Coast Salish

Timothy Neesam/Flickr

"Coast SAY-lish"

Coast Salish territory has many distinct groups, each with their own name. Ancestral Coast Salish lands surround Puget Sound, and extend north to the Gulf of Georgia, encompassing southeastern Vancouver Island and southern mainland British Columbia.

Population: Approximately 50,000 Language: More than a dozen related languages and dialects in the Salishan language family

In Coast Salish Territory—Seattle Area

Seattle, Washington Metropolitan Seattle is located on the traditional lands of the Dxʷdəwʔabš (Duwamish), a Coast Salish group. Here, Mount Rainier is seen in the background.
L. Valencia

Suquamish, Washington The city of Seattle takes its name from Chief Seattle, a Suquamish and Duwamish leader. Under pressure from the U.S. government, Chief Seattle and 81 other leaders relinquished a huge swath of ancestral land, from Puget Sound north to the Canadian border, in the 1855 Treaty of Point Elliot. But they did not give up their rights to fish there. It took more than a century to uphold these rights in court.
Museum of History & Industry (MOHAI)

Open-sided timber shelter houses a bench and park information.

Suquamish, Washington Here at Old Man House State Park, an enormous longhouse once stood facing the water—according to some estimates, it was between 600 and 1,000 feet long. Chief Seattle lived in the house, the centerpiece of a Suquamish winter village.
E. Willhite

Museum display hall contains sculptures and pottery.

Suquamish, Washington The Suquamish Museum displays various artifacts that were uncovered by archaeologists at the site of Old Man House, the longhouse where Chief Seattle lived.
Braunger-Ullstein Bild/Granger NYC

More than a dozen canoes anchored at the shoreline.

Ballast Island, Seattle, around 1891 Duwamish and other Coast Salish people, the original inhabitants of the Seattle area, were forced out by Euro-American settlement in the 1800s. But they continued to come to Seattle by canoe, bringing shellfish, baskets and other items to sell in city markets. Because they were not allowed to camp or stay within the city limits, they moored their canoes and pitched tents on Ballast Island, which had formed in the harbor from rubble dumped from ships and other landfill.
University of Washington, Special Collections, NA680

Tents line a plank road, brick buildings in the background.

Ballast Island, Seattle, around 1891 In the late 1800s, Coast Salish people camped on Ballast Island, in Seattle’s harbor, while working to harvest hops in the river valleys southeast of the city. A plank road connected the island to Railroad Avenue (today called Alaskan Way) and covered it by the 1890s.
Museum of History & Industry, Anders B. Wilse Collection, 1990.45.14

A group of protestors holding signs stand in front of barracks.

Seattle, Washington In 1970 hundreds of indigenous people in Seattle occupied Fort Lawton—a decommissioned U.S. Army base on land that had originally been Coast Salish territory. Ultimately they won 20 acres within what is now Discovery Park, where they built a cultural center.
Associated Press

Seattle, Washington The Daybreak Star Cultural Center opened in Seattle’s Discovery Park in 1977. It provides an urban base for indigenous people from many communities in the Seattle area. The center was built after Native American activists staged a nonviolent occupation of the land in 1970.
A. Morrison

In Coast Salish Territory—Vancouver

Dancer leaps into the air, while other performers wait on the sideline.

Simon Fraser University, Vancouver, B.C. Here, members of the local dance group Tsatsu stalqayu perform in 2015 at a multi-nation celebration at a Vancouver university. Their name means “Coastal Wolf Pack” to reflect the diversity of Coast Salish groups in this region.
G. Lawson

Woman stands in front of a bar and speaks into a microphone.

Rhizome Café, Vancouver, B.C. The indigenous hip hop scene thrives in Vancouver, where young artists of many First Nations embrace this way to express their perspectives, activate their cultures and speak out on issues of justice and equality. Here, JB the First Lady, who is of Nuxalk and Onondaga heritage, performs.
C. Frampton

Graffiti on the wall in a dimly lit parking lot.

Vancouver Aboriginal Friendship Centre, B.C. People of many First Nations intersect in Vancouver. Here in the parking lot of a community center, Haida artist Corey Bulpitt created a salmon head in a classic design. “I spray paint a lot of work focusing on salmon to raise awareness of their existence within cityscapes where spawning streams have often been blocked off by development,” says Bulpitt.
G. Lawson

Parking lot at dusk, lit by the neon lights of surrounding stores, like Dollarama.

c̓əsnaʔəm (Cesnam), Vancouver, B.C. This strip mall is one of the present-day buildings on the site of the largest ancient village and burial ground of Vancouver’s first people, the Musqueam, a Coast Salish community that still thrives today. The village of c̓əsnaʔəm, later called Marpole, sits near the Fraser River and was first occupied almost 5,000 years ago. The site is of great cultural and archaeological significance.
G. Lawson

Exterior view of the Museum of Anthropology (MOA), with totems visible.

