History of Spokane

west of the Rocky Mountains to search for fur. The trappers became the first two white men met by the Spokane tribe, who believed them to be Sama, or sacred, and set the trappers up in the Colville River valley for the winter.

Trading post

The explorer-geographer David Thompson, working as head of the North West Company's Columbia Department, became the first European to explore the Inland Northwest. Crossing what is now the U.S.–Canadian border from British Columbia, Thompson wanted to expand the North West Company further south in search of furs, primarily beaver. After establishing the Kullyspell House and Saleesh House trading posts in what is now Idaho and Montana, Thompson wanted to expand further west. In 1810, Thompson sent out trappers, Jacques Raphael Finlay and Finan McDonald to the Spokane River to build a trading post in eastern Washington that would exchange with the local Spokane and Colville Indians.

At the confluence of the Little Spokane and Spokane, Finlay and McDonald built a new fur trading post, which was the first long-term European settlement in Washington state. This trading post known as the Spokane House, or simply "Spokane", was in operation from 1810 to 1826. The Spokane House, operated by the British North West Company and, later, the Hudson's Bay Company, was the center of the fur trade between the Rockies and the Cascades for 16 years. When the Hudson's Bay Company absorbed the North West Company in 1821, operations at the Spokane House eventually shifted to Fort Colville; afterward the company still remained active near Spokane.

After the last campaign of the Yakima Indian War, the Coeur d'Alene War of 1858, was brought to a close by the actions of Col. George Wright, who won decisive victories against a confederation of tribes in