived a few kilometers further up the coast of Columbia. The name is a self-designation and means "wide, open meadow", "arid hill" or "open prairie".
Under Skolaskin , a prophet, they resisted proselytizing and incorporation into what is now the Colville reservation. Today the Nespelem are largely mixed with the rest of the Colville tribes; there is no longer a separate tribe.
history
Haimisahun, a summer settlement of the Suspiluk on the northern Columbia River, around 800 m above the confluence of the Nespelem, then Masmasalimk, a settlement of the Smasmasalimkuwa, around 2.5 km above Skik, are considered Nespelem villages . The Snekuktshiptimuk lived in Nekuktshiptin on today's Condon's Ferry , also on the north bank of the Columbia. In Nspilem the Snspiluk sat between the waterfalls and the mouth of the Nespelem. The Salkuahuwithlau lived in Salkuahuwithl, opposite today's Barry. About a kilometer above was Skik, where the group of the same name lived. There were also fishing grounds such as Skthlamchin, where the Salkuahuwithlau fished opposite the mouth of the Grand Coulee .
Oral tradition has kept the eruption of Mount St. Helens from 1800 as a heavy shower of ash.
As with the closely related Sanpoil, the USA did not conclude a contract with the Nespelem, so that no Indian agent was active with them . When the Colville Reservation was established, the two tribes on whose territory this was to be done resisted. They refused annual payments and refused to provide information about the number of tribesmen. Their resistance was at the same time religiously based, as the Dreamer religion was widespread, against which Catholic missionaries appeared.
The indigenous religion was strengthened by the earthquake of December 14, 1872. On that day, a rock fell into the Chelan River and dammed the water, so that the villages were flooded extremely quickly. Skolaskin had predicted the disaster and was now harassing the traditional chiefs in the region. However, he left the salmon chiefs, who organized the villages during the fishing season, unmolested. He taught a new god, forbade dancing, and fought the sins of drinking alcohol, gambling and vanity. On Sundays the faces were not allowed to be painted, you weren't even allowed to look at your reflection in the water. He trained missionaries and traveled down the Columbia himself, but had to preach on horseback because he was severely handicapped. He claimed to have traveled to the hereafter and to have been saved by God; he believed in the end of the world and at least once the believers destroyed their fishing tackle.
While the American government, through its agents, negotiated with the various tribes to set up a reservation for several of these groups, the sectarian decisions were also made. Methow , some Spokane and Sanpoil preferred the Protestant denomination and should therefore get a reservation separate from the Catholic tribes. The Indian agent suggested that the six or so leaders of the Indian religion be banished. That would spread enough horror, because an Indian fear nothing more than to be separated from home and family. Chief Quetalikin is a good man, but has lost his influence to the prophet Skolaskin. Skolaskin meanwhile began to build an ark in which the tribe would survive the expected flood . This ark was supposed to measure more than 20 by 50 m, but it was never completed. The tools needed to do this were purchased for cattle and gold, but were not bought from the Colville Reservation Administration because Skolaskin wanted nothing to do with the US government.
Skolaskin vehemently opposed the mission, especially the Catholics who had been working in the region since 1838, a year before the Prophet was born. Protestant missionaries disappeared from the region after the Whitman massacre of 1847. From Kettle Falls , a central inland Salish fishing ground for salmon, the missionaries extended their missionary work to the Sanpoil in 1853 and vaccinated them against smallpox . As the missionaries recognized that protection against smallpox, which did not fall victim to Catholics, while about non-Christian at heart was Spokane hundreds died of it, a strong argument for a baptism. One of the missionary groups from Kettle Falls, however, brought the smallpox up to Colombia, and after that the Sanpoil refrained from baptism and from visiting the mission station at the Kettle Falls at all. A preacher named Slaybebtkud had first preached after 1850 against the evil the whites would bring. Another, also a member of the Upper Skagit , Haheibalth, preached in the 1960s and 1970s. From 1872 onwards, Skolaskin was predominant among the Nespelem for several decades, although the Spokans were skeptical about it.
Skolaskin had around 200 followers. The Sanpoil 1877 were consistently his followers, while the Nespelem were divided. One of the Catholic missionaries reports of 40 "unfaithful" and 35 believers. During the Nez Perce uprising, Skolaskin supporters kept aloof. They were even allowed to continue to purchase weapons and ammunition in Walla Walla. In view of the large number of troops in the US Army, the tribes gave their consent to the establishment of a reservation, the later Colville Reservation. In 1887 the government negotiated with the Nez Percé about their settlement in the Nespelem Valley. Skolaskin's followers were as unwilling to tolerate this new group as they had previously had those of Chief Moses. In negotiations on July 21, 1887, Skolaskin asked why the US government wanted to settle enemy chiefs such as Chief Moses and Chief Joseph in his country. Skolaskin was arrested on November 21, 1889, and taken to Alcatraz in early 1890 . On April 10, 1891, the San Francisco Chronicle published an article that subscribed to calls to return. Skolaskin returned in the middle of the next year.
At the beginning of the 20th century, the government officials also understood that Sanpoil and Nespelem were two separate tribes, although they had always considered them as one tribe until then. Now they were recognized as tribes, if only for the reason that the Sanpoil continued to live traditionally from hunting and fishing, while the Nespelem concentrated on agriculture. They were therefore considered "enterprising" or "industrious", which was probably due to the strong influence of Qui Qui Sha or Nespelem George (1863 to 1929). He was the leader of one of the two families who lived around Nespelem; the second was Johnny Frank. The influence of Nespelem George was so great that, as one of the last Indians to change their way of life and religion completely, Skolaskin wanted to be baptized in basement by Father Celestine Caldi, the Jesuit of St. Rose's Church, in 1918 Nespelem George was supposed to cut long hair personally. Skolaskin died on March 30, 1922.
In 1892 only 62 Nespelem were counted, in 1905 only 41, five years later 46, in 1913 again 43 Nespelim. In 1959 only 25 people were considered "pure" Nespelem, 17 of them lived within the reserve.
literature
- Robert H. Ruby / John A. Brown: A Guide to the Indian Tribes of the Pacific Northwest , University of Oklahoma Press 1992, pp. 143f.
- Robert H. Ruby / John Arthur Brown: Dreamer-Prophets of the Columbia Plateau: Smohalla and Skolaskin , University of Oklahoma Press 2002 ISBN 978-0-8061-3430-7
- Verne Frederick Ray: The Sanpoil and Nespelem. Salishan Peoples of Northeastern Washington , Seattle: University of Washington Press 1933.
See also
Remarks
- ↑ Sanpoil Indian Tribe
- ↑ United States Geological Survey: Mount St. Helens Factsheet
- ^ Ruby / Brown, p. 150.
- ↑ Skokaskin of the Whitestone sanpoil tribe . The grave of Nespelem George is today in the Chief Joseph Cemetery, cf. Chief Nespelem George .
