The present-day town of Pateros, Washington, at the confluence of the Methow and Columbia Rivers, was part of the traditional territory of the Methow Indians, one of the Indian nations that are now on the Colville Reservation. One section of the Memorial Park in Pateros is dedicated to the Methow Indians. The Methow Monument was created with input from tribal members and descendants.
The Methow today are one of the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation. The map shown above shown above shows the traditional territories of the Colville tribes.
According to the display:
“The Methow Monument educational park was created to honor the indigenous Methow people who lived in the Methow Valley for thousands of years.”
For millions of years the Methow Valley was covered by the vast ice sheets of the Ice Age. These glaciers carved out the U-shaped Methow. The story of the Methow people began when the Ice Age ended, and the ice retreated. According to the display:
“Over ten thousand years ago, the ice receded and people settled along this shoreline and into the surrounding valleys. They were the first ancestors of the Methow people who live in this region since the end of the last ice age.”
With regard to language, Methow is a part of the Columbian sub-group of the Plateau Group of the larger Salish language family and is most closely related to Chelan, Columbia, Entiat, and Wenatchee.
For the Indian people living along the Columbia River, salmon were an important resource. It has been estimated that among the Columbia River tribes, an individual would consume 400 to 800 pounds of salmon each year. Salmon provided about 40 percent of the total calories.
Shown above is a sculpture by the renown Colville artist Virgil “Smoker” Marchand showing spearing salmon from horseback.
Another view of the sculpture.
Along the Columbia River there was a spring Chinook (Onchorhyncus tschawytscha) run from March to May, a summer Chinook run in June, and a fall Chinook run in August and September. There was a Coho salmon (Onchorhyncus kisutch) in the fall and a Sockeye salmon (Onchorhyncus nerkai) in June.
According to the display:
“Eyewitness accounts celebrate a river so full of returning salmon a person could walk across the river on the backs of clustered fish. Methow fisherman harvested salmon by the thousands during seasonal runs. The valuable salmon were dried for winter food and used as a trade currency with neighboring tribes.”
Writing about the processing of salmon in his book Northwest Passage: The Great Columbia River, William Dietrich reports:
“It was roasted, boiled, smoked, or dried into a flaky power that could remain edible for several years.”
Shown above is a sculpture by the renown Colville artist Virgil “Smoker” Marchand showing the drying of the salmon.
Another view of the sculpture.
Salmon was important to the survival of the people and the harvesting of the salmon was organized by special leaders known as Salmon Chiefs. According to the display:
“Methow Salmon Chiefs organized traditional salmon harvests, where the people used sophisticated technologies to sustainably harvest this valuable resource. Sustainable practices ensured equal distribution of the harvest and continued future salmon runs. The people considered salmon their very lifeblood. To this day, Native Americans celebrate the annual salmon return as a continuation of life along the Pacific Northwest rivers.”
Shown above is an old photo of a fishing camp.
Shown above is an old photo of a fish weir.
Shown above is a fire pit used for cooking the salmon.
In 1811, the Astorians (fur traders from John Jacob Astors Pacific Fur Company) established Fort Okanogan upriver from the Methow. With the nearby trading post, Methow hunters exchanged pelts of beaver and other animals for metal pots, guns, ammunition, and other European goods. According to the display:
“Europeans also brought smallpox and other diseases to which the native population had no natural immunity. The viral invasion decimated the Methow tribe. In less than 50 years, 80 percent of the people died.”
During the nineteenth century, it was the policy of the American government to group tribes on reservations so that their land could be given to American settlers. Methow territory was included in the Moses Columbia Reservation created by executive order of President Rutherford Hayes in 1879. According to the display:
“Seven years later, Congress—under pressure by mining interests—opened the reservation to non-Indians and most Methow relocated to the Colville Reservation, established earlier in 1872, along with nearly a dozen other tribes.”
Shown above is one of the old photographs from the display.
Another old photograph from the display.
In 1886, the United States government, in its infinite wisdom, decided that it was important for all Indian people, regardless of their cultural heritage, to become farmers with individually owned parcels of land so that they could acquire the important American cultural trait of greed. Some of the Methow people were given allotments—known as Moses Allotments after the Sinkiuse chief Moses—along the edge of their aboriginal territory.
The map shown above shows the location of these allotments.
Indians 101
Twice each week, on Tuesdays and Thursdays, this series looks at various American Indian topics. More from this series:
Indians 101: Some Plateau Indian Artifacts (Photo Diary)
Indians 101: Some Plateau Baskets (Photo Diary)
Indians 101: Some Plateau Beaded Bags (Art Diary)
Indians 101: Plateau Beadwork (Photo Diary)
Indians 101: Plateau Indian Beadwork at the Maryhill Museum (Photo Diary)
Indians 101: Columbia River Beadwork (Photo Diary)
Indians 101: Plateau Horse Regalia (Photo Diary)
Indians 101: Plateau Indian Cradleboards (Photo Diary)