The Kalispel Reservation is located near Usk and Cusick, WA (čmq̓ʷoqnú), located in the heart of the Kalispel Tribe’s territory.  The aboriginal lands of the Kalispels spanned from northeast Washington north into British Columbia and east through the Idaho panhandle and into Western Montana. 

Traditionally, the Kalispel people (Qlispélixʷ) had many camping areas along the Pend Oreille River (ntx̣ʷetkʷ).  The waterway served as a vital transportation corridor and provided the Tribe with an abundance of natural resources, fish, and plentiful camas meadows.

In the mid-nineteenth century, non-Indian encroachment influenced Kalispel lifeways.  Jesuit missionaries (q̓ʷaylqs) introduced the tribe to Catholicism and established the St. Ignatius Mission among them.  Due to the harsh winters and constant spring flooding, the Jesuits eventually moved the mission to Montana’s Flathead Valley.  Some of the Kalispels followed them. 

Around the mid-1850s, many Tribes in the region entered into treaties with the federal government that ceded much of their territory and led to the establishment of reservations.  The Lower Kalispel, however, never entered into a treaty. Under Chief Victor’s leadership, the Kalispel people remained along the Pend Oreille River.

In 1914, President Woodrow Wilson recognized the Kalispel people when he signed an executive order establishing the Kalispel Reservation.  Originally spanning 4,629 acres, the reservation included the long-inhabited winter village (Sč̓iʔe) across the Pend Oreille River from Cusick, WA. 

In 1938, the Kalispel Tribe organized under the terms of the Indian Reorganization Act and established its current government, which is still in place today. 

As the tribe explains, Kalispel history “is defined by old tradition and a long affiliation with the land we still call home.”

Credits and Sources:

Bamonte, Tony, and Susan Schaeffer Bamonte. History of Pend Oreille County. Spokane, Wash.: Tornado Publications, 1996.

Davis, Mary B. Native America in the Twentieth Century: An Encyclopedia. New York: Routledge, 2014.

Kalispell Tribe of Indians. Past, Present, and Future. http://kalispeltribe.com/our-tribe/past-present-future.

Lahren, Jr., Sylvester L., “Kalispel” Handbook of North American Indians, Plateau, Vol. 12, ed. Deward W. Walker, Jr., and William C. Sturtevant. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution, 1998.

Photographs courtesy of Northwestern University Library, Edward S. Curtis's "The North American Indian," 2003, http://digital.library.northwestern.edu/curtis/ and The Kalispel Tribe of Indians.

Prepared by Historical Research Associates, with assistance from the Kalispel Tribe. Audio narration by J. R. Bluff of the Kalispel Tribe’s Cultural Program.