Okanagan

The Okanagan people are a subgroup of the Salish linguistic group, who traditionally inhabited the upper basins of the Columbia and Fraser rivers in what is now British Columbia, Canada, and parts of the U.S. states of Washington, Idaho, and Montana. They are considered Plateau Indians, living in a semiarid region characterized by sagebrush, grass, and pine groves, with a reliable food supply from rivers rich in salmon and other fish.1

The Okanagan, along with other Salish groups like the Ntlakapamux and Lillooet, practiced rituals honoring the first foods of spring, such as berries, rather than the first salmon. Their traditional beliefs emphasized animism, shamanism, and individual communion with the spirit world, with rituals like the vision quest and winter spirit dance being significant. The name "Kelowna," a city in British Columbia, is derived from an Indigenous word for "grizzly bear".23