Salish peoples

The Arlee Espapqeyni Celebration is a yearly 4 July powwow hosted by the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes and is located in Arlee, Montana. It runs for a period of several days and involves dance competitions and singing competitions (and non-competitive singing and drum performances).[8]

In 1884 the BIA (Bureau of Indian Affairs) made it illegal for any Indian dances to be performed, and so the tribes danced in secret.[8] A new, religiously-influenced dance called the Ghost Dance began spreading from tribe to tribe at a rate that the U.S. government was wary of, and in 1890 a military unit was dispatched to Wounded Knee to interrupt a ceremony of the Ghost Dance among the Sioux. Roughly 200 Sioux were gunned down in what is now known as the Wounded Knee Massacre.

Modern powwows came about after the armistice of World War 1, when Native American veterans returned home from war; celebrations were held for their homecoming and included traditional dances. A new sense of community also came into being with the end of the war, along with the proximity of reservations to one another, and the celebrations began to include neighboring tribes rather than remain exclusive to individual tribes.[9]

When Plains Indians were resettled in urban areas following World War II, per the policy of the U.S. government, their culture and traditions went with them and became widely spread—which is why many powwow dances and songs are from the Plains tradition. This dispersal of people and culture into large community centers also tightened the inter-tribal networks that had come into existence after the first World War.[9]

Detail of a woven Salish cloak

Salish weavers used both plant and animal fibers. Coast Salish peoples kept flocks of woolly dogs, bred for their wool, to shear and spin the fibers into yarn. The Coast Salish would also use mountain goat wool, waterfowl down, and various plant fibers including cedar bark, nettle fiber, milkweed and hemp. They would combine these materials in their weaving. A type of white clay was pounded into the fibers, possibly for the purpose of extracting oil from the wool.[10] Not all Salish blankets were made with dog's wool—commoners' blankets were usually made of plant fibers. The designs of Salish weavings commonly featured graphical patterns such as zig-zag, diamond shapes, squares, rectangles, V-shapes and chevrons.[11][12]

In the early to mid-nineteenth century, the fur trade brought Hudson's Bay blankets to the Pacific Northwest. The influx of these cheaper, machine-made blankets led to the decline of native wool blankets that were expensive and labor-intensive to produce. Salish weaving continued to a lesser extent, but the weavers largely transitioned to using sheep's wool yarn brought to the area by traders, as it was less costly than keeping the salmon-eating woolly dogs.[13]

There was a revival of Salish weaving in the 1960s, and the Salish Weavers Guild was formed in 1971.[14]

Objects made with cedar at Tulalip Tribes Hibulb Cultural Center

Plentiful in the Pacific Northwest, the Western Red Cedar was a vital resource in Coast Salish peoples' lives. Canoes, longhouses, totem poles, baskets, mats, clothing, and more were all made using cedar.

Totem poles were less common in Coast Salish culture than with neighboring non-Salish Pacific Northwest Coast peoples such as the Haida, Tsimshian, Tlingit, and Kwakiutl tribes. It wasn't until the twentieth century that the totem pole tradition was adopted by the northern Coast Salish peoples including the Cowichan, Comox, Pentlatch, Musqueam, and Lummi tribes. These tribes created fewer free-standing totem poles, but are known for carving house posts in the interior and exterior of longhouses.[15][16][17][18]

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  Musqueam interior house post
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  Musqueam exterior house posts
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  Cowichan housefront with carved house posts
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  Salish wooden carvings at The Field Museum, Chicago
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  Totem pole by Lummi carver Joe Hillaire, 1962
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  "Musqueam welcome figures" by Susan A. Point in the International Arrivals hall of Vancouver International Airport

Salish peoples located in the Pacific Northwest and parts of Southern Alaska were known to build totem poles that were meant to symbolize a tribe member's spirit animal or family crest. They continue on this legacy today by selling hand carved totem poles formed in the same fashion.[19]

• Susan A. Point is a Musqueam wood carver and glass artist. Her work "Musqueam Welcome Figures", inspired by Coast Salish house posts, is featured in the Vancouver International Airport.
• Matika Wilbur is a Swinomish and Tulalip photographer, and the creator of Project 562, which documents contemporary Native Americans from the 562 federally-recognized tribes in the United States.[20]
• Debra Sparrow is a Musqueam artist and weaver. Her weaving was featured in The Fabric of Our Land: Salish Weaving exhibit at the Museum of Anthropology in 2017-2018.[21]
• Corwin Clairmont is a Salish Kootenai printmaker, and a conceptual and installation artist.