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First Inhabitants: Plateau Neighbors Once the world was all water and God lived alone. He was lonesome and he had no place to put his foot, so he scratched the sand from the bottom and made the land and he made the rocks and he made trees and he made a man and the man was winged and could go anywhere. The man was lonesome and God made a woman. They ate fish from the water and God made the deer and other animals. . . Many more men and women grew up and they lived on the banks of the Great River whose waters were full of salmon. Smohalla, Wanapum prophet, to Major J.W. MacMurray, 1891. Wanapum people residing at the old Priest Rapids campsite, Shapchiltsch, now covered by the waters of the Priest Rapids Reservoir, 1939. For thousands of years, the Wanapum people have lived less than fifty miles from present day Moses Lake in the Priest Rapids area of the Columbia River. The region provided a traditional round of subsistence and community activities. Henry Covington spearing salmon on the Columbia at the mouth of the Sanpoil River. Circa 1910. Photo courtesy of Dr. Robert H. Ruby The Columbia Sinkiuse and their Plateau neighbors often shared common fishing, hunting and berrying grounds. Nearby peoples included the Sanpoil, Nespelem,Okanogan, Spokane, Wenatchee, Methow, and Wanapum.   forward Table of Contents <> Photo Archive Oral History Archive <> Documents Archive <> Bibliography To Top of Moses Lake Exhibit