At the height of Okanagan Syilx culture, about 3,000 years ago, it is estimated that 12,000 people lived in this valley and surrounding areas. The Syilx employed an adaptive strategy, moving within traditional areas throughout the year to fish, hunt, or collect food, while in the winter months, they lived in semi-permanent
villages of
kekulis, a type of pithouse. In Nsyilxcn pit house is q̓ʷc̓iʔ. When the
Oregon Treaty partitioned the
Pacific Northwest in 1846, the portion of the tribe remaining in what became
Washington Territory reorganized under
Chief Tonasket as a separate group from the majority of the Syilx, whose communities remain in Canada. The bounds of Syilx territory are roughly the basin of
Okanagan Lake and the
Okanagan River, plus the basin of the
Similkameen River to the west of the
Okanagan valley, and some of the uppermost valley of the
Nicola River. The various Syilx communities in
British Columbia and
Washington form the
Okanagan Nation Alliance, a border-spanning organization which includes American-side Syilx residents in the
Colville Indian Reservation, where the Syilx are sometimes known as Colvilles. ==Governments==