Salish (Native American tribe)

Salish (Native American tribe)
Group	Salish
Regions	Pacific Northwest
Languages	Salishan languages
Religions	Indigenous religions of the Americas
Related	Chinook people, Coast Salish, Interior Salish, Flathead (tribe), Kalispel

Salish (Native American tribe) The Salish are a collective designation used in ethnography and historical accounts for peoples who speak branches of the Salishan languages indigenous to the Pacific Northwest of North America, including parts of what are now British Columbia and the U.S. states of Washington, Idaho, and Montana. Salish peoples have deep connections to landmarks such as the Fraser River, Columbia River, Puget Sound, and Flathead Lake and figure prominently in accounts involving explorers like George Vancouver, traders of the Hudson's Bay Company, and treaties tied to Treaty of Point Elliott and regional colonial administrations.

Name and Classification

Ethnographers applied the term "Salish" to group tribes speaking the Salishan languages as part of comparative studies by scholars such as Franz Boas, Edward Sapir, and James Teit. Classification distinguishes Coast Salish communities along the Salish Sea and Fraser River basin from Interior Salish groups in the Columbia Plateau and Northern Rockies, with recognized nations including the Squamish people, Musqueam Indian Band, Lummi Nation, Stó:lō, Sinixt, Spokane (tribe), Kalispel, Flathead Indian Reservation, Coeur d'Alene Tribe, Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes and many others cataloged in ethnographic inventories and colonial registries.

History and Precontact Period

Archaeological and oral histories situate Salishan-speaking peoples in the Pacific Northwest for millennia, with material culture evidenced at sites associated with the Marpole culture, Namu, and plank-house villages tied to estuarine and riverine economies. Salish groups participated in intertribal networks spanning the Great Plains traders and Tlingit mariners, exchanged goods that reached as far as the Great Basin and Yukon, and were involved in conflicts and alliances recorded in accounts of the Chinook Jargon era, potlatch ceremonies, and war histories intersecting with the Blackfeet Confederacy, Nez Perce, Kootenay (Kootenai), and Shuswap (Secwépemc) peoples.

Language and Dialects

The Salishan languages form a family with branches such as Coast Salish and Interior Salish, comprising languages and dialects like Halkomelem, Lushootseed, Shuswap (Secwepemc language), Coeur d'Alene language, Flathead Salish (Kalispel–Pend d'Oreille), Saanich, Nooksack, Clallam (Klallam), Eyak (note: Eyak is distinct but often discussed historically by linguists like Michael Krauss), and varieties documented by linguists including Franz Boas, Edward Sapir, Morris Swadesh, and John Peabody Harrington. Language revival initiatives involve institutions such as University of British Columbia, University of Washington, Salish Kootenai College, FirstVoices, and community programs linked to bands like Musqueam and Lummi Nation, with orthographies developed in collaboration with scholars like Kenneth L. Pike and Vernon E. Kellogg.

Culture and Society

Social organization among Salish peoples included matrilineal, patrilineal, or bilineal systems varying by group, with leadership roles exemplified by hereditary chiefs and clan structures attested in the histories of the Stó:lō, Haida interactions, and notable leaders recorded by explorers and missionaries such as Chief Seattle, Chief Joseph (Nez Perce association in regional histories), and chiefs involved in treaty negotiations like those at the Point Elliott Treaty and the Medicine Creek Treaty. Ceremonial life featured potlatch gatherings, winter dances, canoe journeys linked to the Makah and Kwakwaka'wakw seafaring traditions, and storytelling traditions that preserved histories like the Transformer narratives and creation accounts also present in comparative collections by Franz Boas and Edward Sapir.

Traditional Economy and Subsistence

Salish economies were regionally adapted: coastal groups relied on salmon runs in the Fraser River, shellfish from Puget Sound, and cedar resources for canoes and plank houses, while interior groups exploited bison hunting routes, camas root harvesting sites, and trade corridors along the Columbia River and over passes used by the Nez Perce, Blackfoot Confederacy, and Kootenay. Trade networks involved items such as woven baskets, carved cedar, eulachon oil, and obsidian sourced from locales recorded in expedition journals by David Thompson and company logs of the Hudson's Bay Company and North West Company.

European Contact and Colonization

First sustained European contact included voyages by James Cook and George Vancouver, fur trade expansion by the Hudson's Bay Company, and missionary efforts by entities such as the Catholic Church and Methodist Episcopal Church. Colonization led to demographic crises from epidemics of smallpox and influenza, land dispossession formalized through instruments like the Douglas Treaties and later allocation policies under the Indian Act in Canada and allotment laws and reservation systems in the United States, affecting nations such as the Sinixt, Musqueam, Lummi, and Flathead. Resistance and legal struggles involved figures and venues including Chief Joseph (regional context), the Supreme Court of Canada decisions, and United States cases litigated in courts including the U.S. Supreme Court.

Contemporary Communities and Governance

Today Salish peoples are represented by recognized First Nations and federally recognized tribes such as the Squamish Nation, Musqueam Indian Band, Lummi Nation, Colville Confederated Tribes, Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation, Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes, Coeur d'Alene Tribe, and numerous bands active in treaty negotiations, land claims, and cultural revival. Governance structures incorporate tribal councils, hereditary offices, and partnerships with institutions like the British Columbia Treaty Commission, Bureau of Indian Affairs, Indigenous and Northern Affairs Canada, and academic centers at Simon Fraser University and University of Montana. Contemporary activism engages legal advocacy in forums like the Supreme Court of Canada and U.S. District Courts, cultural programs hosted by museums including the Museum of Anthropology at UBC and the Northwest Museum of Arts and Culture, and collaborations with environmental groups concerning fisheries management, salmon restoration projects with agencies such as NOAA Fisheries and provincial ministries.

Category:Indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest