First Nations Language Groups in the Sixes Watershed

Citation:

Citation Information:

Originator: Kellog et al
Publication Date: 1995
Title: First Nations Language Groups in the Sixes Watershed
Edition: 1995
Geospatial Data Presentation Form: Map
Publication Information:

Publication Place: Portland, OR
Publisher: Ecotrust, Pacific GIS, CI

Online Linkage: http://www.ecotrust.org
Larger Work Citation:

Citation Information:

Originator: Kellog et al
Publication Date: 1995
Title: The Rain Forests of Home: An Atlas of People and Place
Publication Information:

Publication Place: Portland, Or
Publisher: Ecotrust, Pacific GIS, Conservation International

Online Linkage: http://www.inforain.org/rainforestatlas/index.htm

Description:

Abstract: First Nations Language Groups in the Sixes Watershed
Purpose:
The Rain Forests of Home reports the first results of an effort to assemble a bioregional portrait. It presents information on forest cover and indigenous languages as first proxies for forest integrity and cultural diversity throughout the entire North American coastal temperate rain forest bioregion, summarized in maps produced by a GIS. This report offers the first comprehensive picture of the rain forests of home, one that reconciles scientific definitions and administrative boundaries with the natural watershed boundaries of the coastal landscape. The holistic perspective that it provides can help identify opportunities and priorities for conservation-based development.
Supplemental Information:
When European explorers and fur traders first visited the coast, they encountered one of the highest densities of First Nations settlements found anywhere on the North American continent. Several hundred thousand First Nations people knew the forested valleys and shores as home, occupying thousands of villages and seasonal camps. More than sixty distinct languages were spoken by peoples living between the Kodiak Archipelago of Alaska and San Francisco Bay. This linguistic diversity, far greater than that of the continental interior, surely reflects the ecological complexity of the sustaining coastal lands and waters. Only in a few other places in the world did comparably advanced societies arise on a foundation of natural abundance, rather than farming or herding.
The geography of languages only begins to explore the cultural diversity, the reciprocal accommodation of people and landscape, that blossomed along this coastline. First Nations people were organized far less into discrete ""tribes"" than into a network of local and village groups for which few contemporary counterparts exist. Some groups based their economic and spiritual lives on pursuit and capture of marine mammals, others on the gathered bounty of tidelands and estuaries, still others on salmon or the mammals of upland forests. Many participated in trading networks extending throughout and beyond the region. Many individuals were multilingual, thanks to parentage, marriage, or economic necessity.

Languages, though not necessarily synonymous with distinct cultures, express a bond between people and place that offers perhaps the closest human counterpart to the adaptive ""fit"" of genetically distinct salmon stocks to their ancestral coastal streams. Oral traditions, particularly the names and stories unique to a local group, also articulate a highly intimate, and evanescent, understanding of place: ""If much of a people's knowledge about the natural world is encoded in their indigenous language, the same knowledge cannot easily be imparted in another foreign language which has not developed a specific vocabulary to describe local conditions, biota, and land management practices"" (Nabhan and St Antoine 1993).

As Franz Boas and other early ethnographers who worked among the people of the Northwest Coast found, First Nations languages arose from a worldview almost unimaginable to the European mind. The Kwak'w'ala place names Boas recorded near the northern end of Vancouver Island (Boas 1934, cited by Stafford 1986) expressed events more than features; to the speakers of Kwak'w'ala, like many of the coastal First Nations, places became memorable and nameable through the experiences that occurred in them. Each such name was pregnant with a story, one told to amuse, to instruct, to caution, or to reassure. Through the stories passed among villages and across generations arose a kind of local knowledge that has been nearly lost from the bioregion.

There is no denying the extent of indigenous cultural erosion that European settlement, the ensuing pressures for cultural assimilation, and instances of outright genocide, caused. Forty-four of 68 language groups believed to have been spoken at the time of European exploration are today extinct or spoken by fewer than ten individuals. The losses have been heaviest in the southern part of the coastal temperate rain forest region: twenty-five of 47 languages spoken in northern California, Oregon, and Washington are extinct, while only one of the 21 languages spoken in coastal British Columbia and southeastern Alaska is extinct (though five are spoken by fewer than ten people). The pattern of language extinction follows a path from south to north reflecting the time and intensity of European settlement. Overall, the numbers of fluent speakers of Native languages in the region have declined by more than 99 percent, and all of the languages along the Northwest Coast are in essence endangered since all or
nearly all of their surviving speakers are elderly.

