Coast Salish languages

Coast Salish languages are a subgroup of the Salishan language family. These languages are spoken by First Nations or Native American peoples inhabiting the territory that is now the southwest coast of British Columbia around the Strait of Georgia and Washington state around Puget Sound. The term "Coast Salish" also refers to the cultures in British Columbia and Washington who speak one of these languages or dialects.

Geography

The Coast Salish languages are spoken around most of the Georgia and Puget Sound Basins, an area that encompasses the sites of the modern-day cities of Vancouver, British Columbia, Seattle, Washington, and others. Archeological evidence indicates that Coast Salish peoples may have inhabited the area as far back as 9000 BCE. What is now Seattle, for example, has been inhabited since the end of the last glacial period (c. 8,000 BCE—10,000 years ago).^[1]

In the past, the Nuxálk (or Bella Coola) of British Columbia's Central Coast have also been considered Coast Salish. This language shares at least one phonological change with Coast Salish (the merger of the Proto-Salish pharyngeal approximants with the uvular fricatives), but it also displays certain similarities to the Interior Salish languages. If it is indeed a member of the Coast Salish branch, it was the first to split off from the rest.

Language group: Peoples speaking a Coast Salish language

Listings are from north to south. Peoples generally inhabited the mentioned watershed and the shores if a body of water is mentioned, as well as further environs. Adjacent tribes or nations often shared adjacent resources and other practices, so boundaries were seldom distinct.

Vancouver Island

Vancouver Island

• Island Comox (Courtenay area, east coast, central Vancouver Island)—K'omox
• Mainland Comox (Sliammon and Homalco), Powell River-Toba Inlet, BC South Coast
• T'souke, Sooke. (southern Vancouver Island) —North Straits Salish
• Snuneymuxw (Nanaimo, southeast Vancouver Island, north of the Saanich)—Hunquminum
• Saanich (Victoria area and north, southeastern Vancouver Island; also north coast of the Olympic Peninsula, Washington)—North Straits Salish
• Somena (Cowichan Valley, west and interior southern Vancouver Island, west of the Snuneymuxw)—Hunquminum

Lower Mainland and Sunshine Coast

Lower Mainland and Sunshine Coast

• Comox (northern Georgia Strait and Toba Inlet, northern Sunshine Coast/Malaspina Peninsula) —K'omox
  • Sliammon
  • Homalco
• Shishalh, Sechelt (Sechelt Peninsula, Jervis Inlet, Skwakwa River, Pender Harbour)—Shishalh
• Sḵwxwú7mesh Squamish (Burrard Inlet, Howe Sound, English Bay, Squamish, Elaho Valley)—Skwxwú7mesh snichim
• Upriver Sto:lo (Upper Fraser Valley)—Halkemeylem or Halqemeylem, see Halkomelem
• Downriver Sto:lo (Lower Fraser Valley-Vancouver)—Hulquminum, see Halkomelem
• Tsawwassen (Delta), lower Fraser River —North Straits Salish.^{[citation needed][2]}

Strait of Juan de Fuca and Puget Sound

Puget Sound, the Strait of Juan de Fuca, excluding Vancouver Island and the Gulf Islands, are categorized north to south but otherwise are alphabetical. Northern Lushootseed is spoken around northern Puget Sound, Southern Lushootseed around central and south Sound.^[3] Before treaties of 1854–1855, more than fifty named tribes existed, each with one or more winter villages and several summer camps as well as traditionally allocated resource sites.^[4]

• Klallam (Strait of Juan de Fuca: Washington and Becher Bay, southern Vancouver Island, BC) —Klallam
• Nooksack, Noxws'a7aq (Nooksack River, Deming, Washington, Northern Straits, Washington, {southeast Strait of Georgia})
• Lummi, Lhaq'temish (Bellingham, Lummi Island, northern Puget Sound)—North Straits Salish
• Samish, Sʼabš (Samish Bay and Lake Samish, northern Puget Sound, east)—Lushootseed
• Skagit (tribe), Sqaĵət (Skagit River, northern Puget Sound, east)—Lushootseed
• Sauk-Suiattle, Suiʼaẋbixʷ (Suiattle and Sauk rivers, northern Puget Sound, east hills)—Lushootseed
• Snohomish (tribe), Sduhubš (northern Puget Sound, east) —Lushootseed
• Swinomish (tribe) (northern Puget Sound, islands and east) —Lushootseed

