Plateau Indianmember of any of the aboriginal North Native American peoples inhabiting the high plateau region between the Rocky Mountains and the coastal mountain system.




Traditional culture


The tribes that speak Salishan languages may be conveniently divided into Northern Plateau and Interior Salish; there are also Coast Salish among the Northwest Coast Indians. The Northern Plateau Salish include the Shuswap, Lillooet, and Nlaka’pamux Ntlakapamux (Thompson) tribes. The Interior Salish live mostly in the Upper Columbia area and include the OkanagonOkanagan, Sinkaietk, Lake, Wenatchee, Sanpoil, Nespelim, Spokan, Kalispel, Pend d’Oreille, Coeur d’Alene, and Flathead peoples. Some early works incorrectly denote all Salishan groups as “Flathead.”

Speakers of Sahaptin languages may be subdivided into three main groups: the Nez Percé, the Cayuse -and Molala, and the Central Sahaptin, comprising the Yakima, Wallawalla, Tenino, Umatilla, and others (see also Sahaptin).


Trade and interaction




Settlement patterns and housing







Subsistence and material culture


Wild plant foods were another important source of nutrition. Roots and bulbs were especially important. The major source of starch was the bulb of the camas flower (Camassia esculenta), which had to be detoxified before it was eaten. Bitterroot, onions, wild carrots, and parsnips were also gathered and were generally cooked in earth ovens heated by hot stones. Berries—serviceberries, huckleberries, blueberries, and others—were harvested as well.

The earliest European explorers in the region reported that Plateau clothing comprised a bark breechcloth or apron and a twined bark poncho that fell a little below the waist; during the cold season men wrapped their legs with fur, women had leggings of hemp, and robes or blankets of rabbit or other fur were used. By the 19th century all Plateau peoples used tailored skin garments, however, clothing had become similar to that seen on the Plains: men wore breechcloths, leggings, and shirts, and women wore leggings and dresses. Hats and other headgear were common. Most men wore headbands, and many Sahaptin women wore twined basket hats. Fur caps and feathered headdresses appeared as contact with the Plains Indians increased.Both sexes braided their hair. Hair was generally braided, and hats, headbands, feathered battle and ceremonial regalia, and other headgear had also become common.


Dugout or bark canoes were useful forms of transportation, although long-distance water travel was limited by the many river rapids in the region. Household tools, weapons, traps, snares, and similar items were Items that were small or could be manufactured by one or two people were typically the property of individuals. On the northern Plateau there were gift-giving ceremonies that were somewhat similar to the potlatches Groups whose territory neighboured that of the Northwest Coast Indians : after some days of games and contests, gifts were distributed to the guests, who reciprocated with presents to their hostsengaged in a variety of redistributive events similar to potlatches. Decorative art consisted of pictographic designs with a symbolic content, referring to supernatural beings and cosmic things.


Political organization

In traditional Plateau societies the village formed the key sociopolitical unit, although the political hierarchy used in governing each village varied from tribe to tribe. The Nlaka’pamuxNtlakapamux, for example, used the informal village meeting as the main forum for decision making; in matters of general interest the consent of all the villagers had to be obtaineda fairly informal consensus system. The Sanpoil, on the other hand, had a more formal political structure: the village had a chief, a subchief, and a general assembly in which every adult had a vote—except for young men who were not married. The Flathead were perhaps the most hierarchical group, with a head chief of great power and band chiefs under him; the head chief decided on matters of peace and war and was not bound by the recommendations of his council.



In some cases, as with the Nez Percé’s transition from settled village life to a more nomadic existence, political organization was adjusted. The Nez Percé were originally a village-centred people. Each village had a male chief whose office was hereditary, although poorly qualified sons were generally passed over for the privilege; the chief was advised by a council and was primarily occupied with mediating disputes, displaying exemplary behaviour, and seeing to the general good of his people. Sometimes groups from several villages came together at fishing sites or camas meadows, and on these occasions the chiefs of the villages constituted an informal council. By the early 19th century, however, families from different villages had begun to coalesce into mobile bands in order to undertake autumn hunts on the Plains. While the hereditary authority of the village chiefs continued, leadership in the new tasks associated with this change in lifestyle—notably travel, defense, and raiding—came under the authority of skilled hunters and fighters.





Childhood and socialization

The life cycle of the individual was marked by fixed ritual acts that opened the gateway to the different social roles he had to enact. These rituals began before birth. Among the Sinkaietk, for example, a pregnant woman was supposed to give birth in a lodge that had been constructed for this purpose. A newborn spent its day strapped in a cradleboard. Naming practices varied among the tribes; in some groups children were given nicknames at birth and more-permanent names at age nine or ten, while in others a naming ceremony took place on the child’s first birthday. The training of the child was left to the mother and grandmother, but even as a small boy a Sinkaietk could accompany his father on fishing and small-game hunting trips, while small girls helped their mothers about the house and in gathering wild foods. Grandparents saw to it that the child was hardened by such practices as bathing in cold streamsChildren learned to be hardy through activities such as swimming in cold streams; such exertions were generally supervised by grandparents. Disobedience was rare. When it did occur, it was sometimes met with corporal punishment; some groups allowed parents to call upon the village whipper when children misbehaved.


