Sanpoil
The Sanpoil (historical self- name Sinpoelihuh , today Nesilextcl'n or N'pooh-le for short ) 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 Sanpoil River , which flows into the Columbia .
They are culturally part of the inland Salish and are closely related to the Nespelem who lived a few kilometers further down the coast of Columbia.
Under Skolaskin , a prophet, they resisted proselytizing and incorporation into what is now the Colville reservation. Today the Sanpoil are largely mixed with the rest of the Colville tribes; there is no longer a separate tribe.
history
The Sanpoil were a relatively large group who lived in numerous villages. Oral tradition contains memories of clashes with the neighboring Yakima , but also Salish groups such as the Spokane and the Sinkiuse . The Sanpoil were considered particularly tenacious in defending their freedom. Their number before the arrival of the first whites is estimated at 800 to 1700.
The fur trader Alexander Henry reported at the beginning of the 19th century that the tribe referred to themselves as "Spoil Ehieh". They very rarely left their area at the confluence of the Sanpoil River in Columbia . The eastern edge of their fishing area was the Spokane River. In 1827 their number was only estimated at 218.
In 1838 they appeared with the Catholic missionaries Francois Blanchet and Modeste Demers at the Kettle Falls .
As with the closely related Nespelem , the USA did not conclude a contract with the Sanpoil, so they did not have an Indian agent. 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.
This 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 combating alcohol consumption, gaming 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 near end of the world.
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. 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 realized, protection against smallpox, to which Catholics did not fall victim, while Spokans who remained non-Christian died by the hundreds, was a weighty argument in favor of 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.
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 Percé uprising, the 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 just as unwilling to tolerate this new group as they did before 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. He had lost all power and Chief Jim James ran the Sanpoil.
At the beginning of the 20th century, government officials understood that Sanpoil and Nespelem were two separate tribes that they had always considered 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. In 1913 there were only 202 Sanpoil left. In 1959 there were 110 “thoroughbred” Sanpoil inside the reserve and another 22 outside.
literature
- Robert H. Ruby / John A. Brown: A Guide to the Indian Tribes of the Pacific Northwest. University of Oklahoma Press 1992, pp. 181-183.
- 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. University of Washington press, Seattle 1933.
- Wilhelm Schmidt: The Sanpoil and Nespelem, tribes of the northeast Selish . Origin of the idea of God. Volume V, 2nd section. The religions of the indigenous peoples IV. 1934
Web links
See also
Remarks
- ↑ Access Genealogy lists: Enthlukaluk, 2.5 km north of the estuary, Hahsulauk (where the Shahsulauhuwa lived), not far from Plum; Hulalst (S-hulalstu), near Whitestone, 11 km above Npuiluk, Hwatsam, 5 km above Snukeilt, Kakamkam, on the islands of the Sanpoil River, just before the mouth; Kathlpuspusten (Kathlpuspustenak), 1.6 km from Plum, on the opposite side of the river; Ketapkunulak, on the banks of the Columbia, east of the Sanpoil River; Naak, (Snaakau), 1.5 km below Plum on the north bank of the river; Nhohogus (fishing grounds deer S-hulalstu); Npokstian, a winter village 3 km above Hwatsam; Npuiluk (Snpuiluk) at the San Poil estuary, which consisted of several camps. Then there was Kethlselchin, located at the first junction before the confluence with the Columbia, west of the Sanpoil River, the winter camp Nthlahoitk (Snpuiluk), in the middle between Skthlamchin and Naak; Saamthlk (Saamthlk), opposite Kathlpuspusten, Skekwilk on the west bank of the Sanpoil, further down towards the confluence with the Columbia is Snputlem on the east bank; Snukeiltk (Snukeiltk) on the west bank of the Columbia River, 3 km from the mouth of the Spokane River; Tkukualkuhun (Stkukualkuhunak), at Rodger's Bar across from Hunters; Tsaktsikskin (Snpuiluk), 1 km below Naak, then Wathlwathlaskin (Swathlwathlaskink), 5 km above Nthlahoitk.