• Skokomish (Twana) (Skokomish River, western Hood Canal and Portland Canal watersheds, western Puget Sound)—Twana

• Duwamish, Dkhʷ'Duw'Absh and Xacuabš (metropolitan Seattle, central Puget Sound east to blend with the Sammamish) —Lushootseed
• Smulkamish, Green River valley near Enumclaw (south central Puget Sound) —Lushootseed^[5]
• Sammamish, eastern Duwamish (central Puget Sound, east) —Lushootseed
• Snoqualmie, Sduqʷalbixʷ (Snoqualmie River, central Puget Sound, east hills)—Lushootseed
• Stkehlmish sacakałəbš, treaty SK-tahl-mish (north central Puget Sound, east) —Lushootseed
• Suquamish, Suqʷabš (Agate Pass, central Puget Sound, northwest) —Lushootseed
• Nisqually, sqʷaliʼabš (Deschutes and Nisqually rivers, southern Puget Sound)—Lushootseed
• Muckleshoot, bəpubšł, Inland Duwamish (Black, Green, and White rivers, southeast Puget Sound)—Lushootseed
• Puyallup, Spuyaləqəlpubšut (Puyallup River, south southeast Puget Sound)—Lushootseed
• Sahewamish, Sʼəhiwʼabš (southwest Puget Sound, west) —Lushootseed
• Squaxin Island Tribe (Case Inlet, southern Puget Sound) —Lushootseed^[6]

Southwest Washington

• Lower Cowlitz (tribe) (lower Cowlitz River valley) —Cowlitz
• Upper Chehalis (upper Chehalis River valley) — Chehalis language^{[citation needed][7]}
• Lower Chehalis (lower Chehalis River valley) — Chehalis language
• Quinault (tribe) (central Washington coast) —Quinault

See also

• Interior Salish
• Tillamook (extinct Salishan language.)

