For thousands of years trade between the many Indian nations of the Plateau region had flourished. The confluence of the Snake and Columbia Rivers—the site of today’s Sacajawea State Park in Washington—often served as a trading center. One of the exhibits in the Sacajawea Museum illustrates the trading networks.
According to one of the museum displays:
“The Plateau people traded with others from all directions. In exchange for their dried salmon, the people bartered for horses, buffalo products, shells and other goods not easily obtained on the Plateau.”
Archaeologist James Keyser, in his book Indian Rock Art of the Columbia Plateau, writes:
“Trade was a key element of the Columbia Plateau economy, it served both to bring items not obtainable locally and also to redistribute food products to area of seasonal scarcity.”
Trade unified the Plateau tribes and united them with their friends in the Northwest Coast. Trade was also carried on with tribes on the Great Plains and in the Great Basin Area. Products which originated in the Plateau area were carried as far as Alaska and California through the well-developed trade routes.
From the coastal areas came shells, canoes, sea mammal furs, whale meat and blubber, dried seal meat, eulachon, cured shellfish, and handcrafted items. From the Plains came buffalo hides, feather bonnets, obsidian, catlinite, buffalo horn, and buckskin clothes.
One of the trade items was salmon pemmican. The dried and pulverized salmon was packed in baskets weighing about 100 pounds each. This salmon pemmican was eagerly sought by the tribes to the west as the salmon here were too fat to produce good pemmican. To the east, the pemmican was traded as far as the Plains.
With the coming of the horse, both the volume and the variety of goods which were traded increased. Previously, trade had been conducted by canoe and by foot and thus trade goods tended to be light. With the horse, not only could heavier goods be carried, but the trade routes were extended overland. With the horse, trade with the Indian nations of the Great Basin increased.
Dentalium shells were used as a medium of exchange. The shells came from the western coast of Vancouver Island (British Columbia) which was in Nuu-cha-nulth (Nootka) territory. The shells were often cut into beads which were then used as trade goods.
Indian trade along the Columbia River also involved slaves. Archaeologist James Keyser notes:
“Many Columbia Plateau groups had slaves, captured directly from other tribes in warfare or obtained through trade (these slaves were almost always initially war captives).”
Regarding slaves in the tribes of the Dalles area, ethnohistorian Robert Boyd, in his book People of the Dalles: the Indians of Wascopam Mission, writes:
“slaves, who were obtained from outside groups, had no local relatives and were thus outside of the social network. They were property, pure and simple.”
Slaves often helped the women in food processing. They would also bring water, make canoes, paddle canoes, build houses, wait on family and guests, and manufacture cloth.
Indians 101
Twice each week, Indians 101 looks at different aspects of American Indian histories, cultures, art, museums, biographies, and current concerns. More about the Plateau Indians from this series:
Indians 101: Plateau Indian Basket Hats and Trinket Baskets (Photo Diary)
Indians 101: Plateau Containers in the Maryhill Museum (Photo Diary)
Indians 101: Plateau Women's Clothing in the High Desert Museum (Photo Diary)
Indians 101: Plateau Indian Reservation Life (Photo Diary)
Indians 101: Plateau Indian Spirituality (Photo Diary)
Indians 101: Plateau Indian Tourist Trade (Photo Diary)
Indians 101: Plateau Indian Names
Indians 101: The Plateau Culture Area