Chehalis (tribe)

The Chehalis people or Tsihalis are a native people of western Washington state in the United States. They should not be confused with the similarly named Chehalis First Nation of the Sts'Ailes people along the Harrison River in the Fraser Valley area of British Columbia.

“Ts-a-lis” (“place of sand”) or “Chi-ke-lis” (“shifting sands”) is the Lower Chehalis word for a historic native village at today Westport. Early explorers pronounced the word “Chehalis” and gave this name to the river and the people living upriver who later became the "Chehalis people" or “People of the Sands”.

The Chehalis people of Washington consists of two divisions, speaking two distinct languages, which were not mutually intelligible: The Upper Chehalis or Kwaiailk and the Lower Chehalis, the boundary between the two groups was the confluence of the Chehalis River and Satsop River.

Today Chehalis people are enrolled in the federally recognized Confederated Tribes of the Chehalis Reservation (Upper and Lower Chehalis), the Quinault Tribe of the Quinault Reservation (predominately Lower Chehalis), Shoalwater Bay Tribe (Lower Chehalis), and Cowlitz Indian Tribe (Upper Chehalis). Chehalis-Population estimates in United States (2010) counts about 250 Upper Chehalis, and 500 Lower Chehalis.

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