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Kalispel (or Pend d'Oreille), Washington (U.S.)

Native American

image by Donald Healy, 9 January 2008

The band
The flag

See also:

The Band

map image by Peter Orenski based on input from Don Healy

Kalispel (or Pend d'Oreille), Washington

The Kalispel are inland members of the Salish people. Their 4,500-acre reservation outside Usk, in the northeastern corner of Washington, is home to some 215 members (NAA, 285; REAI, 34). Their name means "camas", the Salish word for a local plant whose roots served many northwestern Indians as a food source. They have also been called the Pend d'Oreille, French for "earring". Pend Oreille [sic] is the name of the county in which they live and of the Idaho lake at the center of their traditional homelands.

The Flag

The Kalispel flag depicts a tableau of their Pacific Northwest homeland as seen at night. At the bottom a dark blue stripe less than one quarter the width of the flag recalls the fields and valleys of eastern Washington. Above that, a light blue stripe, up to about the center of the flag, depicts a lake or river and may actually stand for the Pend Orielle River or Lake Pend Orielle, the main waterways of their former lands.

In the top half of the flag are dark blue hills topped by dark coniferous forests against a light blue sky. Centered in the top half, a bright golden circle for the moon bears a camas plant with light blue flowers. On the "water" stripe two fishermen in a canoe appear in dark blue, and two white stripes represent "sparkles" of white moonlight.

© Donald Healy 2008
information provided by Peter Orenski, 9 January 2008