Lower Chehalis people
Lower Chehalis people
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Lower Chehalis people

The Lower Chehalis (/ʃəˈhlɪs/ shə-HAY-liss) are a Southwestern Coast Salish people indigenous to Washington state. Today, the Lower Chehalis do not maintain a distinct sovereign identity, although people of Lower Chehalis descent are enrolled in several federally recognized tribes, such as the Shoalwater Bay Indian Tribe, Confederated Tribes of the Chehalis Reservation, and the Quinault Indian Nation.

The Lower Chehalis are a Southwestern Coast Salish people, a group of four related peoples who speak closely related languages. The other three Southwestern Coast Salish include the Quinault people, Upper Chehalis people, and the Cowlitz people. The Lower Chehalis are more closely related to the Quinault than they are to the Upper Chehalis.

Historically, the Lower Chehalis were not united. Instead, several villages which spoke a common language and resided in a common geographical area were grouped together. Early American treatymakers saw these groupings as "tribes" or "bands", but anthropologist Barbara Lane stated that "tribes" as seen in early literature were "fictive political units that had no basis in native society". The highest level of official political organization was the village level. The historical groupings that spoke Lower Chehalis include:

Today, the name "Lower Chehalis" refers to all these groups combined.

Nineteenth-century ethnologist George Gibbs classified the Satsop as a Lower Chehalis group, but modern ethnographers classify them as belonging to the Upper Chehalis dialect group.

The name "Chehalis" comes from the Lower Chehalis name c̓x̣íl̕əš, the name for the principal village of the Chehalis proper, located at what is now Westport. The name c̓x̣íl̕əš literally means "sand". "Chehalis" has also been spelled Tsihalis, Tsihailish, and Chikailish. Chehalis is also what the Sts'ailes of British Columbia were formerly called.

During the first half of the 19th century, the Lower Chehalis occupied the area around Willapa Bay and the lower Chehalis River from its mouth to the Wynoochee River.

The Chehalis proper occupied the southern shore of Grays Harbor, at the mouth of the Chehalis River. Their main village was at what is now Westport. In total, contemporary reports indicated that there were five villages on the river itself, as well as seven on the north side of the bay, and eight on the south side of the bay.

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