After a century and a half of European settlement and industrial resource exploitation, First Nations populations are a fraction of their former size, native forests are smaller, and the more recent, non-Native immigrants who live in and visit the coastal zone number in the millions. But, in Tennyson's words, ""though much has been taken, much abides."" With remarkable tenacity, many First Nations have sustained the integrity of their traditions in the face of overwhelming pressure. Efforts to revive Native languages on the verge of disappearance, and to revitalize the cultural and territorial identity they express, have taken root up and down the coast. A promising path to restoration begins with stories told in the old words, in the old ways and leads back to the places that spawned them.

20040226 For purposes of Oregon Coastal Atlas project this data was projected and clipped to Sixes basin boundaries. Please refer to originators for original data and further information regarding this data

Time Period of Content:

Time Period Information:

Range of Dates/Times:

Beginning Date: Unknown
Beginning Time: Unknown
Ending Date: Unknown
Ending Time: Unknown

Currentness Reference: unknown

Status:

Progress: Complete
Maintenance and Update Frequency: Unknown

Spatial Domain:

Bounding Coordinates:

West Bounding Coordinate: -124.703537
East Bounding Coordinate: -124.134727
North Bounding Coordinate: 43.122093
South Bounding Coordinate: 42.415104

Keywords:

Theme:

Theme Keyword Thesaurus: None
Theme Keyword: Language
Theme Keyword: Native Language
Theme Keyword: First Nations
Theme Keyword: Native Americans
Theme Keyword: Social
Theme Keyword: History

Place:

Place Keyword Thesaurus: None
Place Keyword: West Coast of North America
Place Keyword: Western Oregon

Access Constraints: none
Use Constraints: none
Point of Contact:

Contact Information:

Contact Organization Primary:

Contact Organization: Ecotrust, Pacific GIS, Conservation International

Contact Position: unknown
Contact Address:

Address Type: mailing and physical address
Address: 721 NW 9th Suite 200
City: Portland
State or Province: Oregon
Postal Code: 97209
Country: USA

Contact Voice Telephone: 503.277.6225
Contact Facsimile Telephone: 503.222.151
Contact Electronic Mail Address: info@ecotrust.org
Hours of Service: 9-5

Native Data Set Environment: Arc/Info coverage format

Attribute Accuracy:

Attribute Accuracy Report: See Entity_Attribute_Information

Logical Consistency Report: Polygon topology present
Completeness Report: unknown
Positional Accuracy:

Horizontal Positional Accuracy:

Horizontal Positional Accuracy Report: unknown

Vertical Positional Accuracy:

Vertical Positional Accuracy Report: unknown

Lineage:

Source Information:

Source Citation:

Citation Information:

Originator: Wayne Suttles
Publication Date: 1985
Title: Native Languages of the Northwest Coast
Edition: 1985
Geospatial Data Presentation Form: map
Publication Information:

Publication Place: Portland, OR
Publisher: The Press of the Oregon Historical Society (Western Imprints).

Other Citation Details: scale 1:3,000,000
Online Linkage: n/a

Source Time Period of Content:

Time Period Information:

Range of Dates/Times:

Beginning Date: Unknown
Beginning Time: Unknown
Ending Date: 1985
Ending Time: Unknown

Source Currentness Reference: 1995

Source Citation Abbreviation: Native Languages of the Northwest Coast
Source Contribution: Language extents

Process Step:

Process Description:
LISA REGIONCLEAN XX00000095445 XX00000095445 LISA DROPFEATURES XX00000095445 REGION.*
LISA RESELECT XX00000095445 NATLANG4
MIKE DOCUMENT NATLANG4 CREATE
MIKE Metadata imported

Process Date: 20040226

Cloud Cover: 0

Direct Spatial Reference Method: Vector
Point and Vector Object Information:

