Palouse
The Palouse are a Native American tribe traditionally located along the lower Snake River and its tributaries in Washington State. Part of the Plateau culture area, they organized into three independent groups and lived in wooden houses during the winter months. Their economy was primarily based on salmon fishing, gathering roots and berries, and hunting, which became increasingly important with the introduction of horses in the mid-1700s, leading to a flourishing horse trading culture. The first significant European contact with the Palouse occurred with the Lewis and Clark expedition in 1804, followed by fur traders, which soon resulted in tensions and resistance to U.S. government encroachments.
Historically, the Palouse resisted relocation to reservations, participating in the Yakama War in the 1850s after being included in the Yakama Treaty negotiations, which they found unsatisfactory. Despite a dwindling population, they maintained a presence on their ancestral lands amidst pressure from White settlers. Following a series of conflicts, many Palouse were ultimately forced to relocate to reservations in Oklahoma Territory and the Colville Reservation. Today, the descendants of the Palouse are associated with the Confederated Tribes and Bands of the Yakama Nation, the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation, and the Nez Perce Tribe, celebrating their heritage and culture through initiatives like the Palus Museum in Dayton, Washington.
Palouse
Category: Tribe
Culture area: Plateau
Language group: Sahaptian
Primary location: Washington State
Traditionally the Palouse lived along the lower Snake River and its tributaries, including the Palouse River. The Palouse are considered a Plateau tribe. They organized into three independent groups and lived in villages during the winter months in wooden houses.
Similar to other Columbia Basin Indians, their economy depended on salmon fishing in the Columbia River, gathering roots (such as the camas) and berries, and hunting. The area in which they lived was arid and flat, broken by steppes. Hunting increased in importance after the horse was introduced in the mid-1700’s. The Palouse became excellent horsemen, and their economy expanded to include horse trading in the early nineteenth century. Their first European American contact was with the Lewis and Clark expedition in 1804, followed by fur traders exploring the area in the early 1800’s. Friction with whites began almost immediately and persisted throughout Palouse history. Of any of the Plateau Indians, the Palouse were the most resistant to U.S. government plans to resettle them on reservations. In one of their initial contacts with fur traders, one of their members was found guilty of stealing from a Pacific Fur Company manager. For this crime the thief was executed, much to the horror of the Palouse and nearby Nez Perce. After the incident, the Palouse and Nez Perce kept their distance from the traders.
Further contact with white people was inevitable as white settlers sought to settle eastern Washington and Oregon. In 1855, Washington Territorial Governor Isaac Stevens held the Walla Walla Council to negotiate with tribes throughout the Columbia Plateau. Stevens wanted to confine the Indians to a limited area and open the region to homesteaders. During the treaty negotiations, the Palouse tribe was considered part of the Yakimas. The council was concluded with the Yakima Treaty. The treaty was signed by Kamiakin, who was chosen Yakima headman by Stevens; it included the Palouse as being one of the signatories who made up the Confederated Tribes of the Yakima Indian Reservation. Kamiakin claimed that he never signed the treaty. The Palouse also had their own representative, Koo-lat-toosa, again appointed by Stevens to act as chief.
Dissatisfied with the treaty, the Palouse joined in the Yakima War, led by Kamiakin, who was part Palouse. Despite defeat in 1856, the Palouse refused to move to the reservation and occupied their ancestral lands, located between the Nez Perce, Umatilla, and Yakima reservations. White settlers, however, wanted the land, and the Palouse population, which had dwindled to less than two hundred, still posed a threat. Some members of the tribe, remembering the Yakima War, did move to either the Yakima, Nez Perce, Warm Springs, or Umatilla reservations, while others remained off the reservation.
In 1863, problems ensued when gold was discovered in the Clearwater River on the Nez Perce reservation. Trying to stave off a gold rush, the government negotiated the Lapwai Treaty with the Nez Perce, in which the Nez Perce ceded more land. Although the nearby Palouse did not sign the treaty, the federal government insisted that they follow treaty provisions. Thus the Palouse were treated as a subtribe of the Nez Perce. Part of the Nez Perce (about one-third), however, did not abide by the treaty and lived off the reservation in the Wallowa Valley. By the 1870’s, white settlers wanted these lands as well, and in 1877, the army ordered Nez Perce Chief Joseph and his tribe to return to the Nez Perce reservation. While moving to the reservation, hostilities occurred and several whites were killed. Chief Joseph and his band of eight hundred, which included a small number of Palouse, fled to Montana and tried to reach Canada. The army defeated them, however, and the remaining Nez Perce and Palouse were forced to move to Oklahoma Territory and finally to the Colville Reservation. Today the Palouse tribe has no official population figures; many Palouse Indians undoubtedly intermarried with surrounding tribes and have thus kept their ancestry alive.