Coast Salish

American  

[kohst sey-lish] / ˈkoʊst ˈseɪ lɪʃ /

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.

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adjective

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

Etymology

Origin of Coast Salish

First recorded in 1920–25

Example Sentences

The school’s main campus is in Seattle, and in 2015 it adopted a statement recognizing “the Coast Salish peoples.”

From The Wall Street Journal • Dec. 29, 2025

Smuy offers a clever exchange to Spaal’, and this comic tale is inspired by the Pacific Northwest’s Coast Salish culture.

From Los Angeles Times • Nov. 25, 2024

It’s a region where lush forests on distant ridgelines seem to stitch earth to sky, where from a ferry you can glimpse pods of whales and where Coast Salish peoples have lived since time immemorial.

From Seattle Times • Mar. 3, 2024

His whirlwind tour of PNW athletics includes a hockey-like Coast Salish game called “shinny,” the Seattle Storm under Sue Bird, and the recent 2023 MLB All-Star Week.

From Seattle Times • Dec. 21, 2023

It was the same technique that the Coast Salish peoples of the Northwest had used for centuries to fashion bentwood boxes out of single planks of cedar.

From "The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics" by Daniel James Brown