SDTS Terms Description:

SDTS Point and Vector Object Type: GT-polygon composed of chains
Point and Vector Object Count: 487

Horizontal Coordinate System Definition:

Planar:

Map Projection:

Map Projection Name: Lambert Conformal Conic
Lambert Conformal Conic:

Standard Parallel: 43
Standard Parallel: 45.5
Longitude of Central Meridian: -120.5
Latitude of Projection Origin: 41.75
False Easting: 400000
False Northing: 0

Planar Coordinate Information:

Planar Coordinate Encoding Method: Coordinate Pair
Coordinate Representation:

Abscissa Resolution: 0.001
Ordinate Resolution: 0.001

Planar Distance Units: international feet

Geodetic Model:

Horizontal Datum Name: North American Datum of 1983
Ellipsoid Name: Geodetic Reference System 80
Semi-major Axis: 6378137
Denominator of Flattening Ratio: 298.257

Detailed Description:

Entity Type:

Entity Type Label: or_lang.pat
Entity Type Definition: Polygon Attribute Table
Entity Type Definition Source: None

Attribute:

Attribute Label: Area
Attribute Definition: Area of polygon
Attribute Definition Source: Software generated
Attribute Domain Values:

Unrepresentable Domain: Software computed

Attribute:

Attribute Label: Language
Attribute Definition: First Nation Language for the region
Attribute Definition Source: Ecotrust
Attribute Domain Values:

Unrepresentable Domain: Character Field

Attribute:

Attribute Label: Legend
Attribute Definition: unknown
Attribute Definition Source: unknown
Attribute Domain Values:

Unrepresentable Domain: Integer

Attribute:

Attribute Label: Or_lang#
Attribute Definition: Internal feature number
Attribute Definition Source: Software generated
Attribute Domain Values:

Unrepresentable Domain: Software computed

Attribute:

Attribute Label: Or_lang-id
Attribute Definition: Feature identification number
Attribute Definition Source: Software generated
Attribute Domain Values:

Unrepresentable Domain: User Defined

Attribute:

Attribute Label: Perimeter
Attribute Definition: Perimeter of polygon
Attribute Definition Source: Software generated
Attribute Domain Values:

Unrepresentable Domain: Software computed

Attribute:

Attribute Label: Source
Attribute Definition: Source of Language
Attribute Definition Source: unknown - Contact Ecotrust
Attribute Domain Values:

Unrepresentable Domain: Character Field

Distributor:

Contact Information:

Contact Organization Primary:

Contact Organization: Ecotrust
Contact Person: Mike Mertens

Contact Position: GIS Analyst
Contact Address:

Address Type: mailing and physical address
Address: 1200 NW Naito Parkway Suite 470
City: Portland
State or Province: Oregon
Postal Code: 97209
Country: USA

Contact Voice Telephone: 503-227-6225
Contact Facsimile Telephone: 503-222-1517
Contact Electronic Mail Address: mapdesk@ecotrust.org

Resource Description: Downloadable Data.
Distribution Liability:
Ecotrust makes no express or implied warrantees with respect to the character, fitness, or accuracy of the
information presented, or their appropriateness for any
users purposes

Standard Order Process:

Digital Form:

Digital Transfer Information:

Format Name: unknown

Digital Transfer Option:

Offline Option:

Offline Media: unknown
Recording Format: unknown
Compatibility Information: unknown

Fees: n/a
Ordering Instructions: unknown

Custom Order Process:
call (503) 378-2166 and request a tape or special processing for a fee

Metadata Date: 9/26/1997
Metadata Review Date: 7/25/2004
Metadata Future Review Date:
Metadata Contact:

Contact Information:

Contact Organization Primary:

Contact Organization: Ecotrust
Contact Person: Michele Dailey

Contact Position: GIS Analyst
Contact Address:

Address Type: Mailing and physical address
Address: 721 NW 9th Ave, Suite 200
City: Portlsn
State or Province: Oregon
Postal Code: 97209
Country: USA

Contact Electronic Mail Address: michele@ecotrust.org

Metadata Standard Name: FGDC CSDGM
Metadata Standard Version: FGDC-STD-001-1998