The Northwest Coast Indian peoples, who lived in the Pacific Northwest, can be classified into four units, or “provinces.” The northern province includes speakers of Tlingit, Haida, Tsimshian, and the Tsimshian-influenced Haisla (northernmost Heiltsuq or Kwakiutl). As English and French settlers and pioneers made their way to region in the 1800’s, Chinook Wawa grew to be the lingua franca for the fur trade, and of the Cascadia bioregion, and many elements in the pidgin’s vocabulary, such as potluck, sasquatch and others can still be seen in Cascadian English today. It is thought to have originated among the Northwest Coast Indians, especially the Chinook and the Nuu-chah-nulth (Nootka) peoples. Using the Salish Sea, rivers and other waterways as primary highways, complex trading networks arose and Chinook Jargon, now close to extinct, also called Tsinuk Wawa, was used as a trade language. They had time and energy to devote to the development of fine arts and crafts and to religious and social ceremonies. The people who lived in what are today British Columbia, Washington, and Oregon were able to obtain a good living without much effort. Pre-colonial contact, on the northwest coast of North America, the mild climate and abundant natural resources made possible the rise of a complex aboriginal culture that expanded through the Cascadia bioregion, and connected in with a continental system of trade and exchange. Since then, many first nations people were subjected to forced removal, displacement, separation, and programs designed to eradicate native linguistic languages, tradition and culture. By 1850, it is documented that smallpox wiped out roughly 65 to 95% of Northwestern Indian populations with some estimated 100,000 still remaining.
With the arrival of colonial explorers, traders and settlers, many of the indigenous populations were hit very hard by disease. For these tribes, salmon is important and necessary for their physical health and spiritual well being.Ĭascadian Coast Native American cultural area extends along the coast from southern Alaska, Washington and Oregon and down the Canadian province of British Columbia to the northern edge of California, and traded extensively with the Plateau people further inland. They still maintain a dietary preference for salmon, consuming sometimes ten times the US average. To the extent the resource permits, members of these tribes continue to fish for ceremonial, subsistence, and commercial purposes. It was a central part of their cultures, societies, and religions.ĭespite some differences in language and cultural practices, the people of these tribes have long shared the foundation of a regional economy based on salmon. Indian fishers have fished the waters of the Columbia Basin for thousands of years. Among those inhabitants, none are more important than the millions of salmon that bring sustenance and prosperity to the region’s rivers and streams. They believe their very souls and spirits were and are inextricably tied to the natural world and all its inhabitants. The people of these tribes share a common understanding that their very existence depends on the respectful enjoyment of the regions river basins vast land and water resources. Before 1800, it is estimated that more than 500,000 people lived within the region in dozens of nations such as the Chinook, Haida, Nootka and Tlingit. Since time immemorial, this region has been an interdependent crossroads of trade, language, and dozens of nations stretching for as far as the salmon swim. 1991, p.Within Cascadia, there are more than 238 nations that call this region home. “Underground Potlatch.” Natural History, vol. The accumulation of goods merely for giving away seemed to them to produce indigence and thriftlessness, "habits inconsistent with all progress." "It is not possible," wrote an early commentator, "that the Indian can acquire property, or can become industrious with any good result, while under the influence of this mania." It was, agreed a leading legislator, an "insane exuberance of generosity." Such reasoning led the Canadian government to ban the ceremony.Ĭole, Douglas. This social system, based on the distribution of wealth, was alien to European society and everywhere came under attack by missionaries and government officials.
A true chief "always died poor" because he had potlatched his wealth, but he died rich in the rank and honor that he had accumulated for himself through giving and that he would pass on to his family, heirs, and descendants. Like many other societies, those of the Northwest Coast associated prestige with wealth, and the potlatcher gained prestige according to the liberality of his giving. The potlatch celebrated a change of rank or status with dancing, feasting, and gifts.
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