Colville

Member of a confederation of 12 American Indian peoples who settled on the Colville Indian Reservation in north-central Washington from 1872. They include descendants of the Colville, Methow, Okanogan, San Poil, Arrow Lakes, Nespelem, Palouse, Moses, Entiat, Wenatchee, Chelan, and Nez Percé of Chief Joseph's band. The majority spoke either a Salishan or Sahaptin dialect, and they shared a nomadic hunter-gatherer culture. Their traditional homelands were the Columbia, Okanogan, Snake, San Poil, and Wallowa rivers in the northwest. Today, most members live on or around the reservation where economic activity is now based on grazing, leasing, and timber sales. They number about 7,800 (2000).

The Okanogan Colville activist Mourning Dove co-founded the Colville Indian Tribal Council in 1930, and the constitution of the Colville was established in 1938. The Colville and their reservation are now governed by the Colville Business Council, a 14-member salaried council elected for a two-year term.