Palus people
|
Palouse-Colville Family (1905) University of Washington Digital Collections | |
| Regions with significant populations | |
|---|---|
 United States (Washington) (Oregon) (Idaho) | |
| Languages | |
| English, Salishan, Sahaptin | |
| Related ethnic groups | |
| Colville, Sanpoil, Nespelem, Sinixt, Wenatchi, Entiat, Methow, Southern Okanagan, Sinkiuse-Columbia, and the Nez Perce of Chief Joseph's band |
The Palus /pəˈluːs/ are a Sahaptin tribe recognized in the Treaty of 1855 with the Yakamas, negotiated at the 1855 Walla Walla Council. A variant spelling is Palouse, which was the source of the name for the fertile prairie of Washington and Idaho. Today they are enrolled in the federally recognized Confederated Tribes and Bands of the Yakama Nation and are represented by the Colville Confederated Tribes.
Ethnography
The people are one of the Sahaptin speaking groups of Native Americans living on the Columbia Plateau in eastern Washington, northeastern Oregon, and North Central Idaho.
The people of the region lived in three main groups, the Upper, Middle, and Lower bands. Traditional lands included areas around waterways such as the Columbia, Snake and Palouse Rivers.
The ancestral people were nomadic, following food sources through the seasons. The Palus people gathered with other native peoples for activities such as food-gathering, hunting, fishing, feasting, trading, and celebrations that included dancing, sports and gambling. They lived near other groups including the Nez Perce, Wanapum, Walla Walla, and Yakama peoples.
In October 1805, Lewis and Clark met with the tribe, although most were away from the area for fall food-gathering and hunting. Lewis and Clark presented one of the expedition's silver peace medals to Chief Kepowhan. The Diaries of the Corps of Discovery describe the people as a separate and distinct group from the Nez Perce.
The people were expert horsemen and the term Appaloosa is probably a derivation of the term Palouse horse. Hundreds of tribal horses were slaughtered to cripple the tribe during the Indian Wars in the latter half of the nineteenth century.
Notable Palus
Upper Palus Chiefs
- Hahtalekin (also known as Taktsoukt Jlppilp - “Echo” or “Red Echo”), chief of the Palus Band (or Palus proper), who lived at the confluence of the Snake River and Palouse River, his band were all of the buffalo-hunter-class, during the flight with the Nez Perce, his following was made up of 16 men.
- Husishusis Kute (Husis Husis Kute, Hush-hush-cute - “Bald Head”, “Naked Head”), was leader and tooat — Medicine man or Shaman, or Prophet — of the Wawawai Band, which roamed beside the Snake River below Lewiston, 50 miles up the Snake River from where the Palouse enters it.
Bibliography
- Chalfant, Stuart A. (1974). Ethnohistorical reports on aboriginal land use and occupancy: Spokan Indians, Palus Indians, Columbia Salish, Wenatchi Salish. Garland Publishing. ISBN 0-8240-0782-4.
- Note: S. A. Chalfant's report was presented before the United States Indian Claims Commission as docket no. 161, 222, 224.
- Manring, Benjamin Franklin (1912). The conquest of the Coeur d'Alenes, Spokanes and Palouses: the expeditions of Colonels E.J. Steptoe and George Wright against the "northern Indians" in 1858. Inland Printing Company.
- Sprague, Roderick (1998). Handbook of North American Indians. Volume 12. Plateau. Smithsonian Institution. pp. 352–359. ISBN 0-16-049514-8.
- Trafzer, Clifford E., and Richard D. Scheuerman. (1986). Renegade Tribe: The Palouse Indians and the Invasion of the Inland Pacific Northwest. Washington State University Press. ISBN 0-87422-028-9.
- Wright, G., Col. (1858). Great battle of the Spokane plains, Washington Territory. Philadelphia Press.
- Note: One and a half columns of text published in the September 23, 1858 issue of The Press, Philadelphia. The newspaper story quotes dispatches sent by Col. G. Wright regarding an "expedition against Northern Indians, camp on the Spokane River, (W.T.), one and a half miles below the Falls, September 6, 1858."
See also
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