We the People: Before contact with Europeans, ‘Creator blessed the Spokan with all the things they needed’

In the We the People series, The Spokesman-Review examines a question from the Naturalization Test immigrants must pass to become United States citizens. In this installment, we use an earlier spelling of Spokan in some instances because that was the spelling used by Chief Garry, the first Spokane tribal member who read and wrote English.

Today’s question: Who lived in America before the Europeans arrived? (Official answer: Native Americans or American Indians.)

The people known today as the Spokane Tribe of Indians historically lived along the banks of the Spokane River. Where the city of Spokane sits today was one of the primary sites for them to live.

Spokans were semi-nomadic river people, hunting, fishing, picking and gathering from approximately 3 million acres of Eastern Washington. They believed creator had placed them here to live upon, care for and protect this land.

Sixty percent of their diet came from the river itself in the form of salmon, steelhead, shellfish and eel. Plants such as the camas roots rose from the region’s rich soils. Some appeared from what others call scablands – but to tribal people, these lands, too, were filled with life-giving foods. Along the drainages and upon the mountains grew plentiful types of berries. Creator blessed the Spokan with all of these things they needed. Most years, their storehouses and food caches were filled, prepared for the long Northwest winters.

Native American history is America’s history, but for many years, its truths and trauma failed to be retold, never making its way into mainstream history lessons. History, after all, typically is written by the victors.

Not too long ago, the United States government still actively sought ways to rid the landscape of any signs that Native Americans existed. The official U.S. policy to terminate Native American tribes and their governments didn’t change until the 1970s as President Richard Nixon officially ended the Termination Era. Nixon and some members of Congress then better understood the tribes, their history and the U.S. efforts.

Prior to the arrival of the first white Europeans on Spokan land, Spokans moved through the seasons following the foods as they presented themselves to the people.

The first foods to appear were the sunflower and bitterroot. These typically grew close to winter camps near the river system. Creator asked a few things of the tribal people; one of these was to always remember to be thankful to the plants and animal spirits as they give up their lives so the tribal people could continue to live on. This was to be done through songs, ceremony and prayer.

The Spokan tribe was broken down into many bands and family groups, each having a chief, sub-chief or head family leader. Winter camp was their primary living location, often called ceremony camp, as more ceremonies took place here than at any other location. Their social patterns bound them together. Their strength was stabilized by their elders, who were the knowledge keepers and gave guidance on many matters. The tribe required that all elders be paid respect and that traditions and their culture guide them through their lives. A man’s name was built upon what he gave and shared with others, and not what he possessed. Everyone in the band or family group had their position and jobs, and when every person did their job and you could rely on all others and they upon you, life was good.

As spring arrived and the summer suns were approaching, it would be time to break up winter camp. Soon, they would need to move other seasonal locations. Women and children dispersed to the root fields, men typically went to prepare fish weirs where fish could be corralled and collected, and platforms were readied for the salmon to fill the river. Nature had its calendar, and it let the Spokan know where they should be.

When the mourning dove’s call was heard, they understood salmon had left the ocean and were on their way back to Spokan waters. The rising of the sun, too, was a marker. When it rose at a certain point on the horizon, it told them it was time to go. Every band or family group had locations they preferred to gather and harvest all that they needed.

Major Spokane River fishing areas became large gathering and economic hubs for the region’s tribes. At fishing sites, during fishing time, Salmon Chiefs took responsibility of all that occurred. They made sure the salmon ceremony was performed and that everyone who arrived shared equally in the catch. During the 1800s, these sites grew from populations of 100 to 150 to 1,000 to 2,000 visitors. One thing was always well understood: when another tribe came into your country to get their winter’s supply, permission must be first asked and then granted prior to entry. If not, a fight would take place.

Fishing and gathering season meant huge social gatherings were taking place. One of these locations was the Spokan Falls. Excitement filled the air, and welcoming words were shouted out as others began to fill the camps. Fish weirs, platforms and fish drying racks were all a part of the scene.

In 1973, as the city of Spokane prepared to welcome the world to its world’s fair, Expo ‘74, the Spokane Tribe during a planning session listened to its chairman as they overlooked the falls. Alex Sherwood spoke these words: “My father and grandfather used to tell me how it was before the white man came, when, right below where we are standing, Indians from all over would gather every year for the annual salmon fishery. It was beautiful then, with thousands coming for many miles. You could hear the shouting welcomes as they arrived, the dancing, the singing, the trading, the games, the races, always the hearty hugs – and the fish! The fish sometimes so thick it seemed that they filled the river.”

Prior to the establishment of the city of Spokane, the rivers were great fisheries. Fishing occurred throughout the spring and into the fall, and the Spokane River attracted four types of fish runs.

The first to return home from the ocean after a 4,000-mile journey was the spring chinook, then came the steelhead, summer chinook and sockeye.

David Douglas, a famous botanist after whom the Douglas fir was named, traveled through this area in 1826 and wrote about what he saw: “Seventeen hundred salmon were taken this day, now 2 o’clock, how many more may still be in the snare I do not know, fifteen and sometimes 2000 salmon are taken in the course of a day.”

