PEOPLES OF THE PLATEAU The Plateau region was the original home of many American Indian nations This map shows the areas where some of them lived before Europeans arrived in the region Shuswap Shuswap Chilcotin Chilcotin O kana g an O kana g an Kootenai Kootenai Spokane Spokane Pend Pend d’Oreille d’Oreille Spokane Spokane Palouse Palouse Coeur Coeur d’Alene d’Alene Walla Walla Walla Walla Umatilla Umatilla Cayuse Cayuse Nez Perce Nez Perce Flathead Flathead Yakama Yakama Klamath Klamath Modoc Modoc CULTURAL AREAS Northwest Coast California Coast Plateau Plateau NW Coast overlap Plains Great Basin Subarctic Cultural area border International border State province border These families included Dene DEN-ay Salishan SAY-li-shen Sahaptin sah-HAP-tyn Kootenai KOOT-un-nay and Klamath Modoc KLAM-uth MO-dock There are several well-known Plateau nations The Nez Perce nes-PURSE Cayuse ky-YOOS Palouse puh-LOOS Umatilla Yoo-ma-TILL-a Walla Walla WOL-uh WOL-uh and Yakama YAK-uh-muh lived on the Northern Plateau The Pend d’Oreille Pon-duh-RAY also known as the Kalispel KAL-uh-spell Coeur d’Alene kur-duh-LANE Flathead and Spokane spo KAN lived on the Interior Plateau The Klamath and Modoc lived in the southernmost region of the Plateau The Kootenai lived in a region covering parts of British Columbia Idaho and Montana 6
Along with the Kootenai British Columbia was also home to several other nations including the Shuswap SHUH-shwahp Okanagan OH-keh-nah-gan and Chilcotin chil-COH-tin The Plateau peoples were surrounded by the native peoples of the Subarctic the Northwest Coast California the Plains and the Great Basin Each of those cultures influenced the Plateau Indians The southern part of the Plateau overlaps with the northern part of the Great Basin So the cultures of the LANGUAGE FAMILIES OF THE PLATEAU NATIONS LANGUAGE FAMILY MAJOR PEOPLES Klamath-Modoc Modoc Klamath Kootenai Kootenai Sahaptin Salishan Nez Perce Cayuse Palouse Yakama Walla Walla and Umatilla Spokane Pend d’Oreille Coeur d’Alene Flathead Shuswap and Okanagan Dene Chilcotin 7
nations in this overlapping area are similar Plateau peoples met the Plains Indians around the eighteenth century Many of the Plateau nations began following the practices of the Plains Indians These practices included using leather for clothing horse saddles and bridles During the nineteenth century Euro-American explorers fur traders and missionaries came to the Plateau They brought unrest violence and disease to the Plateau nations By 1850 the The Columbia River was important to the livelihood of many Plateau nations 88
population had been cut in half In the nineteenth and twentieth centuries the US government passed laws and made policies that took land and traditions away from the Plateau peoples Many nations were moved to small areas of land called reservations Some fought against becoming part of Euro-American culture But in the end all the Plateau peoples had to leave behind many of their traditional ways of life The Plateau peoples weren’t able to get back some of their lands and rights until the late twentieth century Many are still working to protect the region of their ancestors and to give new life to their cultures A Flathead woman 9
