1. Pacific Northwest Road Trip Map
2. Northwest Coast Indian

• Traditional culture patterns

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Pacific Northwest Road Trip Map

Northwest Coast Indian, member of any of the Native American peoples inhabiting a narrow belt of Pacific coastland and offshore islands from the southern border of Alaska to northwestern California.

Which Native American peoples lived in the Pacific Northwest?

The Northwest Coast Indian peoples, who lived in the Pacific Northwest, can be classified into four units, or “provinces.” The northern province includes speakers of Tlingit, Haida, Tsimshian, and the Tsimshian-influenced Haisla (northernmost Heiltsuq or Kwakiutl). The Wakashan province includes all other Kwakiutl, the Bella Coola, and the Nuu-chah-nulth. The Coast Salish–Chinook province extended south to the central coast of Oregon and includes the Makah, Chinook, Tillamook, Siuslaw, and others. The northwestern California province includes the Athabaskan-speaking Tututni-Tolowa as well as the Karok, Yurok, Wiyot, and Hupa.

Where did the Northwest Coast Indian people live?

Historically, the Northwest Coast people inhabited a narrow belt of North American Pacific coastland and offshore islands from the southern border of Alaska to northwestern California. Their world stretched from Yakutat Bay, in the northeastern Gulf of Alaska, south to Cape Mendocino, in present-day California. Its eastern limits were the crest of the Coast Ranges from the north down to Puget Sound, the Cascades south to the Columbia River, and the coastal hills of what are now Oregon and northwestern California.

Northwest Coast Indian

What was the social structure of Northwest Coast Indian society?

The Pacific Northwest Indian peoples often organized themselves into corporate “houses” of a few dozen to 100 or more related people who held in common the rights to particular resources. As with the “noble house” societies of medieval Japan and Europe, social stratification operated at every level of many Northwest Coast societies. Within a house group, each member had a social rank that was valued according to the individual’s degree of relatedness to a founding ancestor. These highly stratified societies also had three main divisions: chiefly elites, commoners, and slaves or war captives.

How did the Native Americans of the Northwest Coast get their food?

The Native American peoples of the Northwest Coast had abundant and reliable supplies of salmon and other fish, sea mammals, shellfish, birds, and a variety of wild plant foods. Most groups built villages near waterways or the coast. The principal fishing sites were along rivers and streams in which salmon ran in the fall. In the spring, herring spawned in coves and candlefish entered certain rivers. People went to sea to hunt marine mammals and to fish for offshore species such as halibut. Each village also had rights to an upland territory from which the residents could obtain terrestrial foods.

What kind of homes did the Northwest Coast Indians live in?

The dwellings of the Northwest Coast Indians were rectilinear structures that were built of timber or planks and, except for those in northwestern California, were usually quite large, as the members of a corporate “house” typically lived together in one building. In the houses of the Wakashan province, huge cedar posts with side beams and ridgepoles constituted a permanent framework to which were attached wall planks and roof planks that could be taken down, loaded onto canoes, and transported from one site to another.

The Northwest Coast was the most sharply delimited culture area of native North America. It covered a long narrow arc of Pacific coast and offshore islands from Yakutat Bay, in the northeastern Gulf of Alaska, south to Cape Mendocino, in present-day California. Its eastern limits were the crest of the Coast Ranges from the north down to Puget Sound, the Cascades south to the Columbia River, and the coastal hills of what is now Oregon and northwestern California. Although the sea and various mountain ranges provide the region with distinct boundaries to the east, north, and west, the transition from the Northwest Coast to the California culture area is gradual, and some scholars classify the southernmost tribes discussed in this article as California Indians.

The Kuroshio, a Pacific Ocean current, warms the region; temperatures are rarely hot and seldom drop below freezing. The offshore current also deluges the region with rain; although it falls rather unevenly across the region, annual precipitation averages more than 160 inches (4,060 mm) in many areas and rarely drops below 30 inches (760 mm) in even the driest climatic zones. The northern Coast Range averages an elevation of about 3,300 feet (1,000 metres) above sea level, with some peaks and ridges rising to more than 6,600 feet (2,000 metres). In most of the Northwest, the land rises steeply from the sea and is cut by a myriad of narrow channels and fjords. The shores of Puget Sound, southwestern Washington, and the Oregon coast hills are lower and less rugged.

In general, traditional Northwest Coast economies were oriented toward aquatic resources. The region’s coastal forests—dense and predominantly coniferous, with spruces, Douglas fir, hemlock, red and yellow cedar, and, in the south, coast redwood—supported abundant fauna and a wide variety of wild plant foods.

Traditional culture patterns

Linguistic and territorial organization

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. Along the Oregon coast and in northwestern California, a series of smaller divisions occurred: Tillamook, Alsea, Siuslaw, Umpqua, Coos, Tututni-Tolowa, Yurok, Wiyot, Karok, and Hupa.

Northwest Coast groups can be classified into four units or “provinces.” The northern province included speakers of Tlingit, Haida, Tsimshian, and the Tsimshian-influenced Haisla (northernmost Heiltsuq or Kwakiutl). The Wakashan province included all other Kwakiutl, the Bella Coola, and the Nuu-chah-nulth. The Coast Salish–Chinook province extended south to the central coast of Oregon and included the Makah, Chinook, Tillamook, Siuslaw, and others. The northwestern California province included the Athabaskan-speaking Tututni-Tolowa as well as the Karok, Yurok, Wiyot, and Hupa.

The Northwest Coast was densely populated when Europeans first made landfall in the 18th century. Estimates of density in terms of persons per square mile mean little in a region where long stretches of coast consist of uninhabitable cliffs rising from the sea. However, early historic sources indicate that many winter villages had hundreds of inhabitants.

• Whistles, rattles, and drums were important elements of religious song and dance.
  
• The tale of a Raven who was said to have stolen light and given it to humans appears in local art.
  
• Blue dye was only obtained through trade as there was no way to make it with material found naturally in the area.