Who Are the Coast Salish?
The Coast Salish are a large group of linguistically and culturally related indigenous peoples inhabiting the Pacific Northwest coast around the **Salish Sea** (Puget Sound, Strait of Georgia, and Strait of Juan de Fuca), spanning Washington State and British Columbia. Today numbering over 100,000 members across dozens of tribes and First Nations, the Coast Salish include peoples such as the **Duwamish**, **Snohomish**, **Muckleshoot**, **Puyallup**, **Tulalip**, **Lummi**, **Squamish**, **Musqueam**, and many others. Unlike the dramatic totem poles of northern neighbors, Coast Salish art features distinctive geometric designs, magnificent wool weaving, and house posts. The city of **Seattle** takes its name from Chief Si'ahl (Seattle), a Duwamish and Suquamish leader whose famous environmental speech—though largely invented by a white doctor—has become iconic.
The Salish Sea World
The Coast Salish homeland centers on the **Salish Sea**—the name formally adopted in 2009 honoring the region's indigenous peoples. This protected inland sea, fed by numerous rivers, provided extraordinary abundance: five species of salmon, herring, shellfish, waterfowl, and marine mammals. Coast Salish peoples developed sophisticated resource management, including **reef net** fishing (fixed nets that caught salmon in tidal currents) and **clam gardens** (modified beaches that increased shellfish productivity). Villages of large cedar longhouses lined waterways, with extended families occupying sections of houses that could stretch hundreds of feet. Unlike more hierarchical northern peoples, Coast Salish society featured ranked but relatively fluid status, with wealth redistributed through **potlatches** and other ceremonies. Extensive trade networks connected Coast Salish communities with each other and with peoples of the Columbia Plateau and beyond.
Weaving and Distinctive Art
Coast Salish art differs markedly from the bold formline designs of Haida and Tlingit. Traditional Coast Salish art features geometric patterns—circles, crescents, triangles—often representing spiritual beings, natural forms, and abstract concepts. The most famous art form is **Salish weaving**: blankets woven from mountain goat wool, sometimes combined with dog hair from a now-extinct wool dog breed the Salish specifically bred. These blankets were treasured trade goods, essential for ceremonies, and markers of wealth. The **spindle whorl**—decorated circular weights used in spinning yarn—represents quintessential Coast Salish design. Missionaries and residential schools suppressed traditional arts; the last traditional weaver died in the 1960s. Since then, artists like **Susan Pavel** and **Krista Point** have revived weaving from historical examples and fragments of transmitted knowledge. Contemporary Coast Salish artists like **Maynard Johnny Jr.** and **Shaun Peterson** have developed distinctive modern styles honoring traditional aesthetics.
Treaty Rights and the Boldt Decision
Coast Salish peoples signed treaties with the United States in the 1850s—including the **Treaty of Point Elliott** (1855) signed by Chief Seattle—that reserved fishing rights in exchange for land cessions. Washington State systematically violated these rights, arresting Indian fishers and excluding them from the commercial fishery. The **"Fish Wars"** of the 1960s-70s saw Salish fishers staging "fish-ins" (modeled on civil rights sit-ins), facing arrest and violence to assert treaty rights. The **Boldt Decision** (1974), ruling that treaties guaranteed tribes the right to half the harvestable fish, transformed Pacific Northwest fisheries and tribal economies. Judge George Boldt's ruling, upheld by the Supreme Court, established tribes as co-managers of fisheries, represented a massive victory for treaty rights nationally, and enabled economic development for Coast Salish communities that had been excluded from the commercial wealth of their own waters.
Contemporary Coast Salish Nations
Coast Salish peoples today range from small tribes struggling for federal recognition to large, prosperous nations. In Washington, tribes like **Tulalip**, **Puyallup**, and **Muckleshoot** operate successful casinos, businesses, and comprehensive tribal services. The **Duwamish**—Chief Seattle's people—remain unrecognized despite occupying the land on which Seattle sits, their longhouse in West Seattle a cultural center without federal status. In British Columbia, **Musqueam**, **Squamish**, and **Tsleil-Waututh** Nations have asserted claims to unceded territory including downtown Vancouver, negotiating agreements that recognize ongoing indigenous interests in urban development. The **Lhaq'temish** (Lummi) Nation leads opposition to fossil fuel terminals threatening their fishing waters. Language revitalization addresses critically endangered Salish languages; immersion programs in communities like Tulalip work to ensure transmission. From treaty rights vindication to urban land claims to environmental activism, Coast Salish peoples navigate complex modern challenges while maintaining connection to the Salish Sea that has sustained them for millennia.
References
- Suttles, W. (1987). Coast Salish Essays. University of Washington Press.
- Miller, B. G. (2007). Be of Good Mind: Essays on the Coast Salish. University of British Columbia Press.
- Wilkinson, C. (2000). Messages from Frank's Landing: A Story of Salmon, Treaties, and the Indian Way. University of Washington Press.
- Bierwert, C. (1999). Brushed by Cedar, Living by the River: Coast Salish Figures of Power. University of Arizona Press.