Palus (tribe)

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Palouse-Colville Family (1905)
University of Washington Digital Collections

The Palus are recognized in the Treaty of 1855 with the Yakimas (negotiated at the Walla Walla Treaty Council) as one of the original 14 Tribes and Bands of today's Yakama Nation. The Palus tribe is also represented by descendants who comprise one of twelve aboriginal tribes enrolled in the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation mostly comprised of Salishan speaking peoples and their descendants. A variant spelling is Palouse which was the source of the name for the fertile prairie of Washington and Idaho.

1 Ethnography
2 History
3 Bibliography
4 See also
5 External links

[edit] Ethnography

The people are one of the Sahaptin speaking groups of Native Americans living on the Columbia Plateau in eastern Washington, northeastern Oregon, and North Central Idaho.

Sahaptin Tribal delegates
Washington D.C. 1899
University of Washington Digital Collections

[edit] History

The people of the region lived in three main groups, the Upper, Middle, and Lower bands. Traditional lands included areas around waterways such as the Columbia, Snake and Palouse Rivers.

The ancestral people were nomadic, following food sources during the seasons. The Palus people gathered with other native peoples for activities such as food gathering, hunting, feasting, trading, and celebrations that included dancing, sports and gambling. They lived near other groups including the Nez Perce, Wanapum, Walla Walla, and Yakama peoples.

In October 1805, Lewis and Clark met with the tribe, although most were away from the area for fall food gathering and hunting. Diaries of the Corps of Discovery show the people as a separate and distinct group from the Nez Perce.

The people were expert horsemen and the term Appaloosa is probably a derivation of the term Palouse horse. Hundreds of tribal horses were slaughtered to cripple the tribe during the Indian Wars in the mid to late nineteenth century.

Fishing at Palouse Falls (1855)
University of Washington Digital Collections

[edit] Bibliography

Trafzer, Clifford E., and Richard D. Scheuerman. Renegade Tribe: The Palouse Indians and the Invasion of the Inland Pacific Northwest. Pullman, WA.: Washington State University Press, 1986.