Compose a 1750 words assignment on plateau people: the pre-contact way of life, the contact way of life and colonialism. Needs to be plagiarism free!

Compose a 1750 words assignment on plateau people: the pre-contact way of life, the contact way of life and colonialism. Needs to be plagiarism free! A significant population of what constituted the plateau people now occupies western Montana, Central and Southern Interior of British Columbia, eastern Oregon, northern Idaho, eastern Washington, and northeastern parts of California. The history of the plateau people is well documented, starting from the pre-contact period, the contact period, the colonial, and the post-colonial period. In my view, what could be largely inferred from the history is that eventual contact and colonization is what to blame for the woes of the plateau aboriginal population and that there is little to celebrate from the historical developments, as far as the aboriginal perspective is concerned. The woes can still be felt even today.

It is argued that as many as 24 groups of people lived in the Plateau. However, the most well documented and dominant groups included the Flathead, Klamath Nez Perce, Yakima, and Modoc, yet most of these groups dominantly spoke the Salishan. Other dominant forms of communication included the Algonquian language, as well as an Athapaskan language. The groups occupying the central and the Southern parts of the plateau spoke Penutian language. Politically, before the pre-contact period, the Plateau people were organized in villages, which were considered as the political units. The principal political figures were the political chiefs, positions that were often considered to be hereditary (Pritzker 67).

Some groups were led by specialized chefs, such as the salmon chiefs and the war chiefs. Every village comprised of the council. The villages were organized in units that lived in peace, implying that war was never a pursuit that was considered important. Socially, the extended family was perceived as the main social unit of the family. Divisions of labor were largely governed by sex, for instance, men did hunting and trading. Economically, the groups were mobile. The plateau societies dwelled in large permanent villages in the course of winter and would be fed with stored food. In other harsh seasons, there would be migrations.