Sinkaietk

The Sinkaietk (derived from sinEqāie'tku - 'People of the water that does not freeze' or 'People along the Lower Okanogan River ', also called Lower or Southern Okanagon - Lower or Southern Okanagon ) form one together with the Incamip of the Northern Okanagon of the 12 historic tribes in Washington state that now form the Colville Confederated Tribes. Their traditional area was at the confluence of the Columbia and Okanogan Rivers and in the Lower Okanagan River Valley .

The tribal First Nations , which still live in their traditional homeland in the Canadian province of British Columbia north of the Sinkaietk , are commonly referred to as the Okanagan in Canada - but by the Americans as the Northern Okanagon ('Northern Okanagon') or simply Okanagon .

The Okanagan call themselves in their language Nsyilxcen (n-seel-ick-CHEEN) as Syilx - 'people' or 'people'. The word Syilx has several roots: Yil literally denotes the production of a rope ( i.e. a tribe unit) from several individual fibers (people), the x at the end of Syilx has a demanding character, which repeatedly reflects the unity of the people from the individual tribe members demands.

Culture

Culturally they are close to the plateau tribes of the Palouse and Nez Percé and since they belong to the inland Salish , they are linguistically and culturally the Colville (also Scheulpi , Chualpay or Swhy-ayl-puh ), Nespelem , Sanpoil , Sinixt (often Lakes or Arrow Lakes Band , derived from the Arrow Lakes in British Columbia), Wenatchi , Chelan , Entiat , Methow and Sinkiuse -Columbia similar. Together with the named tribes, they now live in the Colville Reservation in Okanogan County in east Washington and form the current tribal group of the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation

Groups or bands of the Sinkaietk

• Kartar ( skata'rEx - 'People living at a strip of brush', named after their largest winter settlement kata'rux , lived in the river valleys from Omak Lake to the Columbia River)
• Konkonelp ( sku'nqwunɫEp , named after their largest winter settlement of the same name (also qō'nqōniɫp ), owned winter settlements around 5 km above Malott to the knee of the Okanagan River near Omak )
• Tukoratum ( stEkora'tuk , also as snEkekum'tci'naux - 'People at the mouth of the river' (people at the mouth of the river), derived from their largest winter settlement nEkEkum'tci'n , their winter settlements stretched between Condon's Ferry on the Columbia River and the confluence of the Okanagan River up to 7 km above Monse)
• Tonasket (named after their chief Tonasket, formerly known as sqwauxōlō's , after their largest winter settlement qwauxōlō's , had their winter settlements between Riverside and Tonasket )
• Inkami'p ('People at the head of the lake' (Volk am Seeanfang)), derived from their largest winter settlement of the same name, the southernmost group of the Northern Okanogan , lived directly north of the Tonasket in winter settlements on the east bank of Osoyoos Lake in British Columbia to the south after Tonasket)

history

As for most inland Salish , horse hunting for the Sinkaietk had shaped their culture since the 18th century. They rode into the prairies to hunt bison . The total is estimated at around a thousand tribal members for 1780.

According to oral tradition, there were disputes with the neighboring Sinkiuse and the Spokane . This is borne out by a report by Hudson's Bay Company employee David Thompson , who dissuaded some of them from raiding the Sinkaietk. His colleague Alexander Ross , who was staying in Fort Okanogan , built in 1811 , mocked the polygamy that was widespread among the Sinkaietk .

In November 1838, Sinkaietk and other groups met with Catholic missionaries under the leadership of François Norbert Blanchet and Modest Demers in Colville. Around the same time, they met Reverend Henry Spalding of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions in Lapwai, northwest Idaho . It was set up as the first foreign mission of the USA in 1812 and had campaigned against the expulsion of the Indians from the areas east of the Mississippi (see Path of Tears ).

In 1846, the United States and Great Britain split up the Oregon Territory, thereby cutting up the tribal area. The group remaining in US territory led Chief Tonasket. However, the majority of the tribe stayed in Canada. Today the Okanagan Nation Alliance exists , which represents the tribal groups on both sides of the border.

