Salishi

Salish peoples are divided into two groups: inland and coastal. The former inhabit highlands and valleys from the Cascade Mountains and Coastal Ranges to the Rocky Mountains , the Columbia and Fraser river basins. The second inhabit British Columbia in Canada, the states of Washington and Oregon in the USA.

Salishi speak Salish languages .

Inner salishi are divided into groups according to linguistic characteristics: northern ( Shuswapi , Thompson, Lilluet) tribes in Canada, southeastern ( Kalispel , flatheads , Spokane , Ker-d'alen , colwil, okanagan) in the United States. The names of the languages ​​are similar.

The coastal salishi consists of 6 groups: bellacula, northern, central, southern, southwest, tillamook.

• The northern group includes the Komalko (245 people), Klachus (127 people), Slamen (560 people), Comox, Pentlach (55 people), Sishelt (708 people) peoples.
• Central (16 thousand people): Squamish, Halkameil (20 tribes, the language is Halkameil), Nuksek, 6 tribes who speak the language of Northern Streets, Clallam.
• South includes 40 tribes that speak the language of Lushutsid (16 thousand people), and 9 tribes that speak the language of Twan (18 thousand people). These include the Skokomish , Quilssim , Daleilip , Swinomish , Snowhomish, Puellap, Niskwalli, and other tribes.
• The southwestern group includes the languages ​​Quinolt, Chesheilis, Kaulits.
• Tillamook - includes one language.

Internal salishi belong to the cultural-economic type of the Indians of the plateau. Their occupations are gathering , fishing and hunting . Over river channels they built platforms from which salmon was beaten with jails or caught with nets. The dwelling is a semi-dugout with a log mount and an entrance through a smoke hole, or a gable hut, covered with bark or reed. Used dugout boats, canoes from spruce bark.

Coastal salish type refers to coastal Indians. Their occupations are fishing, hunting, gathering, sea hunting. Sometimes whaling . Northern salishi hunted seals, salmon, dolphin, deer, collected mollusks, baked pastries from dried berries. Carved wood , weaving , weaving . Houses - wooden, summer huts, covered with mats. Clothing, for example, at the southern coastal salishi, - capes and skirts from strips of cedar bark, sweaters. They also sewed blankets from the skins of dogs and goats. Clothing was different depending on the cultural type and climate. Weaving used a spindle . A common hunting tool is a yew bow with arrows. Body painting was practiced.

Separate tribes adopted horse breeding from the prairie Indians, hunting for buffalo, dwelling - tipi. Puellap and Niskvalli adopted horse breeding from the Sahaptins in the 18th century.

Bellakula - the most northern and isolated group, the culture is close to the Subarctic Indians. Big game hunting prevails among them; one of the most important objects of hunting is a snow goat. Food mainly - meat, fish and land products (berries, nuts, roots, shoots, bulbs).

Like other Indians of America, the Salish developed totemism, shamanism, animism, and magic. One of the myths tells of the supreme deity Alkhentama, who created four carpenters, who already have everything else: relief and all living things (including people). Other popular mythical heroes are Mink and Raven. Tillamook had faith in the Children's Land, in which life preceded birth.

Before the arrival of Europeans, Salish tribes maintained ties with neighboring peoples, Atapascans, Sahaptins, traded or fought. Contacts with the British began in the 2nd half of the 18th century, mainly in trade. Flatheads were loyal to the American authorities after the formation of the independent United States, but were at odds with the black-footed. At the end of the XIX century, gradually all the tribes were resettled in the reservation.

Modern salishi are engaged in fishing and fish farming, logging, horse breeding, rent land, serve tourists, extract uranium, and work in agriculture. The reservations have their own restaurants, retail outlets, and small enterprises.

• Sea Selish

• Encyclopedia " Peoples and religions of the world ." - M .: "The Great Russian Encyclopedia", 1998. - 928 p. - ISBN 5-85270-155-6 .
• Salishi // Tatars - Topopik. - M .: Soviet Encyclopedia, 1956. - S. 425-426. - (The Great Soviet Encyclopedia : [in 51 vols.] / Ch. Ed. B.A. Vvedensky ; 1949-1958, vol. 42).