Native american question

[coosakid]

What exactly was a council house used for?? I was looking on some topo maps of my county and it showed a historical spot about 10 mins away by a creek in a pretty remote spot. Google never give me a good answer. Just wanted to know what the significance of a council house was, was it the center of there village, etc.

 

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[crj1968]

It is where leaders of tribes met to discuss whatever they discussed ..... Council, ID was named for this very reason

 

[coosakid]

That's pretty much what I figured.... I'm guessing it used to be pretty populated in that spot?

 

[crj1968]

Here is a little history on the Idaho "council"

Perry Clark, a member of the Idaho Territorial
Legislature and later an Indian Valley school teacher, said that from
on top of the little hill just north of present-day downtown Council, he
could see ". . . many hundreds of Indians and thousands of head of
Indian horses at one sight, literally covering the valley as a
blanket." Clark never actually lived here, but he named the place
"Council Valley" because of these gatherings that he interpreted as
being Indian "Council" meetings.
The word "council" probably doesn't fit the principal nature of the
native gatherings. Their most important function was probably trade,
but it was also a time to gamble and celebrate the beginning of the
salmon runs up the Weiser River.


http://www.councilmuseum.com/adamhist.html]adamhist


I think it's interesting stuff.......and hard to imagine that it was really just a short time ago.... sad.