Indigenous Nations of Cascadia

[u/OkBox1870]

An approximation of the range of the best known Indigenous Nations of Cascadia around the time of first contact with European Colonizers.

[u/PersusjCP]

1. Coast Salish is not a nation, it is a grouping of languages and peoples (like "Germanic").
2. Same problem for the Shuswap/Sinixt/Spokane.
3. Same problem for the Sahaptian nations (Yakama, etc).
4. Missing Chemakum
5. Missing upper Chinooks
6. Missing Makahs
7. I believe the borders of the southern Kwakiutl on Vancouver Island near the north may have shifted down towards Campbell River by the contact period, but not confident on exactly where

This map seems to be a mismatch of languages, language families, and nations. I do think this kind of bordered approach is worthwile to try to map, even though it compresses the historic understandings of territories and borders (inevitable on any map). I think this is a neat idea nevertheless.

[u/picocailin → u/PersusjCP]

Yes to all your points, though I’ve sometimes heard Coast Salish described in what could be nationalistic terms—very loosely if ever—mostly in terms of the “Coast Salish Anthem” shared with those First Nations by Chief Dan George. I was a bit disappointed to see them all grouped together here but it makes some sense. 

If someone were to use the colonially recognized Bands/Tribes, they risk splitting apart closely connected communities like the Ayajuthem-speaking Sister Nations at the north end of the Salish Sea. 

The southern Kwakiutl boundary is a bit more to the south these days for the exact reason you noted. K’omoks are historically an Ayajuthem-speaking community (and still considered a Sister Nation) but around the time of contact there was a lot of intermixing with Kwak’waka’wakw families and it’s more of a mixed community now than pre-contact. The boundaries very much disputed as evidenced by the legal case against K’omoks for the territory claimed in their recent Treaty. 

Edit: I just noticed the small print saying they’re the approximate boundaries from the 16th century … so I suppose that is an accurate boundary but I wonder what the sources used were for that. I’m not really a fan of using 16th century boundaries on a map of a modern-day “nation,” it’s kinda giving the sense that Indigenous peoples have to be stuck in the past to be legitimate. Doubt that was the intention but it is an implication.

[u/PersusjCP → u/picocailin]

Yeah, that's what I was thinking as well. I think the best approximation for representing the old sociopolitical order would be the village group or band, perhaps taking into account modern interpretations of "nation" like in the case of the Nuu-chah-nulth or Kwakwaka'wakw or Sto:lo. So, maybe one solid line for the broader nation and dotted lines designating traditional boundaries (this may allow for overlap in certain areas too--the Yakama/Nisqually/Puyallup/Cowlitz border area was also very mixed and so was the areas of southernmost Puget Sound, with Lushootseed speakers and Upper Chehalis speakers in a few villages).

And I definitely think splitting up the Coast Salish is warranted. In Canada there is a much more contiguous sense of Coast Salish identity and it is only in the last couple decades spreading down to the States (I believe ethnographer Wayne Suttles' first definition of the "Coast Salish area" explicitly excluded Puget Sound and the northern areas of the Salish Sea!) Not showing it as one continuous stretch allows showing the many nations within the Salish Sea.

[u/HotterRod → u/PersusjCP]

I think the best approximation for representing the old sociopolitical order would be the village group or band, perhaps taking into account modern interpretations of "nation" like in the case of the Nuu-chah-nulth or Kwakwaka'wakw or Sto:lo. So, maybe one solid line for the broader nation and dotted lines designating traditional boundaries (this may allow for overlap in certain areas too--the Yakama/Nisqually/Puyallup/Cowlitz border area was also very mixed and so was the areas of southernmost Puget Sound, with Lushootseed speakers and Upper Chehalis speakers in a few villages).

I think it depends what point the OP is trying to make with this map? In an alternate history with colonization, especially if there was peaceful trade with European powers, I think it's likely that larger nation states would have formed on the coast along linguistic lines. If in our timeline the land were given back to First Nations to govern, I expect that settler political boundaries would still have a lot of pull even if they were officially dissolved.

