Chehalis

Chehalis (tribe)

Chehalis (tribe) is a group of Native American peoples from western Washington state in the United States. They should not be confused with the similarly-named Chehalis people of the Harrison River in the Fraser Valley area of British Columbia, although the two groups may be related.^{[citation needed]}

The Chehalis tribe in Washington consists of two distinct subtribes: The Upper Chehalis and the Lower Chehalis. Within these two groups were several subgroups: the Copalis, Wynoochee and Humptulips people were part of the Upper Chehalis subtribe, while the Satsop people were part of the Lower Chehalis subtribe. The boundary between the two groups was the confluence of the Chehalis River and Satsop River.

The Chehalis language belongs to the Coast Salishan family of languages among Northwest Coast indigenous peoples. One interesting trait of the language is that the linguistic form defaults to feminine; the word for "woman" can include everyone as the word "man" can in English.

Like many Northwest Coast natives, the Chehalis relied on fishing from local rivers for food and built plank houses (longhouses) to protect themselves from the harsh, wet winters west of the Cascade Mountains.

The Chehalis people settled on their current Chehalis Indian Reservation along the Chehalis River in 1860. The reservation has a land area of 18.188 km² (7.022 sq mi) in southeastern Grays Harbor and southwestern Thurston Counties. As of the 2000 census its resident population was 691 persons. The major communities within the reservation are Chehalis Village and part of the city of Oakville.

References

• Chehalis Reservation, Washington United States Census Bureau

External links

• The Confederated Tribes of the Chehalis

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