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Also known as the Pend d'Oreille or Pend d'Oreilles, the Kalispel are indigenous to the Northwest Plateau regions of Washington and Montana.

Their traditional homelands included the drainage systems of the Flathead, Clark Fork, and the Pend Oreille rivers, extending from what is now Plains, Montana, west along the West Fork River, to Lake Pend Oreille and Priest Lake in Idaho, and the Pend Oreille River in eastern Washington, and into British Columbia.

Prior to its colonization by European and European-American people, the Kalispel in several small bands, but they were divided geographically and culturally into two groupings. These are the Upper Kalispel or Upper Pend d'Oreille, commonly referred to as the Pend d'Oreille. They were the upstream people, known in their own language as Kullyspelm or Ql̓ispé (Camas People). The downstream people were the Lower Kalispel or Lower Pend d'Oreille, commonly known as the Kalispel. In their own language, they were known as the Silkatkmlschi or Sɫq̓etkʷmsčin̓t (People Living along the Shore of the Broad Water), a reference to their home along Flathead Lake, or Čɫq̓étkʷ, which translates to "broad water."

Today, the descendants of the Upper Kalispel are enrolled in the federally recognized Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes of the Flathead Nation in Montana, while those of the Lower Kalispel are enrolled in the Kalispel Tribe of Indians in Washington, although some are members of the Coeur d'Alene Tribe in Idaho.

Before the area was colonized by European-Americans, the area that is now Chewelah, Washington was home to a band of Lower Kalispel people. In their language, this band was known as Slet̓éw̓si (Valley People), and their descendants are now part of the Spokane Tribe of Indians in Washington.

The names Pend d'Oreille and Kalispel are often used to refer to both related groups today.

The name Pend d'Oreille was given to the tribe by French traders in reference to the large shell earrings they wore, as it translates to "hangs from ear." The name Kalispel is an anglicization of their name in their own language, Ql̓ispé, which means "Camas people." Their language, Kalispel-Pend d'Oreille, is a Southern Interior Salish language, also known as Flathead-Kalispel.

Camas is a plant whose bulbs are edible and rich in protein. The Kalispel would fire-bake Camas bulbs to produce a nutritious staple to their diet. They were dug up using digging sticks made from elk antlers. Camas was so widespread in the area that one woman could dig a bushel of bulbs in a day from a half-acre site. Unlike most other edible plants, camas roots had to be roasted because their sugar was indigestible until converted to fructose.

With its high sugar content, camas also stored well. At the digging sites, the Kalispel would usually cook the camas in earth ovens, and, since the same camps were used each season, the pit ovens could be reused.

While camas were a staple to their diet, the Kalispel also harvested Indian potatoes, cattail roots, wild celery, garlic, and carrots, as well as Easter lilies, bitterroot, and berries.

As might be expected, given that they lived along the rivers and lakes, their diet depended heavily on fish, which were harvested using fish traps, weirs, and spearing platforms. Many of these were individually owned, but there were also large weir sites that were communally owned by the tribe.

Mule deer and whitetail deer were the most important game animals for the Kalispel. Deer were hunted throughout the year, but venison played a more significant role in their diet during the winter months. Using snowshoes, the hunters were more mobile than the deer during the winter. Caribou and mountain sheep were hunted in some parts of the Kalispel homeland.

In the early to mid-18th century, the Kalispel began to acquire horses. Introduced by the Spanish in New Mexico, horses soon became a valuable trade item, eventually reaching all parts of the continent. The horse allowed the Kalispel to leave their homelands and travel across the Rocky Mountains to hunt buffalo in the Great Plains. Entire families would sometimes leave for Plains in mid-summer, hunt for a few weeks, and then return home. They adopted the use of tipis while traveling, although they lived in lodges during the winter. Their lodges were made from large cattails, which they wove into mats known as tule mats, which were attached to a tree branch frame to form a hut.

The focus of this part of our guide is on the Kalispel people. Topics related to the Kalispel, including their reservations, communities, businesses, industries, schools, medical facilities, programs, and events, are appropriate for this category.

 

 

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