The Salishan language family includes five branches and more than 20 distinct languages spoken by tribes across the Pacific Northwest and Plateau regions. Here's how they connect.
The Quinault Indian Nation is a federally recognized tribe of Quinault, Queets, Quileute, Hoh, Chehalis, Chinook, and Cowlitz people. They are a Southwestern Coast Salish people of the Pacific Northwest Coast.
The Quinault language is the traditional language of the Quinault people of Washington State. It belongs to the Salishan language family, a large family of Native languages spoken in the Pacific Northwest and neighboring regions. Language is more than a list of words. It carries memory, humor, family ties, place names, songs, stories, and ways of seeing the world. A language can hold a whole shoreline inside a single phrase. That is why the preservation and revitalization of the Quinault…
Origins and Migration of the Salish Tribes The Salish tribes, often referred to collectively as the Interior Salish or Pacific Coast Salish, depending on region, are part of a larger language family known as the Salishan languages. These peoples traditionally lived across a wide swath of the Pacific Northwest, including what is now Montana, Idaho, Washington, British Columbia, and parts of Oregon. Linguistic evidence suggests that the Salishan peoples may have originated along the Pacific Coast, gradually migrating inland over…
Quinault Indian Reservation The Quinault Indian Reservation is located in Washington State on the southwestern corner of the Olympic Peninsula. It is home to the Quinault Indian Nation, whose people include descendants of the Quinault, Queets, Quileute, Hoh, Chehalis, Chinook, and Cowlitz peoples. The Quinault people are one of the Native peoples of the Pacific Northwest Coast. Their homeland is a place of forests, rivers, lakes, ocean beaches, salmon runs, cedar trees, and long memory. The reservation lies between the…
The Medicine Man is Glooscap, the Good-Spirit. Legend has it that the father of Glooscap is a being who lives under a great waterfall beneath the earth. His face is half-red, and he has a single all- seeing eye. He can give to anyone coming to him the medicine he desires.