The Lower Chehalis (/ʃəˈheɪlɪs/ ⓘ shə-HAY-liss) are a Southwestern Coast Salish people indigenous to Washington state.
In an effort to assuage tensions and regain the trust of the Chehalises, the HBC trader John Work distributed tobacco to members of the tribe.
[1] In the 1830s, a malaria epidemic devastated the lower Columbia Valley, shifting the organization and composition of local peoples.
[10] Around the early 19th century, the leader of the main Chehalis village at Westport was a "very old man" named Kakowan.
[6] After the 1846 Oregon Treaty and the 1850 Donation Land Claim Act, American settlers began to displace Indigenous peoples in the region.
[6] In order to extinguish Indian title, territorial governor Isaac Stevens began a treaty process in the spring of 1855.
The Lower Chehalis (along with other groups) refused to leave their homes and live with the Quinault, and Stevens cancelled the treaty process.
Nesmith recommended a treaty be concluded with the Upper and Lower Chehalises and the Cowlitz, so that their claims to the land could be extinguished.
[11] In 1858, agents reported that the Lower Chehalis were facilitating a liquor trade across the coast of Washington state.
[12] The traditional culture of the Lower Chehalis was widely influenced by their maritime environment, and was closely related to their neighbors, with local variation.
Lower Chehalis also historically travelled south to the Columbia River to partake in the large summer chinook runs.
[14] Plants were also used by the Lower Chehalis, including nuts, berries, roots, and camas, but were less important to their diet than to their inland neighbors.
The Lower Chehalis often traded harvested camas to the inland tribes for whom it was a major resource.
[15] Other resources the Lower Chehalis traded to their inland neighbors included clams, sturgeon, and seal oil.
[15] Traditionally, the Lower Chehalis built gable-roofed houses made of cedar planks.
On the inside, the floor was excavated about a foot deep, or perhaps deeper, and walls were lined with mats.
Along the walls ran a 4 ft-wide (1.2 m) by 4 ft-high sleeping platform and a shorter bench below it for sitting.
Training to acquire powers started at a very early age, typically seven or eight, and a quest was taken around adolescence.
The Lower Chehalis likely had a position of "speaker" as did the Quinault, a person chosen to announce the chief's intentions to other members of the village.
The "tribes" as described in early literature were groups of people who had shared linguistic and geographic ties, but there was no formal organization at this level.
Other members of the household included the wife, unmarried children, married sons and their wives, poor relatives, slaves, and visitors.