Native Americans of the PNW, Detail of the Coastal Region

* Pre-Contact Native groups

- 125 tribes

- 50+ languages

- land ownership ideas different from Europeans

-> land was used or controlled, but couldn’t be bought and sold

- Coastal, Plateau, and Great Basin Divisions

* Coastal Native Americans

- lived from Alaska to California

- cut off from others by coastal ranges

- traded shells, canoes, and slaves amongst themselves

- depended on fishing a gathering

-> forests were rich in berries, roots, etc.

-> staged massive whale hunts, intensive fishing etc.

=> careful treatment of the salmon people

=> don’t over-fish, replace waste

-> didn’t do a lot of hunting in forest

- dogs the only domestic animal

-> also used for “wool”

- a relatively easy life left time for much material culture

-> extremely skilled woodwork

-> totem poles

- interestingly class conscious for Native American groups

-> life was easy enough that they didn’t have to work together

so much

=> potlatch as the key point

=> ceremonial conspicuous consumption

+> provide the most food, destroy the most expensive stuff

=> Europeans/Americans quickly banned the potlatch

-> huge ritual plays with complex stages and masks about cycle

renewal

-> some severe intra-tribal fighting

=> some slavery of war captives

- Washington groups: Makahs, Quinaults, Puyallups

- Example: Nootkas

-> Nootka Sound (Northwest Coast Grouping)

-> the people Cook met when he arrived

-> fishermen with oceangoing canoes

-> lived in 30ftx75ft longhouses

=> easily disassembled