Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation


The Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation is the federally recognized tribe that controls the Colville Indian Reservation, which is located in northeastern Washington, United States. It is the government for its people, who are Interior Salish peoples.
The Confederate Tribes of the Colville Reservation consist of twelve individual tribes. Those tribes are:
  • Arrow Lakes
  • Chelan
  • Colville
  • Entiat
  • Nespelem
  • Okanagan
  • Methow
  • Sinkiuse-Columbia
  • Nez Perce
  • Palus
  • San Poil
  • Wenatchi
The tribes' traditional territories in the Pacific Northwest once encompassed most of what is now known as eastern Washington state and extended into British Columbia, Idaho, and Oregon. Eight of these related bands are the names of rivers that flow off of the eastern slopes of the North Cascades or the Okanogan Highlands. Several of these rivers have small towns or communities where the rivers flow into the Columbia River. Beginning in the Southwest the rivers in order as you go north and then east are the: Wenatchee, Entiat, Chelan, Methow, Okanogan, Nespelem, Sanpoil, and Colville. The Arrow Lakes are upstream on the Columbia River a little ways above the border in British Columbia. The Moses Coulee, Moses-Columbia, is an Ice Age canyon just south of the Columbia River west of Coulee City on U.S. Highway 2. Not to be confused, Coulee City is located in the Grand Coulee, a similar and more famous Ice Age canyon that lies east of the Moses Coulee.
The Nez Perce are the descendants of Chief Joseph band which came from Northeast Oregon. As part of the conditions of surrender, Chief Joseph and his band were not allowed to return to their home in Oregon and were eventually re-located to the Colville reservation after the so-called "Flight of the Nez Perce" in 1877. The Nez Perce are located on the Nez Perce Indian Reservation in West central Idaho along the Clearwater River.
In 1872, the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation was formed by executive order under President Ulysses S. Grant for the purpose of occupying the Colville Reservation. It was a large area encompassing a wide variety of habitats and resources. Later the reservation was reduced, and some of the best lands were excluded, made available for settlement by European Americans.

Notable tribal members