Spokan A name applied to several small
bodies of Salish on and near Spokane River, north east
Washington. According to Gibbs the name was originally
employed by the Skitswish to designate a band at the forks of
the river, called also Smahoomenaish. by the whites it was
extended to cover several nearly allied divisions, which Gibbs
enumerates as follows: Sin-slik-ho-ish, Sintootoolish,
Sma-hoo-men-a-ish (Spokenish), Skai-schil-t'nish,
ske-chei-a-mouse, Schu-el-stish, Sin-poil-schne, Sin-shee-lish.
The last tow were claimed by the Okinagan also. All of
them are now held to be separate divisions and not bands of one
tribe. The population was estimated by Lewis and Clark in
1805 at 600 in 30 houses, and by Gibbs in 1853 at 450. In 1908
there were 301 "lower Spokan" and 238 "Upper Spokan" under the
Colville agency, Washington, and 95 Spokan on Coeur d'Alene
reservation, Idaho; total 634. In 1909 the entire number
of Spokan in Washington was 509, while those in Idaho numbered
104.
This noted chief, who
presides with almost regal authority over the vast reservation
in Northern Washington named from himself, has had a strange and
romantic history. According to his own story (the matter has
been much disputed) he is of Cherokee birth. He says that when a
child he went with an uncle to Wisconsin. Having been lost by
that uncle, he wandered several years. At last, having made his
way across the Rocky Mountains, staying long enough among the
various tribes to become somewhat acquainted with their various
languages and customs, he brought up among the Spokane. His
ability and strength soon won him the admiring recognition of
the tribe; and by degrees he became the head chief of the
mongrel remnants of tribes between the Spokane and the Columbia.
Some have maintained that he is in reality a white man.
However this may be, it is true that he can speak and write the
language perfectly, and in whatever way he may be approached
shows extraordinary ability and boldness. He has acquired great
wealth in horses and cattle. There are those who hint at dark
and desperate deeds in the grim defiles of his "coulée," which
have supplied him abundantly with gold and jewels. Probably no
one can aver with certainty of this matter; but it is true that
traders and miners have mysteriously disappeared in those rocky
solitudes; and the "king of the coulées" is not known to be in
lack of whatever of gold and wine and women his fiery passions
may crave.
He is now about fifty years old. He is of lofty stature
and giant strength. Aside from the uncanny and searching look of
his restless eyes, he is almost the perfection of barbarous
beauty. There is nothing in his looks to sustain the theory of
his white origin. On account of his oratorical ability and
majestic mien, he has often been called the Webster of the
Columbia.
