Some notes on Coast Salish

Hello Fellow Docents

Was great to see so many docents and the staff (Stephanie, Paula, Shannon, Carri, Rock) at the Seattle Art Musuem ... next time, we'll wear TAM T-shirts and do the TAM wave !!

I didn't know much about Coast Salish and made some notes from the Wikipedia and other places ... some of you may already know some of this.

(As they say on NPR: Sanjeev is solely responsible for this content. All/any errors are mine.)

I'll post a link to the Microsoft Word document on the Blog.

Regards
Sanjeev
(who is the other kind of "Indian")

Coast Salish

 

The Coast Salish are a Salishan-speaking First Nations/Native American culture that inhabited an area centered in southwestern British Columbia in Canada and western Washington in the United States for several millennia up to the time of arrival of the Europeans in the 19th century.

 

The Coast Salish homeland stretched from the Strait of Georgia north of the Fraser River to the southern end of Puget Sound, encompassing the sites of the modern-day cities of Vancouver, British Columbia and Seattle, Washington. A branch of the Coast Salish, including the Tillamook and related tribes, established themselves on the coast of Oregon south of the Chinookan peoples at the mouth of the Columbia River. Archeological evidence indicates that the Coast Salish may have inhabited the area as far back as 9000 B.C.

 

Villages of the Coast Salish typically consisted of red cedar-planked and earthen-floor longhouses providing habitation for forty or more people, usually related. The villages were typically located near navigable water for easy transportation by dugout canoe. Houses that were part of the same village sometimes stretched for several miles along a river or watercourse.

 

The interior walls of longhouses were typically lined with sleeping platforms. Storage shelves above the platforms held baskets, tools, clothing, and other items. Firewood was stored below the platforms. Mattresses and cushions were constructed woven reed mats and animals skins. Food was hung to dry from the ceiling. The larger houses included partitions to separate families, as well as interior fires with roof slats that functioned as chimneys.

 

The staple of their diet was salmon.

 

The art of the Coast Salish has become a popular idiom for modern art in British Columbia and the Puget Sound area.

 

 

Chinookan (tribe)

 

Chinookan refers to several groups of Native Americans in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. In the early 19th century, the Chinookan peoples lived along the lower and middle Columbia River in present-day Oregon and Washington. The Chinookan tribes were those encountered by the Lewis and Clark Expedition in 1805 on the lower Columbia.

 

Chinookan groups include:

 

* Cathlamet

* Cathlahmahs

* Chilluckittequaw

* Clatsop

* Chahcowah

* Clackama

* Clowwewalla

* Cushook

* Echelut (Wishram-Wasco),

* Killaniuck

* Klickitat

* Multnomah

* Skilloot

* Wahkiakum (Wac-ki-a-cum)

* Wappato

* Wascopan

* Watlata (Cascade or Wishram).

 

Most surviving Chinookan natives live in the towns of Bay Center, Chinook, and Ilwaco in southwest Washington.

 

The term Chinookan also refers to a several languages of two Northwest Coast Native American languages in the Oregon Penutian family: Upper Chinookan (Wishram-Wasco) and Lower Chinookan. Both Chinookan languages are nearly extinct. These languages were the base from which the Chinook Jargon, a pidgin used between different peoples for trading, was created.

 

 

Duwamish (tribe)

 

Duwamish ("the People of the Inside") is a Native American tribe in western Washington. The tribe lives along Elliott Bay, a small section of Puget Sound in Seattle. Chief Seattle was both a member of the Duwamish and Suquamish tribes.

 

The Duwamish language belongs to the Salishan family. Some members of the tribe moved onto their reservation in 1855 after the signing of the Point Elliott Treaty. Unlike many other Northwest Coast indigenous groups, many Duwamish did not move to reservation lands, yet still retian much of their cultural heritage. Like many Northwest Coast natives, the Duwamish relied heavily on fishing for their survival and their livelihood.

