Inchelium, WA

Grand Coulee Dam changed Inchelium's physical location. The Ferry County census-designated place lies on the Colville Indian Reservation, though the older town stood along the Columbia River until the reservoir rose in the early 1940s. Residents moved inland as the water covered the old townsite, leaving a community whose name and connection to the river country survived the relocation. That history places Inchelium within the larger story of Colville lands, communities, and fisheries altered by the dam.

Present-day Inchelium has a strong set of local institutions. Inchelium School District, home of the Hornets, is the public-school center, and a community library and archive operates beside the Inchelium Community Store. A Colville Tribes ferry connects Inchelium with Gifford across Roosevelt Lake, adding a water crossing to the community's regional transportation map. Inchelium also serves as the center of the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation's Inchelium Legislative District. The map that emerges is shaped by tribal government, school, cultural preservation, and a relocated townsite above the water that covered the older one.