University of British Columbia, Vancouver, B.C. This university museum houses and exhibits historic and contemporary art and cultural expression from Native communities up and down the Northwest Coast. Although located in ancestral Coast Salish territory, its concrete and glass architecture was inspired by the traditional houses of northern nations such as the Haida and Tlingit.
Museum Of Anthropology/The University of British Columbia

Large group of protestors carrying signs march down a city street.

Vancouver, British Columbia. First Nations and allies have protested vigorously over the last decade against a proposed pipeline that would carry crude oil extracted from tar sands in the interior of Canada to the Northwest Coast. There it would be loaded onto tankers bound for Asia. An accident would foul critical waters, harming fisheries and life on the shore. Here, Marilyn Slett, the elected chief councilor of the Heiltsuk Nation (left) and hereditary chief Harvey Humchitt, Sr. (Wigvilhba-Wakas, right) lead protesters in a 2,000-person rally in 2012.
P. Hodgson

From the Collections: Coast Salish Twana basket

Basket

A woman living near Washington State’s Skokomish River wove this basket with a popular design: wolves on the rim and salmon gills on the rest. The bright carrying strap is odd for this soft style basket, which wasn’t made for heavy loads. The strap likely was added later for effect—perhaps to make it more attractive to a potential buyer.

This basket is from Coast Salish territory in Washington State.

AMNH 16.1/1966, acquired 1923

Women carrying a basket stands in a wooded area and prods the forest floor with a wooden digging tool.

This Salish woman carries a stiff basket while digging roots in 1898 near Kamloops, B.C. She uses the strap, called a tumpline, on her head to support the basket.
AMNH Library 42957

Women wearing blankets sit along the shoreline displaying baskets to tourists in western dress.

Weavers in Alaska sell baskets to tourists around 1900. At this time, tourism was already an important source of income for Northwest Coast artists.
Oregon Historical Society

Meanings of Mountains

Snowcapped mountain with tall evergreen trees in the foreground.

Mount Baker, Washington. The Lummi, Nooksack and other Coast Salish people consider Mount Baker to be sacred. Beyond its natural beauty and ecology, they value it for skalalitude—a sacred state of mind engendered here.
R. Bishop/AGE Fotostock

Protestors march in group, one holding a sign that reads "reclaim, rename, reoccupy".

PKOLS (Mount Douglas), Victoria, Vancouver Island, B.C. On the border of the traditional territories of two Coast Salish groups, the W̱SÁNEĆ (Saanich) and Lekwungen (Songhees), Mount Douglas has long been an important meeting place and a site of an historic treaty signing. Chiefs of the two groups and more than 700 supporters marched on the mountain in 2013 to reclaim its original name, PKOLS.
B. Dean

From the Collections: Cowichan Spindle Whorl

Spindle whorl

Quw’utsun’ (Cowichan) women on Vancouver Island attached this disk to a spindle—a wooden rod—to spin fibers into yarn. Spindle whorls add weight and tension to improve the yarn’s twist. Traditionally, Quw’utsun’ women spun mountain goat hair to make blankets. By the 1850s, English and Scottish people introduced domestic sheep to the area. Sheep wool spinning—and sweater knitting—then became new Quw’utsun’ traditions.

This spindle whorl is from Coast Salish territory on Vancouver Island off the coast of mainland British Columbia, Canada.

AMNH 16.1/1865, acquired 1929

Woman sits on a blanket and twirls a spindle to create yarn.

C’elicia, a Musqueam (Coast Salish) weaver, spins with a huge spindle and whorl about the size of this one in 1915.
Royal BC Museum and Archives PN 83

Oversized wooden spindle whorl hangs on the wall.

This giant carved cedar spindle whorl is a work by Musqueam (Coast Salish) master artist Susan Point (E’ixwe’tiye), installed at the Vancouver International Airport.
Vancouver Airport Authority/Larry Goldstein

Fishing Traditions

Woman walks towards the water's edge followed by two girls holding a salmon.

Ambleside Beach, West Vancouver, B.C. All along the Northwest Coast, indigenous people today continue to celebrate the arrival of spawning salmon. Ceremonies differ from place to place, but in general, people ritually prepare and eat the first salmon caught in the spring. Then, in a formal gesture of gratitude, they return the bones to the water as this family is doing.
C. Camm

Four people hold baskets and walk in very shallow water surrounding a canoe.

Sequim Bay, Washington, late 1800s This S’Klallam family is collecting clams in baskets loosely woven from cedar roots. When the tide rises, it will float their finely made canoe.
Jefferson County Historical Society