The Chehalis are a group of culturally, linguistically, and historically related tribes that have lived in the Pacific Northwest for thousands of years. Their language is classified as a part of the larger Salish language family. The Salish language family is found on the Northwest Coast and in the Columbia Plateau area. Salish is generally felt to have great antiquity in the Northwest Coast. Linguists estimate that this language family may be 6,000 years old, although some feel it may be as young as 3,000 years old.
The Chehalis are generally divided into two broad groups: Upper Chehalis and Lower Chehalis with the boundary between the groups the confluence of the Chehalis River and the Satsop River. The lower Chehalis include the Copalis, Wynoochee, and Humptulips. The Satsop are part of the Upper Chehalis.
Subsistence
Like the other Indian nations living along the Pacific coast of what is now Washington and British Columbia, the Chehalis subsistence activities emphasized fishing and marine mammal hunting. Sturgeon was a popular item and often weighed 200 to 300 pounds. Sturgeon fishing was an art and was done with a large hook fastened to a cedar and spruce bark rope. This was fitted to a long pole, often 20 feet or longer. Holding the rope and pole, the channel floor would be probed for the large fish. It would sometimes take hours to land a large sturgeon. It is reported that a skilled fisherman would pull a 300-pound sturgeon into a canoe without shipping water.
In addition, the Chehalis gathered shellfish and plants. Mussels and cockle clams were staples.
Camas (Camassia quamash) was an important food for the Upper Chehalis, and it was traded with other groups. Camas is a lily-like plant whose bulb can be fire-baked to make a sweet and nutritious staple. Camas was less important for the Lower Chehalis.
Camas was roasted, mashed, and formed into cakes. In this form it could be stored for long periods of time or traded.
Other plant foods utilized by the Chehalis included berries which were eaten fresh or dried for storage, crabapples, fern roots, cattail roots, wild celery roots, clover roots, cow parsnip, and salmonberry shoots.
Housing
While the stereotype of American Indians envisions them as living in tipis, the Indians of the Northwest Coast lived in substantial wooden houses. These multi-family houses were built with planks on a post and beam frame. Coast Salish houses were typically 30 to 50 feet wide, and they ranged from 50 to 200 feet in length.
In 1824, Hudson’s Bay trader John Work brought a large trading party into Grays Harbor. He reported:
“We passed 4 villages of the Chihalis [sic] nation, 2 houses in the first, five in the second, 2 in the third and 3 in the fourth, opposite which we encamped.”
Work described the houses:
“These peoples [sic] houses are constructed of planks set on end and neatly fastened at the top, those in the ends lengthening towards the middle to form the proper pitch, the roofs are cased with plank, the seams between which are filled with moss, a space is left open all along the ridge which answers the double purpose of letting out smoke and admitting the light.”
Salish houses were divided into compartments. The compartment would occupy the space between two rafters and would contain a hearth. Each compartment would be occupied by two related nuclear families. The walls were usually lined with rush mats which helped to seal the cracks between the wall planks. These mats could also be used as sleeping mats and as pillows. Along the walls there was often a bench which was used for storage and sleeping. Items would be stored both on top of the bench and underneath it.
The houses would usually be arranged in a single row facing the water. Villages might have as few as four or five houses, while many villages would have 15 or more.
Canoes
For the Chehalis and other Southwestern Coast Salish peoples, canoes were the primary form of transportation. Canoes tended to be dugout types similar to other Northwest Coast canoes and were made in different lengths and styles. In her chapter in the Handbook of North American Indians, Yvonne Hajda writes:
“The Southwestern Coast Salish were expert in handling canoes and were excellent swimmers. The importance of canoes is reflected in their use for burials and in the shaping of cradleboards to resemble canoes.”
Clothing and adornment
Men wore little clothing and for rain and cooler weather they would use ponchos of twined cattails. In her book Encyclopedia of American Indian Costume, Josephine Paterek reports:
“Some of the women wore the skirt of strands of shredded cedar bark or cat tails twined at the top and tied around the waist.”
In her chapter on the Southwestern Coast Salish in the Handbook of North American Indians, Volume 7: Northwest Coast, Yvonne Hajda writes:
“As was typical of the region, men generally went naked in summer, while women wore a knee-length skirt of shredded bark. In the winter both sexes might add a fur or skin garment, varying from a single skin around the shoulders to an ankle-length robe.”
