Along the Oregon Coast are numerous bands of Penutian and Athabaskan speakers.Along the Columbia River, from its mouth to the Cascade Mountains, are the several groups of Chinookan-speakers.The Salish include the contiguous tribes and bands of southwest British Columbia, Canada, and western Washington state, the outlying Nuxalk of the central British Columbia coast, and the Tillamook of the northern Oregon coast.The Wakashan area, found along the south-central coast of British Columbia and the nearby eastern shores of Vancouver Island (both in Canada), is composed of the Kwakwala-speaking peoples, including the Haisla, Heiltsuk (Bella Bella), Oweekeno, and Kwakwaka’wakw, as well as the Nootkan-speaking Nuu-chah-nulth, Ditidaht, and Makah.The Tlingit (pronounced KLINK-it), Haida ( HIGH-da), and Tsimshian (which includes the Nisga’a, Gitksan, and coastal and southern Tsimshian) are often called the “northern matrilineal tribes.” This means that family name and inheritance, as well as rights to property and privileges, are passed down through the mother’s side of the family. In the northern area the defining characteristic is the matrilineal kinship system.The Pacific Northwest culture area can be divided into five cultural regions based on similarity of culture and/or language: Their oral traditions and religious expression emphasize the importance that the resources of these environments have held in their cultures. Living between the Pacific Ocean and the coastal mountain ranges, the Native people of the Pacific Northwest are traditionally oriented towards coastal and riverine (full of rivers) areas. There are over three dozen separate identifiable groups in the Pacific Northwest culture area, representing a variety of different language groups and cultures. The Pacific Northwest extends from Yakutat Bay, Alaska, in the north to roughly the California-Oregon border in the south.
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