The Chehalis People and Their Reservation

The Confederated Tribes of the Chehalis Reservation occupy land in western Washington State along the Chehalis River, territory their ancestors have inhabited for thousands of years. The Chehalis people are Coast Salish, part of a broad cultural group connected by shared language roots and trade networks stretching from northern California to British Columbia. Unlike many Pacific Northwest tribes, the Chehalis were not party to the major treaties of eighteen fifty-five, which meant they initially avoided the forced land cessions but also lacked the federal recognition and reserved treaty rights those agreements, however unjustly structured, conveyed.

The reservation was established by executive order in eighteen sixty-four and has been adjusted several times since. The tribe today operates enterprises including a resort and casino that fund tribal government services, and the Upper and Lower Chehalis languages, both Salishan tongues, are no longer widely spoken, the last native speaker of Upper Chehalis having died in two thousand one.