People generally went barefoot.
With regard to adornment, both men and women would paint their faces daily. Red clay over a base of deer tallow was most commonly used. This was sometimes augmented with charcoal over the cheeks. If a person had a particularly powerful guardian spirit, the hands or forearms might be painted for ceremonies. Yvonne Hadja reports:
“Both men and women tattooed rows of dots or lines on forearms and lower legs with charcoal, but only men tattooed the face.”
When Europeans first contacted the Chehalis, it was reported that both men and women wore nose rings of shell or copper, but this practice had died out by the nineteenth century.
The Chehalis also practiced cranial deformation which was accomplished by binding an infant’s head in a particular way so that as the bones of the head grew, they would take on the desired shape.
Baskets
Chehalis basket makers used both wrapped and plain twined techniques. Shown below are some baskets which were displayed in the Polson Museum in Hoquiam, Washington.
Potlatch
One of the cultural features of the Northwest Coast Indian nations is the potlatch. The potlatch is a series of songs, dances, and rituals. As a part of the potlatch, the host clan gives away a great deal of wealth which serves as a validation of the clan’s status of the society. Wealth was important to the Indian nations of the Northwest Coast and giving it away was a way of gaining status. With regard to the potlatch among the Upper Chehalis, ethnohistorian Yvonne Hadja writes:
“Potlatching could raise a commoner’s status and failure to potlatch could lower that of a headman.”
Chehalis potlatches were generally held to name the young, to celebrate a daughter’s puberty, to celebrate the piercing of children’s ears, to mark a wedding, and to mark the end of a conflict. The guests at a potlatch see and experience the social business of the event, such as the inheritance of a name. They mentally record and validate that which has happened.
Potlatches are also held to honor the dead as well as to celebrate life transitions such as marriages and births. The potlatch brings people—both living and dead—together. One of the functions of the potlatch is to memorialize those who have died. Among most of the Northwest Coast Indian nations, death involves reincarnation.
The potlatch itself often lasts for days with special songs for greeting the arriving guests and large quantities of food. During the several days of the potlatch, the hosts provide the guests with two large meals per day.
Since Americans are obsessed with the acquisition of property, the idea of giving it away is somehow offensive. Christian missionaries opposed the potlatch, and it was banned in both Canada and the United States. However, Indian people continued the potlatch away from the government and the missionaries. The potlatch is currently legal in both countries
Marriage and Family
Writing about the Southwestern Coast Salish, Yvonne Hadja reports:
“A first marriage, especially for those of high status, required an exchange of goods between the two families, with the groom’s family giving somewhat more than the bride’s. Subsequent marriages might be arranged by the groom himself and required less in the way of goods.”
Village exogamy was practiced, which meant that the husband and wife came from different villages. Children, therefore, would have relatives in two different villages and would travel back and forth a great deal.
Yvonne Hadja also reports:
“On the death of a spouse, the family of the deceased was expected to provide a replacement, and the surviving spouse was expected to accept the replacement.”
Religion
Writing about the Southwestern Coast Salish people, Yvonne Hadja writes:
“Religious interest centered primarily on individual relationships to guardian spirits. Success in life depended on acquiring such a spirit.”
As with other Coast Salish peoples, children—both boys and girls—began training for the vision quest at about the age of seven or eight. According to Yvonne Hadja:
“When the spirit appeared, it instructed the person as to what occupation to follow, what paraphernalia to use or wear, and the appropriate song and dance to perform.”
Death
At the time of first contact with Europeans, the Coast Salish used wooden coffins and canoes set up in graveyards as a means of disposing of dead bodies. Regarding Chehalis burials, nineteenth century school superintendent Edwin Chalcraft, in his book Assimilation’s Agent: My Life as a Superintendent in the Indian Boarding School System, reports:
“It was the old-time Indian custom in burying the dead at Chehalis to have the grave shallow enough to permit the cover of the box in which the body had been placed to be level with the surface of the ground, and then build a small house, about three feet high, over the grave.”
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Note: Indians 201 is an expansion and revision of an earlier essay.