Notes and references

Bibliography

• Bates, Dawn, Hess, Thom, and Hilbert, Vi; map by Dassow, Laura, 1994, Lushootseed dictionary, University of Washington Press, Seattle and London, ISBN 978-0295973234. (alk. paper) Revised and expanded update of Hess, Thom, Dictionary of Puget Salish (University of Washington Press, 1976). Accessed Sep 24, 2009.
• Boyd, Robert (1999). The Coming of the Spirit of Pestilence: Introduced Infectious Diseases and Population Decline Among Northwest Coast Indians,. Seattle and Vancouver: University of Washington Press and University of British Columbia Press.  ISBN 978-0295978376. (alk. paper)
• Cole, Douglas and Chaikin, Ira (1990). An iron hand upon the people: the law against the potlatch on the Northwest coast. Vancouver and Seattle: Douglas & McIntyre and University of Washington Press.  ISBN 978-0295970509. (acid-free paper)
• Czaykowska-Higgins, Ewa and M. Dale Kinkade (1998) "Salish languages and linguistics" in ibid. (eds.) Salish Languages and Linguistics: Theoretical and Descriptive Perspectives. New York: Mouton de Gruyter, pp. 1–71. ISBN 978-3110154924.
• Dailey, Tom (2006-06-14). "Duwamish-Seattle". "Coast Salish Villages of Puget Sound". http://coastsalishmap.org/new_page_6.htm. Retrieved 2006-04-21. 
  Page links to Village Descriptions Duwamish-Seattle section [2].
  Dailey referenced "Puget Sound Geography" by T. T. Waterman. Washington DC: National Anthropological Archives, mss. [n.d.] [ref. 2];
  Duwamish et al. vs. United States of America, F-275. Washington DC: US Court of Claims, 1927. [ref. 5];
  "Indian Lake Washington" by David Buerge in the Seattle Weekly, 1–7 August 1984 [ref. 8];
  "Seattle Before Seattle" by David Buerge in the Seattle Weekly, 17–23 December 1980. [ref. 9];
  The Puyallup-Nisqually by Marian W. Smith. New York: Columbia University Press, 1940. [ref. 10].
  Recommended start is "Coast Salish Villages of Puget Sound" [3].
• Kroeber, Paul D. (1999) The Salish Language Family: Reconstructing Syntax. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, ISBN 978-0803227408.
• Lange, Greg (2003-02-04 [rewritten since 8 December 2000]). "Smallpox Epidemic of 1862 among Northwest Coast and Puget Sound Indians". HistoryLink.org Essay 5171. http://www.historylink.org/essays/output.cfm?file_id=5171. Retrieved 2006-07-21. 
  Lange referenced a very extensive list.
  Summary article
  • Lange, Greg (2000-12-08). "Smallpox kills 14,000 Northwest Coast Indians from April to December 1862.". HistoryLink.org Essay 3176. http://www.historylink.org/essays/output.cfm?file_id=3176. Retrieved 2006-07-21. 
    Lange referenced Lange, "Smallpox Epidemic of 1862 among Northwest Coast and Puget Sound Indians" [4], HistoryLink.org Online Encyclopedia of Washington State History. Accessed 8 December 2000.
• Miller, Jay (Lenape) (1996). "Seattle (Si'al)". In Hoxie, Frederick E.. Encyclopedia of North American Indians. Boston: Houghton Mifflin. pp. 574–6. ISBN 978-0395669211. 
• "The people and their land". "Puget Sound Native Art and Culture". Seattle Art Museum. 2003-07-04 per "Native Art of the Northwest Coast: Collection Insight". http://www.seattleartmuseum.org/Learn/Teach/SongStorySpeech/Content/SalishArtCulture.htm. Retrieved 2006-04-21. ^{[dead link]}
• Suttles, Wayne; Lane, Barbara (1990-08-20). "South Coast Salish". In Sturtevant, William C.. Handbook of North American Indians. 7. Northwest coast. Washington: Smithsonian Institution. p. 491. ISBN 0-87474-187-4 (v. 7). 
• Talbert, Paul (2006-05-01). "SkEba'kst: The Lake People and Seward Park". The History of Seward Park. SewardPark.org. Archived from the original on 2005-12-14. http://web.archive.org/web/20051214035236/http://www.sewardpark.org/sewardpark/history.html. Retrieved 2006-06-06. 
• Thompson, Lawrence C; Kinkade, M. Dale (1990-08-20). "Languages". In Sturtevant, William C.. Handbook of North American Indians. 7. Northwest coast. Washington: Smithsonian Institution. pp. 30–51.. ISBN 0-87474-187-4 (v. 7).  Wayne Suttles (ed.)

Further reading

• Sarah C. Fletcher, (17 April 2000). "The First Nations of the North West Coast-Coast Salish; Connections to the environment, involvement in conservation." First Nations of the Northwest Coast: Coast Salish
• Tom Dailey. "Coast Salish Villages of Puget Sound", start page.
• Traditional Ecological Knowledge (PDF). "Traditional Ecological Knowledge of the Coast Salish informs modern research and resource management."
• "Coast Salish. Collections: Archeology and Ethnology of the Gulf of Georgia" collection, Province of British Columbia
• "Language Family Trees: Salishan", Ethnologue classification for Salishan.
  • From Gordon, Raymond G., Jr. (ed.), (2005). Ethnologue: Languages of the World, Fifteenth edition. Dallas, Texas: SIL International. Online version: http://www.ethnologue.com/.

External links

• "Salishan Language Family." Native Languages of the Americas website