- Chehalis (tribe)
Chehalis (tribe) is a group of Native American peoples from western
Washington state in theUnited States . They should not be confused with the similarly-namedChehalis people of theHarrison River in theFraser Valley area ofBritish Columbia , although the two groups may be related. Fact|date=February 2007The Chehalis tribe in Washington consists of two distinct subtribes: The
Upper Chehalis and theLower Chehalis . Within these two groups were several subgroups: theCopalis ,Wynoochee andHumptulips people were part of the Upper Chehalis subtribe, while theSatsop people were part of the Lower Chehalis subtribe.The
Chehalis language belongs to theCoast Salish an family of languages among Northwest Coast indigenous peoples. One interesting trait of the language is that the linguistic form defaults to feminine; the word for "woman" can include everyone as the word "man" can in English.Like many Northwest Coast natives, the Chehalis relied on fishing from local rivers for food and built plank houses (longhouses) to protect themselves from the harsh, wet winters west of the Cascade Mountains.
The Chehalis people settled on their current Chehalis Indian Reservation along the Chehalis River in
1860 . The reservation has a land area of 18.188 km² (7.022 sq mi) in southeastern Grays Harbor and southwestern Thurston Counties. As of the 2000 census its resident population was 691 persons. The major communities within the reservation are Chehalis Village and part of the city of Oakville.References
* [http://factfinder.census.gov/servlet/DTTable?_bm=y&-context=dt&-ds_name=DEC_2000_SF1_U&-CHECK_SEARCH_RESULTS=N&-CONTEXT=dt&-mt_name=DEC_2000_SF1_U_P001&-mt_name=DEC_2000_SF1_U_P003&-tree_id=4001&-all_geo_types=Y&-redoLog=false&-transpose=N&-_caller=geoselect&-geo_id=25000US0575&-geo_id=27300US0575530279228811568&-geo_id=27300US0575530279228850430&-search_results=ALL&-format=&-fully_or_partially=N&-_lang=en&-show_geoid=Y Chehalis Reservation, Washington] United States Census Bureau
External links
* [http://www.chehalistribe.org/ The Confederated Tribes of the Chehalis]
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