The meaning of the tribal name Kootenai, also spelled Kootenay and Kutenai and all pronounced KOOT-uh-nay, is unknown. People of this name, discussed as the Upper Kootenai and Lower Kootenai divisions, lived in ancestral territory that is now northwestern Montana, northern Idaho, northeastern Washington State, and southeastern British Columbia.
The Kootenai depended heavily on the waterways in their homeland for food, including Kootenay Lake, Kootenai River, and the upper course of the Columbia River. They used spears, basket traps, and wicker weirs (enclosures) to catch fish. They had both bark canoes and dugouts. They lived in cone-shaped dwellings, with pole frames and rush-mat coverings. They also made watertight baskets from split roots. The tribe is classified in the Plateau Culture Area.
The Kootenai, especially the Upper Kootenai division in Montana, acquired horses through trade with other Indians in the 1700s and adopted many of the customs of PLAINS INDIANS. They ventured east of the Rocky Mountains on seasonal buffalo hunts, during which they lived in buffalo-skin tipis.
The Kootenai language differs from that of the other Penutian-speaking or Salishan-speaking PLATEAU INDI ANS and might be related to the Algonquian language family. There were Algonquian-speaking peoples living near the Kootenai—the BLACKFEET—traditional enemies of the Kootenai, who kept them from expanding their territory eastward.
The Kootenai were friendly toward whites. The Canadian explorer David Thompson, who established trade relations with many tribes for the North West Company, entered their domain in the early 1800s. This fur-trading company, whose headquarters were in Montreal, built a trading post called Kootenai House in 1807.
A Kootenai woman named Kauxuma Nupika (“gone to the spirits”) married a French Canadian named Boisverd, and together they traveled with Thompson. The marriage broke up when Thompson reportedly asked that she leave the expedition for an unknown reason. On her return to her people, Kauxuma claimed that while away she had been transformed into a male and had spiritual powers, assuming the name by which she is known historically. She took a number of wives and fought as a warrior alongside Kootenai men. She also served as a guide to other traders along the Columbia River. Among her own people and other tribes of the region, Kauxuma acted as a shaman and prophet, offering predictions about the coming of greater numbers of non-Indians to the region and epidemics caused by them. In 1837, while acting as a mediator between the Blackfeet and FLATHEAD, she was killed by Blackfeet. Kootenai legend has it that she had the powers to heal most wounds and that she only died after part of her heart was cut out. The legend goes on to say that no animals dared bother her dead body.
When the western international boundary between the United States and Canada was defined once and for all in 1846, the territory of the tribe was divided. Today, some Kootenai live on the Kootenai Reservation in Idaho; others share the Flathead Reservation in Montana with other Sal-ishans under the name of Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes. Still others live on tracts of land in British Columbia. They have retained many of their traditions, including ceremonials, and are active in regional Native American affairs.
Kootenai birch-bark canoe in the “sturgeon-nose” style
World History
