Plateau People
Adib, Brandon, Brian & Ezekiel
Map of Where They Lived
Languages
Athapascan
Interior Salishan
 Tsilhqot'in (Chilcotin)
Secwepemc (Shuswap)
 Carrier
Stl'atl'imx (Lillooet)
 Nicola-Similkameen
Okanagan
(language now extinct)
Nlaka'pamux (Thompson)
Ktunaxa:
 Ktunaxa (Kootenay or Kutenai)
Economy
 The Plateau People would share the food the
gathered and caught with the rest of the village.
 They would trade items such as fish, fur and
weapons with other neighboring villages.
Political Structure
Chief/ Elder
Hunting Chief
Warfare Chief
Fishing Chief
Everyone Else
• It was in a sense a democracy.
• Men voted on all decisions the village made, women
did not.
Diet
 Men were skilled hunters and they were also
responsible for fishing.
 There is a large variety of animals in the Plateau
region. (I.e. salmon, deer, beaver and fox)
 Women were in charge of gathering berries and
roots for food and medicine.
Tools and Weapons
 Many tools were made from
bones, wood and stone.
 Men used nets, pits and game
corals and also drove them over
cliffs or water to spear them
from the canoes.
Ktunaxa fish trap
 Weapons such as: Bow and
Arrow, Harpoons, Spears, Clubs
and Slings were used for
hunting and self defense.
Man fishing with harpoon
Tools: Plateau Culture
Digging Stick
 Used from strong wood, seer antlers and are then
applied a heating technique to harden the material.
 About 2-3 feet in length, with the bottom.
 These sticks were used to gather edible roots like
Camas and Bitterroot.
Weapon: Three Pronged
Fish Spear
 Men set up wodden platforms that hung over the
river and would use spears to catch salmon.
 They mainly used a three prong spear, made of
durable wood with 3 sharp edges.
 Salmon were mainly fished during late summer and
early fall.
Transportation:
Sturgeon Canoe
 The sturgeon-nosed canoe was designed to be most
suitable for travel through bulrushes and
maneuverable in turbulent waters.
 Built from pine trees, birch bark and the rein that
comes from pines.
 Each canoe carries a max of 6 people.
Transportation:
Dugout Canoe
 The Dugout Canoe was built for long distance
transportation
 Since they had to travel far, they had to use high
quialty wood like red cedar, cotton wood and birch.
 Had a max of 8 people
Housing: Tule Mat Lodge
 These kinds of houses were mainly used in the
summer time.
 Tule mat lodges were essentially large, tipis
constructed using the same materials.
 They had a wooden frame, covered with mats of
tule or other grass.
Housing: Pit House
 Pit houses were used mostly during the winter
months, but some may have been used all year.
 A pit house was a shelter buiilt mostly below
ground with an entrance and ladder at the top.
 The walls and frame of the pit house were built with
logs and sealed (for insulation) with dirt and
grasses.
Pit House Continued…
 The roof frame was also made out of wodden poles
and coverd with layers of timber, bark and earth.
 Each pit house had several families living inside
them while only being 8- 10 meters in diameter.
 The chiefs pit house could be twice the size of the
average.
Significant Groups:
Ktunaxa
 Formally know as Kutenai or Kootenay
 Lived along Kootenay River in southeastern British
Columbia, intot Alberta, Idaho and Montana.
 Often crossed Rookies to hunt buffalo.
 Originally living in the Plains area.
Ktunaxa Girl
Significant Groups: Nicola
 Unknown name due to extinction of their language.
 Nlaka’pamux called them “Stuwix” to distinguish
them from others in the Nicola Valley.
 Lived in Nicola Valley of British Columbia.
Creation Story
 The Plateau People believed strongly that there
were spirits inhabiting all living and non-living
things
 Held animals in a high regard
 Creator was the Coyote
 Coyote created everything and everyone and
brought salmon up the river every spring
 A trickster, often compared to the god Loki
Work Cited
 http://firstpeoplesofcanada.com/fp_groups/fp_plateau1.htm
l
 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loki
 http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/aborigin
al-people-plateau/
 http://www.ohs.org/education/oregonhistory/historical_rec
ords/dspDocument.cfm?doc_ID=22DC52CE-C760-A7198EDC1641DAFBA4AC
 http://nativesofcanada.tripod.com/id7.html