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Content: Your online source for the best in Pacific Northwest Coast Native art, books, and information. Northwest Coast Culture and Art
Pacific Northwest Coast Culture and Art
For thousands of years, people like 
	Suquamishleader Chief Seattlelived along the shores of what are now
    the states of Washington and Alaska in the United States and the province of British
    Columbia in Canada. This favorable living corridor is hemmed in to the east by the Coastal
    Mountains, to the west by the Pacific Ocean, and to the south by the Columbia River. The region’s resource-rich environment, with its mild, temperate climate and
    cornucopia of food—especially salmon and berries—made it easy for its people to
    establish permanent villages. The settled way of life, constant supply of food, and long
    winter rains also allowed them to develop a very advanced social and spiritual life that took
    advantage of a great variety of beautifully decorated objects, the best of which reached
    the level of the highest art. Northwest Coast artis on a par with the classical art of Greece, Rome, and Egypt. It
    was even a big influence on European Cubists and Surrealists, who saw in it a reflection
    of their aesthetic principles--thousands of years before Europeans developed them! The Northwest Coast includes many cultures: Tlingit, Haida, Tsimshian,
      Kwakiutl, Nuxalk, Nuu-chah-nulth, and
    Coast Salish. To the untrained eye, the art created by these different cultures has enough
    similarities to be mistaken for a single identity.