Spokan people throughout their ancient history had no written words. They relied upon an oral tradition. Speelya stories (Coyote stories) were told, some telling how the world was formed or how the drainages were carved. Other stories built a strong social structure; why to always respect one’s elders and, if not, what would happen; to always be a giving and sharing person, and if one wasn’t, what would occur. Other stories reminded one why and how to remain a good neighbor and human being. Stories could mean something different for each listener to decipher, at times finding a different strength depending upon where he or she was in their station of life at that time.

At times, spring gatherings witnessed the return of those who had gone to buffalo – to hunt bison – in Montana. These folks left the previous fall and were now bringing back the red meat and heavy hide of the buffalo. Another group would be sent during the spring to return the next fall. Chief Spokan Garry made his last buffalo trip to Montana in 1866.

The Spokan had many stories. One such story told of the first Spokan to arrive at Spokan Falls. Today’s scientific evidence of carbon dating tells us tribal people had been at a village site where Hangman Creek enters the Spokane River for no less than 8,000 years. One-hundred miles to the south, Kennewick Man, whose remains were found in 1996, was identified to be 9,000 years old.

In 1902, a Spokane chief named Lot became friends with an Indian Agent named R.D. Gwydir. When Gwidir was about to leave the country, Chief Whistle-poo-sum (spelled by some sources as Whistle-Possum), later baptized and named Chief Lot, wanted to give him a gift, which came in the form of a story. Lot asked if he wanted to know how the Spokans first came to this site, where they were sitting in downtown Spokane.

Gwydir wrote:

“Whis-tel-po-sum (Lot), chief of one of the three Spokane tribes of Indians, one of the best and most truthful Indians that I have ever met with, gave me, amongst others, a traditional history of Spokane and the country surrounding it, which as well as I can remember, was as follows:

Centuries ago, long before the paleface was known on this continent, where Spokane is now situated and for many days’ travel east of it, was an immense and beautiful lake, with many islands resting on its surface. The country swarmed with game and the lake abounded with fish – veritably a hunter’s paradise. Many well-populated villages lay along the shores of the lake.

One summer morning the entire population were startled by the rumbling and shaking of the earth. The waters of the lake began raising, and pitching, and tossed into mountainous waves, which threatened to engulf the entire country. To add to the horrors of the situation, the sun became obscured by an eclipse, and darkness added its horrors to the scene.

The terror-stricken inhabitants fled to the hills for safety. The shaking of the earth continued for two days, when a rain of ashes began to fall, and so heavy was the fall of them that there was little difference between day and night. The fall of ashes continued for several weeks. The game abandoned the country, the waters of the lake receded and dry land filled its place, and desolation spread over the entire country. The Indians died by thousands from starvation. The remnant who escaped starvation followed the course of the receding waters until they arrived at the Falls (now Spokane).

Gwydir continued: “… After this prosperity smiled upon them and continued to do so until the coming of the palefaced race, whom they could not snare like the predator, and who proved the worst devil of the two, for he left them nothing – their present condition.”

First white footprints

Word arrived that there were new people living where the sun rises far to the east. In 1806, these new people arrived, first in Shoshone country, then in the Nez Perce; it was told they were seeking the big waters that lay far to the west.

The first white men to set foot in Spokane Country were French fur traders. In 1807, David Thompson arrived and sent Jaco Finley to establish a fur trading outpost for the Northwest Fur Trading Company, which he did in 1810. The site they selected was already an economic hub for the Spokans. The Spokane House was situated between the Little Spokane and Spokane Rivers. During a 1916 interview of Moses Phillips, Thomas Garry, John Stevens William Three Mountain and others stated: “In these times the Spokans had two Chiefs. They were brothers. One was called Chief Moon and Sun-Illm Spokan. This was the father of Spokane Garry. The other Chief was called Daylight, Skul-holt.”

The tribes began to change almost immediately. The fur traders brought items that the Spokan wanted, and what the Frenchmen wanted was furs, lots of them. In the same 1916 interview, it was told, “When the Frenchmen first came they took out a pocket knife with two blades, one open and one half open, and said to the Indians that if they did not listen to them and do as they asked the knife would cut off their lives and that unless the Indians gave the white furs the knife would cut off their lives.”

A horse culture

Horses first arrived in the Pacific Northwest around 1710. After Hernán Cortez and the Spanish empire invaded Mexico in 1519 and wiped away the Aztecs, they moved north riding upon their horses. When the tribes of the lower country (Arizona, New Mexico and California) tired of these newcomers, they drove them away, but the horses remained, and large horse herds developed. Then, over the next 150 years, they became a trade item.

Spokans were already a horse culture by the time the French fur traders arrived. But with these people, a new breed of horses arrived, thus from this point forward, these horses were called the Frenchman’s horses. These horses were taller and longer.

With the horse came more trade; now, tribes could move faster and farther than ever before. Sadly, not only was it the white man’s horse that entered Spokane country, it was their diseases. European disease that never existed on this continent had arrived.

By the arrival of Finley in 1810, the population of Northwest tribes had been decimated. At times, whole villages were wiped out. In the 1916 interview, those living at that time repeated what the old one told them: “A number of wonderful strangers was coming to the place where they live … Indians thought that if these wonderful Frenchmen came they would die no more.” Sadly, upon arrival of the fur traders and, later, homesteaders, only more disease arrived, and not the cure they hoped for.