Cowlitz (tribe)
Overview
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. The Cowlitz tribe actually consists of two distinct groups: the Upper Cowlitz, or Taidnapam, and the Lower Cowlitz, or Kawlic.
The original language
Linguistics
Linguistics is the scientific study of human language. Linguistics can be broadly broken into three categories or subfields of study: language form, language meaning, and language in context....
of Cowlitz tribes, the Cowlitz language
Cowlitz language
The Cowlitz language is a member of the Tsamosan branch of the Coast Salish family of Salishan languages.-The Cowltiz tribe:The 'Cowlitz tribe' was originally two distinct tribes: the Lower Cowlitz and the Upper Cowlitz...
, belonged to the Salishan family
Salishan languages
The Salishan languages are a group of languages of the Pacific Northwest...
of languages among Northwest Coast indigenous peoples. Later, the Upper Cowlitz adopted the Sahaptin language
Sahaptin language
Sahaptin , Sħáptənəxw, is a Plateau Penutian language of the Sahaptian branch spoken in a section of the northwestern plateau along the Columbia River and its tributaries in southern Washington, northern Oregon, and southwestern Idaho....
from east of the Cascade Mountains
Cascade Range
The Cascade Range is a major mountain range of western North America, extending from southern British Columbia through Washington and Oregon to Northern California. It includes both non-volcanic mountains, such as the North Cascades, and the notable volcanoes known as the High Cascades...
.
The Cowlitz were federally acknowledged on February 14, 2000, and their acknowledgement was reaffirmed in 2002.
