Palouse Indians

The culture and history of the Palouse Indians of the Columbia Plateau have been influenced by migration and immigration since the beginning of known time. Migration is a part of Palouse creation stories, still shared by the people, and the traditional cultural life of Palouse people included a great deal of migration from one area to the next. Palouse Indians migrated in seasonal rounds to hunt, gather, and fish in various places in the broader Northwest, and enemy Indians sometimes migrated to the Palouse country to raid and fight, thus influencing Palouse people. However, the immigration of non-Natives to the Pacific Northwest in the 19th century significantly influenced the course of Palouse history, particularly after the United States forced treaties on the people, established reservations, forced Indian removal, and fought two wars against them. Palouse history has been greatly influenced by the migration of non-Indians and their resettlement of the Columbia Plateau, forcing free Palouse people to migrate to one of several northwestern reservations where they live today.

Migration and movement is central to the creation stories of Palouse Indians. They believe that their history began with the first creation, a time when animate and inanimate beings interacted with each other, conversing, marrying, and creating offspring. The first creation took place before the arrival of humans, but the “plant and animal” people of the era made the earth ready for human habitation. The laws of the people emerged from experiences related in song and story, knowledge and ways of life that the first people passed on to the Palouse and other Indians of the Columbia Plateau. At this time of Palouse history, the creative powers set the world into motion, making the birds and animals migrate from place to place. Creative powers made the earth move and set the stars into the sky. These same powers told the ducks and geese to migrate north and south, and they taught the salmon to move from the Pacific Ocean into the rivers where the salmon people gave their lives so that their young could be born. The creative powers instructed the tiny smolts to return to the ocean, traveling backward with their heads pointing upstream so that they could one day return to complete their life cycle and create the next generation of salmon. Palouse stories emphasized the migration of species, the cyclical movement of the heavenly bodies, and the changing of the seasons. According to traditional Palouse law, migration and movement had to occur and be a part of life on earth.

At the beginning of time, Coyote acted as an agent of creation. He was and is a migrating person, known for his travels within the Palouse world and many other worlds. Coyote caused positive and negative actions to occur, representing the ability of Palouses to do positive or negative things in their lives. Coyote created many aspects of Palouse Indian culture, including the “law” that the people, animals, rivers, and celestial bodies must always migrate. Coyote contributed to the changing seasons and the creation of mountains and valleys, lakes and rivers. At one point, creative powers instructed Coyote to become a salmon chief and lead the salmon people out of the Pacific Ocean into specific river systems of the Northwest. Coyote also migrated about the Columbia Plateau planting bitterroot, camas, khouse, and other nutritious roots that would provide sustenance to Palouses and their neighbors. Coyote established the law of root grounds, which required people to move from place to place to gather roots. In a similar fashion, Coyote planted berry bushes, medicinal plants, basketry material, trees for bows, and mosses that the people would need to survive. Coyote put animals on earth. He created the great, undulating Palouse hills of eastern Washington and western Idaho, the heart of Palouse country that includes a large portion of present-day southeastern Washington on lands the Palouse shared with the Nez Perce to the east, Umatillas to the south, Cayuses and Yakamas to the west, and Spokanes and Coeur d’Alenes to the north.

...