They have a patrilineal and matrilineal kinship system, with inheritance and descent passed through the male and female line. The Tillamook or Nehalem around Tillamook, Oregon are the southernmost of the Coast Salish peoples.Ĭoast Salish cultures differ considerably from those of their northern neighbours. Their traditional territories coincide with modern major metropolitan areas, namely Victoria, Vancouver, and Seattle. Territory claimed by Coast Salish peoples span from the northern limit of the Salish Sea on the inside of Vancouver Island and covers most of southern Vancouver Island, all of the Lower Mainland and most of Puget Sound and the Olympic Peninsula (except for territories of now-extinct Chemakum people). The Coast Salish are a large, loose grouping of many nations with numerous distinct cultures and languages. The Nuxalk (Bella Coola) nation are usually included in the group, although their language is more closely related to Interior Salish languages.

They speak one of the Coast Salish languages. The Coast Salish is a group of ethnically and linguistically related Indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest Coast, living in the Canadian province of British Columbia and the U.S. For details of the language group, see Coast Salish languages.ĭistribution of Coast Salish languages in the early 19th century