Okanagan Indians

Ancestral Homeland: Washington and British Columbia

Brief Timeline

 * 1805: Lewis and Clark expedition
 * 1810: John Jacob Astor formed the Pacific Fur Trading Company.
 * 1811: Fur traders came in contact with the tribe
 * 1811-1860: Fort Okanagan established
 * 1813: Fort Astoria (French), re-named Fort George and Fort Okanagan now in British Columbia
 * 1833: smallpox epidemic
 * 1840: many had become "Christianized."
 * 1840-1850's: recurring periods of famine
 * 1847-1855: Cayuse War
 * 1847: French Catholic missionaries - Oblates - arrived in Walla Walla
 * 1858: Caribou gold-rushers
 * 1859: French Catholic missionaries - Oblates - moved to British Columbia and worked with the Okanagan Father Charles Pandosy and Bishop Magloire Blanchet; also worked among the Yakima and Cayuse missions.
 * 1872: Colville Reservation is established
 * 1891: Treaty - not ratified

Webber Jean and En'owkin Center. edited by. Okanagan Sources. Theytus Books Lte. Penticton, B.C.copyright 1990. ISBN 0-919441-33-5

Additional References to the History of the Tribe
Additional details are given in John Swanton's The Indian Tribes of North America.

Important Web Sites

 * Okanagan People Wikipedia