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Palus
Total population
Regions with significant populations
United States (Washington) (Oregon) (Idaho)
Language(s)
English, Salishan, Sahaptin
Religion(s)
Related ethnic groups
Colville, Sanpoil, Nespelem, Sinixt, Wenatchi, Entiat, Methow, Southern Okanagan, Sinkiuse-Columbia, and the Nez Perce of Chief Joseph's Band peoples

Palouse-Colville Family (1905)
University of Washington Digital Collections

For the district in India, see Palus.

The Palus (IPA: /pəˈluːs/) are recognized in the Treaty of 1855 with the Yakamas (negotiated at the Walla Walla Council (1855)) as one of the original 14 Tribes and Bands of today's Yakama Nation. The Palus tribe is also represented by descendants who compose one of twelve aboriginal tribes enrolled in the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation mostly composed of Salishan speaking peoples and their descendants. A variant spelling is Palouse, which was the source of the name for the fertile prairie of Washington and Idaho.

The people are one of the Sahaptin speaking groups of Native Americans living on the Columbia Plateau in eastern Washington, northeastern Oregon, and North Central Idaho.

The people of the region lived in three main groups, the Upper, Middle, and Lower bands. Traditional lands included areas around waterways such as the Columbia, Snake and Palouse Rivers.

The ancestral people were nomadic, following food sources during the seasons. The Palus people gathered with other native peoples for activities such as food gathering, hunting, fishing, feasting, trading, and celebrations that included dancing, sports and gambling. They lived near other groups including the Nez Perce, Wanapum, Walla Walla, and Yakama peoples.

In October 1805, Lewis and Clark met with the tribe, although most were away from the area for fall food gathering and hunting. While there, they presented one of the silver peace medals to Chief Kepowhan. The Diaries of the Corps of Discovery show the people as a separate and distinct group from the Nez Perce.

The people were expert horsemen and the term Appaloosa is probably a derivation of the term Palouse horse. Hundreds of tribal horses were slaughtered to cripple the tribe during the Indian Wars in the mid to late nineteenth century.

Sahaptin Tribal delegates
Washington D.C. 1899
University of Washington Digital Collections

Chalfant, Stuart A. (1974). Ethnohistorical reports on aboriginal land use and occupancy: Spokan Indians, Palus Indians, Columbia Salish, Wenatchi Salish. Garland Publishing. ISBN 0824007824. 

• Note: S. A. Chalfant's report was presented before the United States Indian Claims Commission as docket no. 161, 222, 224.

Manring, Benjamin Franklin (1912). The conquest of the Coeur d'Alenes, Spokanes and Palouses : the expeditions of Colonels E.J. Steptoe and George Wright against the "northern Indians" in 1858. Inland Printing Company. 

Sprague, Roderick (1998). Handbook of North American Indians. Volume 12. Plateau. Smithsonian Institution, 352-359. ISBN 0-14-049514-8. 

Trafzer, Clifford E., and Richard D. Scheuerman. (1986). Renegade Tribe: The Palouse Indians and the Invasion of the Inland Pacific Northwest. Washington State University Press. ISBN 0874220289. 

Wright, G., Col. (1858). Great battle of the Spokane plains, Washington Territory. Philadelphia Press. 

• Note: One and a half columns of text published in the September 23rd, 1858 issue of the The Press, Philadelphia. The newspaper story quotes dispatches sent by Col. G. Wright regarding an "expedition against Northern Indians, camp on the Spokane River, (W.T.), one and a half miles below the Falls, September 6, 1858."

• Spokane-Coeur d'Alene-Paloos War
• Yakima War
• Cayuse War
• Okanagan Trail

• Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation
• National Geographic article