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

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

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

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

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

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