Native American languages of Idaho

Idaho, a state in the western region of the United States of America, hosts a large number of Native Americans who have traditionally lived in the northern expanses of the Great Basin and the Rocky Mountains. There are five Native American languages that are spoken by recognized tribes of Idaho, two of which fall under the Uto-Aztecan languages classification, while the other three fall under three other language families that are associated with linguistic regions to the west and east of Idaho.

Distribution

There are five Native American languages currently spoken in Idaho. Population estimates are based on figures from Ethnologue and U.S. Census data, as given in sub-pages below. The five languages are shown in the table below:

Language	Classification	Number of Speakers	Total Ethnic Population	Tribe(s) Included	Location(s) in Idaho	Significant External Populations
Coeur d'Alene	Salishan: Interior: Southern	5	2,000	Coeur d'Alene	Coeur d'Alene Reservation
Northern Paiute	Uto-Aztecan: Numic: Western Numic	700	5,000	Northern Paiute, Bannock	Duck Valley Indian Reservation, Fort Hall Indian Reservation	Nevada
Shoshone	Uto-Aztecan: Numic: Central Numic	2,000	12,300	Western Shoshone, Northern Shoshone	Duck Valley Indian Reservation, Fort Hall Indian Reservation	Nevada, Wyoming, Utah
Nez Perce	Plateau Penutian: Sahaptian	100	3,000	Nez Perce	Nez Perce Indian Reservation	Washington
Kootenai	Language Isolate	100	2,000	Ktunaxa: Lower Kootenay	Kootenai Indian Reservation	British Columbia, Montana, Washington

See also

• Native Americans in the United States
• Indigenous peoples of the Great Basin
• Indigenous languages of the Americas
• Uto-Aztecan languages
• Kootenai language
• Salishan languages
• Plateau Penutian languages

References