Culture Area: The Plateau

The Plateau
Distinguishing features of the Culture


Area:
• Riverine settlement patterns
• A diverse subsistence base of
andramous fish, game and root
resources
• Kinship ties through intermarriage
• Institutionalized trading partners and
established trading patterns
• Relatively uniform mythology and
The Kootenai River
 The Kootenai River and its
Environs
 The subsistence round:

Spring: Salmon, sturgeon, suckers whitefish and trout
Caught in wicker baskets, traps and weirs. Bitter root and camus


root gathered.

Summer: Usually 2 bison hunts, one in June the other in mid
summer. Join with others such as Coer d’Alene or Spokane for
hunt which would last for weeks.
 Fall: Deer, elk, caribou, moose beaver muskrats, wolf, bear lynx
hunted for meat and furs. Women gathered berries such as
huckleberries and chokecherries, pine nuts, wild onions and
tree lichen. Plants for food, medicine and miscellaneous
household uses.

Winter: Bison hunted on snowshoes
The abundant environment made famine unusual, when occurred


was considered supernatural.


A modern calendar of
Subsistence
 Social life and Organization
• Dwellings: Summer teepees were covered with brush,
skins or matting.Inwinter, extended families would share
a longhouse.
• Marriage: generally informal, but regulated by taboos, i.e.
in-law avoidance. Brothers and sisters-in-law participated
on joling relationships. Polygyny was practiced, also
sororate and levirate.
• Societies: Exact number unknown. Principal societies
include: T

• “Society of Crazy Dogs”- Believed to have been given

power by dog ancestors. Warriors who policed and
maintained order on bison hunts. Also officiated at
Sundance ceremonies. Wives served as “she dogs”.
• Crazy Owl society- Based in shared supernatural
experiences, primary function was to ward off epidemics.
Early 20th Century Kootenai
 Political Organization
• Band leader (general authority): Position
may have originated after contact, a
respected, generous individual believed to hold
spirit power, made decisions and appointed
temporary leaders for specific tasks,i.e. travel
leader.
• Activity leaders (specific authority): fishing,
hunting and fowling leaders chosen for spiritual
power, officiate over activities and related
rituals such as first fruits.
• Social ranks- Band leader, warriors, those with
power from a vision, those without spirit power.
Very few individuals did not have spirit power,
considered unfortunate.
• The two bands of Marsh people are believed to
have only fought defensive wars. The touching
Romantic Image of Kootenai
Woman
 Mythology
• Pre-human World: populated by spirits in
various forms, gave knowledge to humans.
• Connections: to spirit world highly valued.
Particular powers were accorded to specific
animals. Coyote is the trickster. Owl is a
negative spirit, scares children who believe she
could capture them and keep them in her nest.
A water monster is believed to have caused the
great flood of ancient times.
• The ancient monsters are believed to no longer
be on earth, having disappeared when humans
arrived.
•
Coyote the trickster-
transformer
Rock Art Depicting a Successful Vision Quest
circa 4,800B.C.
The Eagle as Guardian Spirit
Twins are believed to hold special spirit
Powers. Often Officiated ay Salmon
Ceremonies
 Mountain Sheep
art may have been a form of sympathetic
magic
 Spedis Owl
Protected bodies of water
 The Petroglyph
Salvaged shortly before the Columbia River flooded
the region in 1956
 Spiritual beliefs and Practices

• A world of earth, water and sky

• Vision quest undertaken by both boys and girls,
usually from age 7 to adolescence
• Purification ceremonies, then child sent into
wilderness, nude at night. If first attempt not
successful, advice sought from sweatlodge and
ritual repeated.
• Spirit helpers remain with an individual for life. As
death nears they leave the body, announcing
the impending death. When the soul leaves the
body it may head west, to encircle the world
and return from the east, or it may hover and
enter the body of a baby abs it is born.
The Vision Quest
Cover of Book: Indian Rock Art of the
Columbia Plateau by James D. Keyser
 Ritual Ceremonies

• “Putting up the blanket”-a collective meeting

of 2 or 3 shamans, who ask questions of spirits
• Grizzly Bear Ceremony-prayer for protection
from bear’s anger, offerings made to bear,
offerings to bear buried. Participants feed on
berries.
• Sun Dance- Spring welcoming of the sun,
distinguished by acts of self mutilation by
potential warriors
• Jump Dance- a “new years” dance to balance
earth and bring good fortune
• Medicine Doings- a modern form of “putting up
the blanket” – a night ceremony conducted by
shamans for healing, divining the future and
solving problems
Sun Dance
Sun Dance
Evidence for cultural change prior to contact

• Lewis and Clark- 1805. Noticed use of trade

goods- beads, kettles, Spanish coins and a
knowledge of “white men”. Occasionally
Plateau natives were captured as slaves and
returned home several years later- may have
brought knowledge from the east.
• Lewis and Clark also noted that some natives had
pockmarked faces and were told that disease
had come “a generation earlier”
• It is believed that the early epidemics increased
native preoccupation with death and spirit
power. Archaeological discontinuities give
evidence that epidemics may have begun as
early as the early 1600s.
• After the Pueblo revolt of 1680, many horses were
set free and traded northward by Ute, Kiowa ,
Comanche and others, reaching southern
Plateau in early 1700s.
 Impact of the Horse
• Expanded range and content of seasonal round
and trade (bison hunts)
• Accelerated spread of epidemics
• Item of wealth and prestige, factor in
differentiating status
• Brought increased numbers of participants for
rituals and ceremonies
• Provided incentive for increase in warfare
• Factor in tribe formation, as bands joined together
as composite bands and then tribes
• Long distance trade routes proliferated, extending
into Spanish California (by late 17thC.)
• Trading patterns and partners became
established both in other regions and among
various Plateau tribes
 Other Factors in Culture Change

• Iroquois migration in 1790, had been converted to

Catholicism and shared this knowledge
• Volcanic eruption in the Cascades in summer of
1800, darkened sky and showered ash over
region for several days
• New religious practices formed, often based in
resurrection experiences of a charismatic
religious leader
• early to mid 1800s, circle dances often included
making the sign of the cross, kneeling and the
confession of sins
• Initial white/native trading initiated in late 1700s.
Fur trade was established by 1811-12
• Increasing numbers of missionaries were arriving
at trading posts to convert natives
• Fur trade brought competition for furs, leading to
jealously guarded hunting areas, inter-tribal
Some consequences of Trading
• Traders offered rewards to those assisting
them, creating inequality within groups
• Political influence based on spirit power vied
with material wealth from outside
• Fur trade increased demand for new
technologies. Traditional spear hunting
gave way to guns and traps, increasing
yield and diminishing supplies. Metal fish
hooks, new paints and dyes, fire-making
equipment, etc. began to take hold within
cultures.
• White traders offered goods at prices lower
than other tribes, disrupting trading
patterns and former allies.
• White trading presence allowed for other
whites to move in, especially missionaries.
 Factors in Culture Change, continued
• By 1840s fur trade nearly ended-number of pelts had dropped significantly, world market for
beaver pelts had plummeted, increasing distrust among natives of fur traders, Hudson
Bay Traders began exploiting other resources such as timber and fish for export
• From mid 1830’s onward Catholic missionaries in region (1840 among Lower Kootenai, who
were converted by 1845). Protestants less successful at evangelizing, in 1847 massacre
of Dr. Marcus Whitman by Cayuse of southern Plateau, who identified the white outsiders
with disease
• 1862- devastating smallpox epidemic reduced native population by approximately one
third(60,000-40,000 in Plateau region, D.Walker)
• The failure of native rituals to protect the people, and of shamans to cure the disease,
increased interest in what appeared to be the more powerful ways of whites. Whites did
not fall victim to epidemics as did the natives. They used this to their advantage.
• Priests especially abhorred traditions of shamanistic healing, polygamy and gambling.
• Among Lower Kootenai, converted native leaders such as Three Moons, and especially his
successors, Thomas and Moses, used coercive techniques-flogging, confinement, etc.- to
force natives to abandon traditional spirituality.
• Many Plateau tribes confined to reservations after 1855, resentments grew and brought a
revival of traditions, altered by historic conditions and circumstances.
• Smohalla, from eastern Washington rejected white ways, initiated Dreamer religion, known
as the first Ghost Dance-strong influence throughout region, spread from tribe to tribe
into Plains and westward to
• 1855 11 treaties negotiated in Plateau and reservations established, Lower Kootenai
encouraged to move onto Flathead Reservation, many would not leave homelands.
1855-1855 marked by warfare throughout region.
• Reservations mandated agriculture, occupational training, hospitals, schools, etc.
• Some received alloted lands through Dawes act 1887
• What happened in 1974? (3day war, see previous post)
• Growing tourist industry and casino economy
• Ktunaxa increasing used as self designation
Smohalla
Riverine wildlife refuge
Kootenai Tribe
Kootenai Tribe Working to Restore Sturgeon Populations
http://indiancountrynews.net/index.php?
option=com_content&task=view&id=7175&Itemid=1
 IGRA
http://www.nigc.gov/LawsRegulations/IndianGamingRegulatory
Act/tabid/605/Default.aspx

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 1987 that states



had no regulatory control over gaming conducted

on Indian land (California v. Cabazon). Following
that decision, several states, led by Las Vegas
gaming interests, reversed their opposition to
IGRA and urged its passage as a way to have
some control. Congress consented in 1988 and
IGRA, after being amended to give states more
regulatory control though compact negotiations,
became law. IGRA recognized the right of tribes to
conduct similar gaming on tribal land in states
where such gaming is permitted outside the
reservation for any other purpose.


IGRA grew out of challenges posed by FL Seminoles



conducting high stakes bingo games on

reservation lands