Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation

A nation today

Turquoise Diablo Lake below Colonial Peak in North Cascades National Park, the glacial rock-flour color lit by the sun.
Ron Clausen, Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 4.0

Background

Twelve bands compose the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation, and the Tribe's own site names them: Chelan, Chief Joseph Band of Nez Perce, Colville, Entiat, Lakes, Methow, Moses-Columbia, Nespelem, Okanogan, Palus, San Poil and Wenatchi, and gives a total size of 1.4 million acres, or 2,100 square miles. The Tribe's language page states that the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation was established by presidential executive order, and it names four languages the Tribe works in, each with its own name: nsəlxcin, covering Okanogan, Methow, Nespelem, San Poil Lakes and Colville; titoqatimt, covering Nez Perce and Palus; nxaʔamxčín, covering Moses-Columbia, Wenatchee, Entiat and Chelan; and palúšpam, for Palus. A History and Archaeology Program works on Columbia Plateau cultural resource management, covering archaeology, ethnography, history and botany, the preservation of traditional skills, and the rehabilitation and management of collections. North Cascades National Park records that the Chelan people crossed the range to the east by way of Twisp Pass.

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Visit and learn

Colville Tribal Museum

512 Mead Way, Coulee Dam, Washington·museum

The Tribe's own museum page gives its address as 512 Mead Way, Coulee Dam, Washington, its hours as Wednesday through Saturday, 9:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., and its phone number as (509) 633-0751.

https://www.colvilletribes.com/colville-tribal-museum

Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation's own site

Tribal lands have their own laws. Check the nation's site before you visit.

Parks on its homelands

Programs

  • Colville Tribal Language

    The Tribe's language program publishes material in four languages, each listed under the peoples who speak it. The page carries a staff directory, a phonetic alphabet, a dictionary, a curriculum, kinship terms, and teaching pages for calendars, greetings, numbers, colors, animals, the body, tools and the universe, plus a curriculum book in PDF for nsəlxcin, titoqatimt and nxaʔamxčín, and a set of children's stories recorded by Dora ɬaʔ kscaptíkʷɬ and by Seymour.

    https://www.colvilletribes.com/colville-tribal-language·language

  • History and Archaeology Program

    The program specializes in Columbia Plateau cultural resource management, which it lists as archaeology, ethnography, history, botany, preservation of traditional skills, and collections rehabilitation and management. It also runs a Photograph Replication Project on the Upper Columbia River.

    https://www.colvilletribes.com/history-archaeology·preservation

Sources

Checked September 2026.

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