Colville people
The Colville people are an Interior Salish people and an Indigenous people of the Northwest Plateau.
Today, Colville people are primarily enrolled in the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation, a federally recognized tribe; however, some Colville descendants belong to the Columbia Rivers Indians, an unrecognized tribe.
Name
The name Colville comes from association with the Colville River and Fort Colville, named after Andrew Colvile of the Hudson's Bay Company. Earlier, outsiders often called them Scheulpi, Chualpay, or Swhy-ayl-puh; the French traders called them Les Chaudières in reference to Kettle Falls. The neighboring Coeur d'Alene called them Sqhwiyi̱'ɫpmsh and the Spokane knew them as Sxʷyelpetkʷ. Their name in nselxcin, sx̌ʷýʔłpx, refers to "sharp pointed trees".Territory
In the 18th century, the Colville tribe lived around the Kettle and Columbia rivers in northeastern Washington. They lived between Kettle Falls and the town of Hunters. Their territory went as far north as Almond Creek, where it drains into the Granby River. In the northwest, it reached the divergence of West Fork Cedar Creek from Cedar Creek, down to Marias creek. In the west, it reached Timber Ridge, and in the southwest, it reached Thirteenmile Mountain, down to the Twin Lakes. It extended as far south as Hunters, and followed the Colville River to the east.The tribe's history is tied with Kettle Falls, an important salmon fishing resource, and an important post of the Hudson's Bay Company, which brought the advantages and disadvantages of contact with people of European heritage.
History
18th century
A smallpox epidemic in 1782 killed many Colville people. With the arrival of Europeans and Euro-Americans in their territory, Colville people entered the fur trade.19th century
Christian missionaries entered Colville territory in 1838.In 1846, the Jesuit St. Paul's Mission was established. Through its influence nearly all the upper Columbia tribes were converted to Christianity.
In 1872, the Colville tribe was relocated to the Colville Indian Reservation, an Indian reservation in eastern Washington. It is inhabited and managed by the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation, which is a federally recognized tribe comprising twelve bands. The twelve bands are the Methow, Okanogan, Arrow Lakes, Sanpoil, Colville, Nespelem, Chelan, Entiat, Moses-Columbia, Wenatchi, Nez Perce, and Palus.
20th century
In 1938, the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation was formed under the 1936 Indian Reorganization Act. They reclaimed more of their historical lands in 1956.Population
Mooney estimated the number of the Colville at 1,000 as of 1780, but Lewis and Clark placed it at 2,500, a figure also fixed upon by Teit. In 1870, there were 616; in 1900, 298; in 1904, 321; in 1907, 334; and in 1937, 322.Language
The Colville language or N̓x̌ʷʔiłpcən is one of six dialects of Colville-Okanagan historically spoken by the "Syilx peoples" including Northern Okanagan and Southern/Lower Okanagan, Methow, Sanpoil, Nespelem, Colville, and Sinixt peoples. Syilx is the historic autonym of the Okanagan peoples and today a political term for land and cultural claims for all Colville-Okanagan-speaking peoples.Together with Wenatchee-Columbian, Spokane-Kalispel-Bitterroot, and Coeur d'Alene, Colville-Okanagan belong to the four Southern Interior Salishan languages of the Plateau.
Notable Colville people
- Jim Boyd, musician
- Mourning Dove, author
- Joe Feddersen, artist
- Kimberly Norris Guerrero, actress
- Lawney Reyes artist, curator, and memoirist