The Entiat () are a Native American band of Interior Salish peoples in eastern Washington State. Historically, they lived around the Columbia River to the Cascade Mountains along the drainage system of the Entiat River. Today, they are part of the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation.
The Sintiatqkumuhs band lived on the Columbia between the Entiat River and the Wenatchee River.
Name The Entiat are also called Sintia'tkumuk, Sintiatqkumuhs, Inti-etook, and Intietooks.A Guide to the Indian Tribes of the Pacific Northwest (1992 revised edition)
"Entiat" is the transliteration of the Salishan word /nt'yátkʷ/, [nt'iátkʷ], "place of grassy water", from /na-/, "place", /st'íyaʔ/, "tall grass, hay", and /-atkʷ/, "water".
Colville Reservation The Entiat are citizens of the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation, a federally recognized tribe. It is located on the Colville Indian Reservation in eastern Washington state. The Confederated Tribes have more than 9,000 citizens from 12 historical bands. In addition to the Entiat, the tribes are known in English as the Colville, the Nespelem, the Sanpoil, the Lake (Sinixt), the Palus, the Wenatchi, the Chelan, the Methow, the southern Okanagan, the Sinkiuse-Columbia, and the Nez Perce of Chief Joseph's Band.
Chief La-Hoom (also spelled La Hoompt) signed the Yakima Treaty of 1855, resulting in most of the tribe moving to the Colville Indian Reservation.
Language
The tribe's Entiat language was an Interior Salish language. According to one linguist, it was a dialect of the Nxa?amxcin language. Today, the Entiat speak English.
Population The Entiat enrollment of September 24, 1954, listed 113 Entiat.
Religion Many of the tribe converted to Catholicism after Urban Grassi, a Jesuit priest, built a mission in the area 1870.
References
Further reading Hackenmiller, Tom. Wapato Heritage: The History of the Chelan and Entiat Indians. (Manson, Washington: Point Publishing, 1995).
External links Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation, official website