 

 

Klallam (tribe)

 

Klallam (also Clallam, although this spelling is disliked by the Klallam community) refers to four distinct but otherwise related bands of Native Americans from western Washington state in the United States and British Columbia in Canada. Three Klallam bands live on the Olympic Peninsula in the far northwest corner (bordering the Strait of Juan de Fuca) of the state and one at Becher Bay on southern Vancouver Island in British Columbia.

 

* Klallam (Lower Elwha) Native American subtribe

* S'Klallam (Jamestown) Native American subtribe

* S'Klallam (Port Gamble, aka Little Boston) Native American subtribe

 

 

Nooksack (tribe)

 

Nooksack is a Native American tribe in western Washington state in the United States. The tribe lives in the mainland northwest corner of the state near the small town of Deming, Washington.

 

The tribe has a one acre (4,000 m²) reservation that was established in 1971 after they received federal recognition status from the United States government. Like most Northwest Coast indigenous peoples, the Nooksack relied on fishing as well as gathering for sustenance.

 

 

Saanich (tribe)

 

Saanich is a Native American group from the north coast of the Olympic Peninsula in Washington and on Vancouver Island in British Columbia.

 

 

Snuneymuxw (tribe)

 

The Snuneymuxw are a First Nation of Coast Salish people. They have lived along the eastern coast of south-central Vancouver Island, British Columbia for 5,000 years. They speak the Hul'qumi'num language.

 

The band's traditional territory covers 980 km², but they share 1040 km² of non-exclusive traditional territory with other First Nations of Canada.

 

The band now lives on four reserves near Nanaimo Harbour and Nanaimo River. The reserves were and are the smallest per capita in British Columbia. The band's population is 1,300, but 65 percent of Sneneymuxw people live off of the reserve.

The Snuneymuxw were involved in the 1850s Douglas Treaties. Today, they continue to negotiate with the Province of British Columbia for treaty rights.

 

 

Suquamish (tribe)

 

Suquamish is a group of Native American peoples from western Washington state in the United States. The Suquamish people settled onto reservation lands after signing the Point Elliott Treaty with the former Washington Territory on January 22, 1855. The reservation's main population lives near Poulsbo, Washington.

 

The Suquamish language belongs to the Salishan family of languages among Northwest Coast indigenous peoples. Like many Northwest Coast natives, the Suquamish relied on fishing from local rivers and Puget Sound for food and built plank houses (longhouses) to protect themselves from the harsh, wet winters west of the Cascade Mountains.

 

The best known member of the Suquamish tribe (who was also by blood part of the Duwamish tribe) was Chief Seattle for whom the city of Seattle is named. Ironically, the "chief" part of his name is attributed to European settlers as the Lushootseed language of the Suquamish people has no word for "chief".

 

 

Salishan languages

 

The Salishan (also Salish) languages are a group of languages of western Canada and the Pacific Northwest of the United States. They are characterised by agglutinativity and astonishing consonant clusters—for instance the Nuxálk word 'he had had a bunchberry plant' is xłp̓x̣ʷłtłpłłskʷc̓ [x ɬp'χʷɬtɬpɬːsk ʷʦ'].

 

Klallam language

 

Klallam (also Clallam) is a Straits Salishan language natively called Nəxʷsƛ̕ay̕əmúcən, spoken by Klallam peoples. Klallam is spoken at Becher Bay on Vancouver Island in British Columbia and across the Strait of Juan de Fuca on the north coast of the Olympic Peninsula in Washington.

 

Klallam is closely related to the Northern Straits dialects (including Saanich).

 

 

Lushootseed language

 

Lushootseed (also Dwləšúcid, Puget Salish, Puget Sound Salish, Skagit-Nisqually) is the language of several Salish Native American groups of modern-day Washington state.

 

Lushootseed, like its neighbour Twana, is in the Southern Coast Salish subgroup of the Salishan family of languages. The language was spoken by many Puget Sound region peoples, including the Duwamish, Suquamish, Squaxin Island Tribe, Nisqually, and Puyallup in the south and the Snohomish, Skagit, and Swinomish in the north.