Certain rituals were carried out after an individual’s death. Two forms of burial predominated in the Plateau area. Pit burials interred the deceased in sand or gravel near the riverbanks and were often marked with piles of boulders. Rock-slide burials were also located close to the river flats, with a cedar stake as a marker. Cremation burials sometimes occurred in the Yakima valley and at The Dalles and also in the Lillooet-Nlaka’pamux area. The bereaved observed certain taboos. For instance, widows and widowers were supposed to dress poorly and avoid remarriage for as long as a year; polygynous marriages were not suspended during this period, but additions to the marriage were discouraged. There are reports that the house where the death occurred was torn down so that the dead person would not reappear there.To prevent the dead from lingering among the living, some groups demolished homes where death had occurred. Grave sites were often located at riversides, though the specific form of burial—whether the body was intact or cremated, placed on the surface or in the ground, covered with soil or a rockslide, and marked with stones or wood—varied from one tribe to another. For about one year after the death, the decedent’s spouse (or spouses, in polygynous marriages) was expected to demonstrate grief by wearing old or ragged clothing and was also expected to delay remarriage during this period.

Belief systems


The main rituals were the vision quest; the firstling, or first foods, rites; and the winter dance. The vision quest was compulsory for boys and recommended for girls, and it was usually performed in connection with the puberty ceremony. The spirit-beings who granted their blessings to humans were very specialized. Some made their clients into hunters, others into warriors or shamansengaged with humans were thought to guide individuals to particular vocations, such as hunting, warfare, or healing. Both boys and girls could become shamans, though it was seen as a more suitable occupation for the former. Individuals in this profession were much feared and sometimes very wealthy. They cured diseases by extracting a bad spirit or an object that had entered the patient’s body. On the northern Plateau they also brought back souls that had been stolen by the dead and were known to publicize their feats through dramatic pantomimes (see soul loss). Because their work included healing the living and contacting the dead, shamans tended to be both wealthy and respected—and even feared.



Plateau mythology and folklore revolved around a culture hero and transformer, usually personified as Coyote but in some places as Bluejay or another mythical personage. He is a beloved character and acts as creator and trickster at the same time. The Coyote cycle also is well-known in adjacent areas (see trickster tale).

Modern developments


Cultural continuity and change


The 19th century: syncretism and disenfranchisement






The Nez Percé War of 1877 resulted from two otherwise unrelated events: a shady treaty negotiation that ceded some tribal lands and a raid in the Wallowa valley in which four several settlers were killed. Following the raid, the United States ordered all bands of Nez Percé off of the ceded lands, including the Wallowa valley. The band that had remained resident there was led by Chief Joseph and comprised more than 500 individuals, many of them women, children, or elders. Fearing disproportionate reprisals from the military, the band fled. It The group was eventually captured, but only after a three-month chase of more than three months during which the people traveled some 1,400 600–1,700 miles (2,250 575–2,700 km), having nearly reached the safety of the Canadian border.


The 20th century: regaining sovereignty




In the late 20th and early 21st centuries, many Plateau tribes had regrouped from the economic devastation of the previous 100 years or more. Several had added tourist resorts and casinos to their extant timber, ranching, and fishing operations (see Native American gaming). Funds from these enterprises were used for a variety of community purposes, including education, health care, rural development, and cultural preservation. ( See also Native American: History and contemporary life.); Native American: Developments in the late 20th and early 21st centuries.

Although there is no broad synthesis of traditional Plateau cultures, essays considering the cultures and history of the region may be found in William C. Sturtevant (ed.), Handbook of North American Indians, vol. 12, Plateau, ed. by Deward E. Walker, Jr. (1998). Classic texts on the archaeology of the region include Earl H. Swanson, The Emergence of Plateau Culture (1962); and B. Robert Butler, The Old Cordilleran Culture in the Pacific Northwest (1961).

Monographs on single tribes include James A. Teit, The Thompson Indians of British Columbia (1900, reprinted 1975); Herbert Joseph Spinden, The Nez Percé Indians (1908, reprinted 1974); Leslie Spier, Klamath Ethnography (1930, reprinted 1976); Verne F. Ray, The Sanpoil and Nespelem: Salishan Peoples of Northeastern Washington (1933, reprinted 1980); and Leslie Spier (ed.), The Sinkaietk or Southern Okanagon of Washington (1938).

Historical analyses of Plateau peoples and cultures include Deward E. Walker, Jr., Conflict and Schism in Nez Percé Acculturation: A Study of Religion and Politics (1968, reissued 1985); Larry Cebula, Plateau Indians and the Quest for Spiritual Power, 1700–1850 (2003); and Lillian A. Ackerman, A Necessary Balance: Gender and Power Among Indians of the Columbia Plateau (2003).