Coast Salish - Native Americans of Western Washington

What I have learned about the Coast Salish People:

Learning about the Coast Salish people has been interesting and fun.
It is inspiring to learn about the people who lived in this region since the last ice age, 12,000 years ago.
They came from Siberia to Alaska on the land bridge exposed by the low waters then.

I value learning about how the ancients would live, hunt, fish and make their art and tools. I think learning about other cultures, especially those who lived in harmony with the Earth is very important.

Life was simple and easy for the native peoples because there was plentiful food.






This area was a cornucopia of food and natural materials for living. From what I have learned the most used products that were central to their life were Salmon, Deer, and Red Cedar.

When the salmon come they work hard to catch food and process it so they can keep it for winter. 

Because they work so hard  and gather lots of food they have lots of free time and that is why they became good artistes. They are best know for wood carving and they created the Totem Pole.





The Cedar tree was very important to every day Coast Salish life.
They used it for canoes, Totem Poles, Long Houses, tools, the bark for clothing and rope and  as a medicine.












The tools they used to work with the Cedar, and other materials, were made from antlers, metamorphic stones ( because they are so hard), and wedges.

They could cut a large canoe out of a tree with out killing the tree if they chose to, otherwise they would make a fire at the base of the tree and chop at it till it came down.







 For the Totem poles they  would hollow out the tree so to make it lighter and so it would not crack.

The women had equal status in the community. 

Women were very good at making water tight baskets, blankets and clothes. 

Fabric could be made out of cedar bark, animal skins and ( the most interesting) the wool from the wooly dog.  They would keep a flock of these dogs that are now extinct.   I got to touch the woolly dog fur it was the softest thing I ever felt. It was very cool to touch something so ancient.