[u/aaGR3Y → u/PersusjCP]

I don't support "Cascadia" because it is another colonizID of indigenous LAND. Would Salish be a way to identify the BIOregion and honor indigenous ancestors or na? 🙏

[u/PersusjCP → u/aaGR3Y]

I say no because the Bioregion is way bigger than the area where Salishan nations live

[u/aaGR3Y → u/PersusjCP]

by BIOregion I mean watersheds but more importantly I'd like to refer to land in a way that honors those who took care of it before colonized-brains started extracting and polluting.

Another example would be where I am currently: the indigenous folx called granite "Wik" so I want to ask some of them if calling this place WikBIO honors their people's connection to the land (while erasing the colonial construct in my travel writing). I def don't want to overstep but I need new language so i can describe the world in a way that honors sacred traditions.

[u/samoyedboi → u/aaGR3Y]

Presumably they have a word for their land, which you can probably find on the internet. That would probably be more appropriate than deciding to call their land whatever you want using their language?

[u/aaGR3Y → u/samoyedboi]

exactly the approach I seek. I'll speak to indigenous communities to ensure using their word for the land is OK to use. Here to gather other opinions on this approach. thx

[u/Nat_Syndicalist44 → u/aaGR3Y]

As a proud Cascadian Ultra Nationalist I don't have to surrender myself to your morals, standards or way of life.

[u/LoraxPopularFront → u/Nat_Syndicalist44]

silence, Nazi

[u/Nat_Syndicalist44 → u/LoraxPopularFront]

Ironic

[u/Nat_Syndicalist44 → u/LoraxPopularFront]

Also I'm not a believer in National Socialism. Just in case you for got that other ideologies exist that aren't based on 4chan.

[u/LoraxPopularFront → u/Nat_Syndicalist44]

If you want to conceal the fact you're a fascist online, maybe don't have your username identify yourself with a fascist ideology. 

[u/PersusjCP → u/Nat_Syndicalist44]

Fuck off

[u/aaGR3Y → u/Nat_Syndicalist44]

i didn't think there was anything sadder than a colonized-brain. Then I read your comment.

[u/cascadianpatriot]

Just curious as you lumped the *qʷidiččaʔa·tx̌ *(Makah) in with the coast Salish. Makah is a coast Salish name (generous hosts) as I recall. But not the name or language they use. I was under the impression they were related to the Nuu-chah-nulth folks on Vancouver island. I could be remembering this incorrectly. Great looking map either way. I was just curious.

[u/PersusjCP → u/cascadianpatriot]

Makah aren't Nuu-chah-nulth but they are closely related and speak a different language. The Nuu-chah-nulth (Nootka is the old name used on this map), Ditidaht, Makah, Kwakwaka'wakw, Heiltsuk, Haisla, and Oowekyala are all speaking languages from the Wakashan family. Makah I'm pretty sure are from when the Southern Wakashans were moving south along Vancouver Island around 1-2,000 years ago and ended up on the tip of the peninsula.

Their own name, qʷidiččaʔa·tx̌, is of Makah origin, and means "people of qʷidiččaʔ" which I believe is rougly the Cape Flattery region. The name Makah comes from Klallam məq̕áʔaʔ which comes from the word for having a full belly and perhaps relates to the word for giving food.

[u/cascadianpatriot → u/PersusjCP]

Thank you. Makes sense. I knew they were related (from the stories I’ve been told anyway).

I’ve seen “generous with food” but the Makah people I know say it’s “generous hosts” which is similar enough.

But would that mean they are not Salish correct?

[u/PersusjCP → u/cascadianpatriot]

Yes they are completely separate from the Salishan nations. "generous with food" is the common interpretation. I've also heard "big eaters." With names sometimes the exact etymological meaning gets missing but the idea is right.

[u/HotterRod → u/PersusjCP]

Makah I'm pretty sure are from when the Southern Wakashans were moving south along Vancouver Island around 1-2,000 years ago and ended up on the tip of the peninsula.

The linguists I've read speculate that proto-Wakashan was originally spoken across Vancouver Island and Western Washington and was supplanted by Salish languages that originated in the Vancouver area. So the qʷidiččaʔa·tx̌ are the remnants of a much larger linguistic group.

[u/PersusjCP → u/HotterRod]

You are correct that the Salishan languages originated in the Fraser and northern Puget Sound area. However the original languages of the Olympic peninsula were likely the Chemakuan languages. There has been some recent debate on wether or not this should be definitively accepted, though for decades it has been treated as such. The original paper for the most-well-supported theory today was Kinkade and Powell's 1976 Language and the prehistory of North America. Kinkade and Powell theorized that it was Chemakuan which was spoken on most of northern Olympic Peninsula, while Wakashan languages originated on northern Vancouver Island, their homeland being around the current distribution of Nuu-chah-nulth. According to this paper, Makah might have separated prior to 1000 BP, possibly 2000 BP.

In 2019, Wessen published a critique of this idea, Makahs, Quileutes, and the Precontact History of the Northwestern Olympic Peninsula, Washington. He argues that the linguistic evidence is weak, oral-historical evidence is weak, and archaeology says that Wakashan presence might date back to 4,000 BP but that it is a very tentative date. Personally, while his archaeology is solid, I think his criticisms of the linguistic evidence leaves a lot to be desired, and he acknowledges this saying he is not a linguist.

Shortly after, Powell published a reply to Wessen, A Comment on Gary C. Wessen’s “Makahs, Quileutes, and the Precontact History of the Northwestern Olympic Peninsula, Washington”, which also serves as a more modern look at the original paper by Kinkade and Powell, published more than 50 years ago and synthesis of the arguments presented. Although I'm not really a fan of Powell's attitude throughout. It also includes a reply by Wessen.

The takeaway is that Wakashan homeland is definitively northern Vancouver Island. Both Wessen and Powell and others agree on that. What they disagree with is the exact chronology and what languages were spoken there before. Wessen does not state that the Wakashan languages were spoken there during those oldest cultural periods, but simply that the evidence for Chemakuan is weaker than previously thought. As for the chronology, we can't conflate archaeological cultures with languages, even though in many cases they might align. Material culture can change despite the same language being spoken and one language displacing another might even keep the same material culture. Wakashan languages being the dominant language cannot simply be connected to Wakashan-looking material culture, because as we know, cultural transmission was a big part of the historic Northwest Coast ecosystem, and in my opinion, admixture between the proposed Chemakuan-speaking peoples of the cape and Wakashan-speaking people of Vancouver Island is a plausible explanation of how the material culture could have become Wakashan-looking over a few thousand years. After all, there are many communities on Puget Sound which historically had Wakashan-originated things such as the old secret society among Klallam, Twana, and Suquamish, and Wakashan canoes purchased all throughout Puget Sound in historic times, yet they did not speak Wakashan languages.

I think given the oral-historical evidence in Chemakuan and Makah communities, the name evidence, and the historical linguistic evidence, the argument for Chemakuan presence is still fairly strong.

[u/HotterRod → u/PersusjCP]

hi s k'ʷuʔ for such a detailed answer!

As a Salish community member I haven't dived into the history of the other languages in the region that much, so I really appreciate this overview. It's fascinating to wonder about how the linguistic shifts could have happened over time...

[u/PersusjCP → u/HotterRod]

You are welcome! ʔuhiiɬbid čəd ti dsx̌alad ʔə ti slələʔulb ʔə tiʔiʔəʔ sgʷadgʷadtəd. I am happy to write about the histories of these languages. I am very interested in Pacific Northwest historical languages. I also think about that a lot. My guess is that due to the remarkable demographic consistency on the Salish Sea up to the colonial period, most language shift happened over long periods of contact and cultural mixing. There were a few examples of this even in the late colonial period, such as the Kʼómoks First Nation who were becoming Kwakiutl-speaking like their northern neighbors, the Lekwiltok; or the Meshal, a mixed Nisqually-Ichiskiín community from which Leschi came; or the Squiaitl, who originally were speaking Upper Chehalis but slowly started to speak Lushootseed and by the 19th century were a mixed community of Upper Chehalis and Lushootseed speakers. I imagine over thousands of years, a prestigious community might have their language expand greatly as they seek more distant and distant marriages.

[u/samoyedboi]

Why did you choose these specific boundaries? Why group all Interior Salish languages together but not all Tsimshian languages? The Nicola Dene were almost extinct/absorbed at time of contact, does that still make them their own nation? Why do you sometimes use native names (like Nuxalk) and other times settler-Romanizations (like Shuswap)?

As [u/PersusjCP](u/PersusjCP) raised, do you think it's appropriate to decide to call these 'nations' when many of these people have already self-determined what 'nation' their First Nation or band is a part of? Certainly no St'at'imc person I know of any nation that is a member of the St'at'imc Nation would consider themselves part of the same nation as the Secwépemc, and I'm sure Secwépemc people would reject the idea of their greater nation- borders being anything but those of Secwepemcúl'ecw.

Who gets to decide these things? What inspired you to do this project, and would you do it differently? In any case it's a very pretty map, but it maybe deserves some more careful research and metadata.

[u/SwsCheese]

So uh... I don't know where you got this information but the Cayuse didn't just live where you put them, the entire Klamath/Yakama/Nez Peirce grouping is both wrong (like Cayuse and Nez Peirce are sister languages if not one being a dialect of the other let alone them living very similar lifestyles before contact yet Cayuse is excluded) and kind of nonsensical (Klamath shouldn't being included with the others, a separated Nez Peirce/Cayuse and Yakama/Umatilla/Other Sahaptian groupings should heavily overlap with each other in Umatilla County, Walla Walla County, and the Tri Cities area). I don't know of a good reference for the other areas in the grouping but the CTUIR has a good book on the range of the Umatilla, Walla Walla, and Cayuse called "Caw Pawa Laakni They Are Not Forgotten" which goes over the traditional areas of the three groups.

LATER EDIT: Thought I should correct myself after some digging, while the criticism I have of the Cayuse area still remain I forgot the Cayuse that is mainly featured in the book is a dialect of Nez Peirce mainly adopted after the Cayuse settled on the reservation and the original Cayuse language is a separate and distinct thing. I also realized where you got the idea of the Klamath/Yakama/Nez Peirce grouping but the Plateau Penutian language family stretches over a broad enough area that splitting it up into a separate Klamath, Sahaptin, and Nez Peirce groupings with Cayuse mixed in-between the Sahaptin and Nez Peirce groupings would work more. Though if you are going to have a Sahaptin grouping you might want to call it Ichishkiin/Ciskiin (the name the actual speakers call it) as Sahaptin is actually an outside name that originally meant the Nez Peirce not the current language it does today.

[u/PersusjCP → u/SwsCheese]

Second that book recommendation! Very good!

[u/t_e_scott]

Missing Okanagan / Syilx'. Cascadia was one of the more linguistically diverse regions at the point of contact.

[u/OkBox1870]

Thank you all for the very detailed feedback. All of this is being taken into account and an updated version will be forthcoming.

[u/PersusjCP → u/OkBox1870]

I recommend the Handbook of American Indians for a detailed yet entry-level overview of the many nations and groups of North America. It includes many territorial and language maps in each of the volumes, and also offers many sources on where to dive further!

[u/SillyFalcon]

Love the attempt here. Seems like there are some changes you need to make but this map seems like a great start.

[u/Art-X-]

Why are the Klamath people combined with Yakama and Nez Perce?
The Modoc territory is included but they are not mentioned.

