Coast Salish

[ kohst sey-lish ]

noun

1. a branch of the Salishan family of languages spoken in the Pacific Northwest, including Lushootseed, Halkomelem, and Squamish.
2. a member of a group of Indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest traditionally speaking one of these languages.

adjective

1. of or relating to Coast Salish, its speakers, or their culture.

Word History and Origins

Origin of Coast Salish¹

First recorded in 1920–25

Example Sentences

Coast Salish tribes, at the forefront of the North Cascades mountain goat monitoring efforts, have deep cultural ties to the animals.

From Seattle Times

Examination under an electron microscope at the University of Victoria in British Columbia would reveal the blanket, made sometime in the mid-1800s, was created from mountain goat and fur from the extinct Coast Salish woolly-dog.

From Seattle Times

The one-sentence statement grew out of a yearslong process that involved consultation with tribal leaders and the governor’s office, among others: “The University of Washington acknowledges the Coast Salish peoples of this land, the land which touches the shared waters of all tribes and bands within the Suquamish, Tulalip and Muckleshoot nations.”

From Seattle Times

Reges put his statement on his office door, in his email signature and on his course syllabi: “I acknowledge that by the labor theory of property the Coast Salish people can claim historical ownership of almost none of the land currently occupied by the University of Washington.”

From Seattle Times

Sasha taqʷšəblu LaPointe, a Coast Salish author from the Nooksack and Upper Skagit Indian tribes, sees her great-grandmother as the quintessential storyteller.

From Seattle Times