HOW THEY GOT HERE. About 10,000 years ago, people began living on North America's Northwest Coast, a narrow area along the Pacific Ocean that stretches across parts of modern-day Alaska, Washington, Oregon, and Yukon and British Columbia in Canada .
What is the largest Native American tribe in the Pacific Northwest?
The Coast Salish are the largest of the southern groups. They are a loose grouping of many tribes with numerous distinct cultures and languages.
What tribes lived in the Northwest coast?
The peoples of the Northwest Coast spoke a number of North American Indian languages. From north to south the following linguistic divisions occurred: Tlingit, Haida, Tsimshian, northern Kwakiutl, Bella Coola, southern Kwakiutl, Nuu-chah-nulth (Nootka), Coast Salish, Quileute-Chimakum, Kwalhioqua, and Chinook .
What did the tribes of the Northwest grow?
Salmon was a major source of food, along with other fish such as trout, halibut and herring, followed by acorns, hundreds of different plants, marine mammals (whales, otters, seals), bears, beavers, lynx, deer, and small game like rabbits and hares.
Did indigenous people live in the Northwest Coast?
There are a variety of Indigenous nations living in the Northwest Coast. The Tlingit occupy territories from the northwest tip of British Columbia and the southwest Yukon to south of the Alaska coast. The Haida live on Haida Gwaii, a group of islands off the north coast of British Columbia.
What is the largest Native American tribe in Washington state?
Puyallup – The Puyallup Tribe of Indians has more than 4,000 members and is considered one of the most urban Indian reservations in the U.S.
What language did the Northwest Coast speak?
The peoples of the Northwest Coast spoke a number of North American Indian languages. From north to south the following linguistic divisions occurred: Tlingit, Haida, Tsimshian, northern Kwakiutl, Bella Coola, southern Kwakiutl , Nuu-chah-nulth (Nootka), Coast Salish, Quileute-Chimakum, Kwalhioqua, and Chinook.
How many tribes are there in the Pacific Northwest?
There are 29 federally recognized tribes throughout Washington and they are: Chehalis, Colville, Cowlitz, Hoh, Jamestown S'Klallam, Kalispel, Lower Elwha Klallam, Lummi, Makah, Muckleshoot, Nisqually, Nooksack, Port Gamble S'Klallam, Puyallup, Quileute, Quinault, Samish, Sauk-Suiattle, Shoalwater Bay, Skokomish, ...
What Indian tribe lived in the Great Plains?
These include the Arapaho, Assiniboine, Blackfoot, Cheyenne, Comanche, Crow, Gros Ventre, Kiowa, Lakota, Lipan, Plains Apache (or Kiowa Apache), Plains Cree , Plains Ojibwe, Sarsi, Nakoda (Stoney), and Tonkawa.
Do the Kwakiutl still exist?
The Kwakiutl people are indigenous (native) North Americans who live mostly along the coasts of British Columbia, which is located in the northwest corner of Canada. Today, there are about 5,500 Kwakiutls living here on the tribe's own reserve , which is land specially designated for Native American tribes.
Why do people use totem poles?
Totem poles are monuments created by First Nations of the Pacific Northwest to represent and commemorate ancestry, histories, people, or events . ... Most totem poles display beings, or crest animals, marking a family's lineage and validating the powerful rights and privileges that the family held.
What did the people of the Northwest Coast wear?
Kwakwaka'wakw clothes were the cedarbark garments common all over the Northwest Coast: capes and hats for protection from rain, robes for cold weather, and women's aprons. Many garments were decorated with dentalia shells. Colorful nose ornaments were made of abalone shell.
Why did so many tribes in the Pacific Northwest use cedar for shelter?
Why did so many tribes in the Pacific Northwest use cedar for shelter? The huge red cedars were especially important to the people because they could make large houses with them . They cut the trees with stone axes, and floated them to their villages.
What did Northwest Indians believe in?
Historically, Pacific Northwest Indians shared their spiritual beliefs and customs through stories, songs and dances. Their beliefs were based in animism , where the natural world interacts with a supernatural world. In most native cultures, shamans or medicine men served as spiritual intermediaries.
Is MI KMAQ a tribe?
Mi'kmaq social and political life was flexible and loosely organized, with an emphasis on kin relations. They were part of the Abenaki Confederacy , a group of Algonquian-speaking tribes allied in mutual hostility against the Iroquois Confederacy.
What happened to the Northwest Coast Indians?
Much has happened to native peoples and their traditions. The Northwest Coast was decimated by severe measles, smallpox, and other epidemics . Among these dead were the proper claimants to the limited number of renowned name.