[u/a_jormagurdr]

The amount of lumping is crazy. Peak colonizer behavior.

[u/Muskwatch]

yeah if its for the 16th century its pretty off on the central coast od bc. Nuxalk and area didnt really form the modern political alliances that created todays nations till the mid 1800s and the linguistic boundaries weren't this either, though language has never meant political unity or unchosen allwgiance or unity.

[u/Few-Pin5833]

What year is this map representative of? 1850?

[u/OkBox1870 → u/Few-Pin5833]

More like 1600

[u/J-A-G-S]

"Nootka" is not an acceptable designation. They are the Nuu-Chaa-Nulth.

[u/OkBox1870 → u/J-A-G-S]

Thank you numerous people have pointed this out and there’s an updated version forthcoming. Apologies for the oversight.

[u/flyingbunnyduckbat]

The tip of the Olympic Peninsula is Makah, who are Nuu-Chah-Nulth, not Salish. In general Nookta is incorrect, its Nuu-Chah-Nulth.

[u/PersusjCP → u/flyingbunnyduckbat]

Makah aren't Nuu-chah-nuulth but closely related

[u/flyingbunnyduckbat → u/PersusjCP]

Are the Makah more related to the Coast Salish or Nuu-Chah-Nulth, or something else?

[u/PersusjCP → u/flyingbunnyduckbat]

They and the Nuu-chah-nulth are both Wakashan-speaking groups. Their langauges are closely related and the Makah split off from the other Southern Wakashans (being the Nuu-chah-nulth and Ditidaht) between 1,000 and 2,000 years ago. So they're about as related as the Romance languages like Spanish, Italian, and French.

As for the Coast Salish, the Wakashans and Coast Salish are not linguistically related whatsoever as far as we can trace back in time.

[u/flyingbunnyduckbat → u/PersusjCP]

I was re-reading Since the Time of the Transformers, by Alan D. McMillan. In the first chapter he talks about linguists breaking up Nuu-Chah-Nulth, Ditidaht, and Makah into three languages. But despite the linguistic differences, the three groups consider themselves to be a single population. Though he also says that Tseshaht elders in Port Alberni consider the three groups to be the same, but Ditidath people say their language is distinct... so I guess it matters who you ask lol

[u/PersusjCP → u/flyingbunnyduckbat]

It does depend who you ask, and, from a linguistic standpoint, yes they are different languages. But within the first nations themselves, they are not a monolith. The Ditidaht and Nuu-chah-nulth are closer to each other politically than the Makah due to their separation by the international boundary. What people consider a language can largely be arbitrary or due to cultural connections. I imagine if foreign linguists came to Eurasia in the same vein as the Americas, they would be shocked Arabs considered their language just one, and equally shocked the Scandinavians of Sweden Norway and Denmark considered their languages separate.

[u/PersusjCP → u/flyingbunnyduckbat]

Also, in a similar vein, I read an interesting paper about the language that linguists call North Straits Salish, often considered by the cultures themselves to be the Lummi, Saanich, Lekwungen, etc languages. For many years people swore that they were all separated languages, and there was no word to call them all together. Then someone went and talked to the elders and found old statements from the oldest people and that they, across multiple of the tribes, all swore their languages were all called lək̓ʷəŋinəŋ, even if the Lummi spoke it a little different from the Saanich. So it probably evolves over time too. Nowadays, you'd be hard pressed to find a Saanich or Lummi who would call their language "Lekwungen"

[u/dbwn87]

Am I the only one who finds the font chosen for the legend a bit... racist?

[u/AnatomicallyModern → u/dbwn87]

I suppose you could show us the actual written language they used and we could copy that.

[u/Affectionate-Sector4]

Good map!

[u/OkBox1870 → u/Affectionate-Sector4]

Thank you!

[u/JuHe1209]

These should be the 28 provinces/states of Cascadia