The Sinkaietk did not participate in the Treaty of Walla Walla, nor did they take part in the Yakima War from 1855 to 1856. Their chief Walking Grizzly-bear prevented them from participating, but Sinkaietk were involved in the murder of six gold diggers that took place south of the today's Tomasket took place. In September there was fighting with the troops of Colonel George Wright. In 1870 their number was estimated at only 161 people.

After the end of the war, the US government appointed chief Moses, who was not recognized by the Sinkaietk, to lead the Moses reservation . She was particularly upset that he was demanding taxes from white cattle owners who let their cattle graze on the Sinkaietk land. After the reserve was dissolved in 1884, some Sinkaietk remained east of the Okanogan River in the former reserve area under the leadership of Chief Tonasket. Another group, who did not get along well with the American administration, moved to an area west of the river.

Another Sinkaietk group in the Nicola Valley , named after the Okanagag chief Nicola (also as Nkwala or N'kwala ) (1780/1785 - ~ 1865), joined the alliance formed by Nicola between the Scw'exmxcin - Dialect group of the Nlaka'pamux (also known as Swxexmx or Nicola (s) ), the Tk'emlúps Indian Band of the Secwepemc and the Stu'wix ('foreigners' - the now extinct North Athapaskan- speaking Nicola or Thompson River Athapasques ) in Nicola Valley in the northwest of the traditional tribal area and calls itself Spaxomin (also Spahomin ). Today they form together with descendants of the Swxexmx and Stu'wix the Upper Nicola Band and are politically with other First Nations / bands of the Scw'exmxcin dialect group in the Nicola Tribal Association (NTA) (until 1988 Nicola Valley Indian Administration , until 1996 Nicola Valley Tribal Council , also known as Nicola Tribal Council ) as well as with other Okanagan First Nations / bands in the Okanagan Nation Alliance (ONA) (also Okanagan Nation Tribal Council ). Today they count 866 tribal members and live about 16 km² in eight reserves around two larger settlements - Douglas Lake ('Spaxomin') and Nicola Lake ('Quilchena') - their administrative seat is about 45 km east of Merritt and 90 km south of Kamloops in the Nicola Valley.

In 1906 there were 348 Sinkaietk, in 1959 there were only 91 “pure” Sinkaietk in the reserve and 34 outside. Today the Sinkaietk are heavily mixed with the tribes of the Colville Reservation .

See also

• History of the Coastal Salish
• History of Washington
• United States Indian Policy

literature

• Robert H. Ruby / John A. Brown: A Guide to the Indian Tribes of the Pacific Northwest , University of Oklahoma Press 1992, pp. 202-204
• Leslie Spier, Walter B. Cline, Rachel S. Commons, and May Mandelbaum: The Sinkaietk or Southern Okanagon of Washington , Menasha, Wisconsin: George Banta Publishing Co. 1938

Web links

• Okanagan Nation Alliance
• Okanagan First Peoples
• Traditional tribal area of ​​the Okanagan (PDF file; 290 kB)
• Coastal Salish and Inland Salish tribal areas
• Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation website

Remarks

1. ↑ since the Sinkaietk called the Lower Okanogan River nuqaie'tku - 'water that does not freeze'
2. ↑ The Syilx People ( Memento of the original from July 11, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
3. ^ Report Prepared for The Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation by LLyn De Danaan, Ph.D., July 2002
4. ↑ the neighboring Spokane called him Hwistesmetxe'qen - 'border Grizzly'
5. ↑ The Swxexmx ('people along the brooks', derived from Scw'ex - 'Bach', the name for the Nicola River, are a subgroup (as well as dialect group) of the Nlaka'pamux which form the Shackan First Nation , Lower Nicola First Nation , Nooaitch First Nation and Coldwater Indian Band and together with the neighboring Upper Nicola First Nation (or Spaxomin , also Spahomin ) the Okanagan of the eastern Upper Nicola Valley are usually referred to as Nicola or Nicolas )
6. ↑ Homepage of the Upper Nicola Band ( Memento of the original from October 22, 2001 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
7. ^ Website of the Nicola Tribal Association (NTA)
8. ↑ Website of the Okanagan Nation Alliance (ONA) ( Memento of the original from October 1, 2013 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 notice.