Three Spokane men first directly encountered Europeans during the Corps of Discovery expedition on May 6, 1806, at which time Meriwether Clark refers to a “nation Called the Skeets-so-mish who reside at the falls of a Small river dischargeing itself into the Columbia on its East Side to the South of the enterance of Clarks river”. The name “Spokane” is often translated as “children of the sun,” most likely stemming from the name of a chief, Illim-Spokanee, first encountered by fur traders, whose name was translated as “Son of the Sun”. Soon after, Spokane House was established as a trading post in 1810 at the confluence of the Spokane and Little Spokane rivers approximately 8 miles northwest of the falls. It was the first long-term, non-Indian settlement in what is now the state of Washington. This was followed by the competing Fort Spokane two years later at the confluence of the Spokane and Columbia rivers 20 miles to the west.

At the time of contact, the Spokane people were divided into three bands: the Lower, Middle, and Upper Spokane. This subdivision may mask a larger number of bands, some of which were decimated or forced to amalgamate either due to European epidemics of infectious disease and/or to defend against westward expansion. Unfortunately, while the area’s major ethnographers such as Ray, Teit, Elmendorf, and Ross generally agree that there were three Spokane Bands, they often disagree on their naming and spatial distribution. Elmendorf, places the Lower Spokane at Little Falls and the Spokane River mouth, the Middle Spokane at Tum Tum and the Little Spokane River, and the Upper Spokane on Latah Creek and Spokane Falls.

Prior to the damming of the Spokane and Columbia rivers in the 20th century, these waterways provided the majority of the Spokanes’ subsistence. Various fish species, especially migrating salmon, had been vital to sustaining life of indigenous people in the Inland Northwest for approximately 5,000 years. Local people were attracted to inland waterways to harvest salmonid species in great numbers in the Columbia and Spokane rivers, including Chinook (Oncorhynchus tschawytscha), sockeye (O. nerka), and steelhead (O. mykiss). Other fish such as sturgeon (Acipenser transmontanus), lamprey eels (Entosphenus tridentatus), suckers (Catostomus sp.), and various species of trout including the redband (O. mykiss gairdnerii) played a smaller part in subsistence pursuits. Researchers estimate the total annual harvest of salmon species by the Upper Columbia River tribes (Coeur d’Alene, Kalispel, Kootenai, and Spokane) was 644,469 fish yielding a total weight of 6.8 million pounds. They also estimate consumption of salmonids by Spokane people at the time of European contact to be 948 pounds per capita. This diet was supplemented by large and medium mammalian species, freshwater mussels, roots, and berries. Mammals include mule and white-tailed deer (Odocoileus hemionus, Odocoileus virginianus), and elk (Cervus elaphas). Freshwater mussel (Margaritifera falcata) beds were also lost to the dams, although the harvesting of some roots (bitter root [Lewisia redivia], camas [Lomatium spp.]), berries (serviceberries [Amelanchier alnifolia], huckleberries [Vaccinium caespitosum]), deer, and elk remain economically important to local tribal people today.

The people of the Spokane Tribe have persevered through loss of land, forced relocation, and loss of their economic and spiritual base (the salmon). They are resilient, and they are thriving.