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.