[edit]

 

Subdivisions

 

Lushootseed consists of two dialect groups which can be further divided into subdialects:

 

    * Northern Lushootseed

          o Snohomish (at Tulalip)

          o Skagit-Swinomish (on Skagit River and on Whidbey Island)

          o Sauk-Suiattle (on Sauk and Suiattle rivers)

    * Southern Lushootseed

          o Skykomish

          o Snoqualmie

          o Suquamish

          o Duwamish

          o Muckleshoot (on Green and White rivers)

          o Puyallup

          o Nisquilly

          o Sahewamish

 

The division into Northern and Southern groups is based on vocabulary and stress patterns. More accurately, the dialects form a cline.

 

Nooksack  Language

 

The Nooksack language belonged to the Salishan family of Native American but became extinct around 1988. In the 1970s the Salishan linguist Brent Galloway worked closely with the last remaining fluent speaker and is currently completing a dictionary of the language.

 

Nuxálk language

 

Nuxálk (also Bella Coola) is a Salishan language spoken in the Canadian town Bella Coola, British Columbia by approximately 20-30 elders. Until recently, the language was also called Bella Coola, but the native designation Nuxálk is now preferred.

 

Chief Seattle

 

Chief Seattle or Sealth of the Suquamish and Duwamish Native American tribes, was born around 1786 on Blake Island in Washington state, and died June 7, 1866 on the Suquamish Reservation at Port Madison (now Bainbridge Island, Washington). His father, Schweabe, was a noble of the Suquamish tribe, and his mother was Scholitza of the Duwamish. Seattle, Washington was named after him.

 

Seattle earned his reputation at a young age as a leader and a warrior, ambushing and defeating groups of enemy raiders coming up the Green River from the Cascade foothills, and attacking the S'Klallam, a powerful tribe living on the north shore of the Olympic Peninsula. He also married well, taking wives from the village of Tola'ltu just southeast of Duwamish Head on Elliott Bay (now part of West Seattle). His first wife died after bearing a daughter. A second wife bore him sons and daughters. After the death of one of his sons, he sought and received baptism in the Roman Catholic Church, probably in 1848 near Olympia, Washington. His children were also baptized and raised in the faith, and his conversion marked his emergence as a leader seeking cooperation with incoming American settlers

 

First Nations of Canada

 

First Nations is a common title used in Canada to describe the various societies of indigenous peoples of North America located in what is now Canada, who are not of Inuit or Métis descent. The proper term for all three groups collectively is Aboriginal peoples in Canada or First Peoples. The First Nations of Canada are represented by the Assembly of First Nations.

 

They have also been known as Indians, Native Americans, Native Canadians, Aboriginal Americans, Amerindians, or Aboriginals, and are officially called Indians in the Indian Act, which defines the status of First Nations, and in the Indian Register, the official record of members of First Nations.

 

The First Nations people of Canada are made up of four main groups, excluding the Inuit and Métis. Each of these main groups contain many tribes, each of which have adapted to their environments which were all slightly different. The four main groups are subdivided by the following geographic areas:

 

    * The Pacific coast and mountains.

    * The Plains.

    * The St. Lawrence valley.

    * The North-East Woodlands (broad region, encompassing the woods near the Atlantic/maritimes to the tree-line in the Arctic).

 

The term is also used to designate bands of aboriginal people for whom reserves have been provided under the Canadian Indian Act. A representative body for Canadian First Nations is the Assembly of First Nations.

 

Long house

 

In archaeology and anthropology, a long house or longhouse is a type of long, narrow single room building built by peoples in various parts of the world including Asia, Europe and North America.

 

Many were built from timber and often represent the earliest form of permanent structure in many cultures. Types include the Neolithic long house of Europe, the Medieval Dartmoor longhouse and the Native American long house

--
Regards,
Sanjeev Narang

***

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