"The concept of defining sharp boundaries in order to set off the territory of one group from that of another is typical of Anglo-Americans, but it is a foreign concept to Native Americans. They had loosely defined use areas, and the territory of one group would often heavily overlap with those of others.

The white man needs boundaries in order to draw his maps, but Native Americans never held the concept of being able to say that anyone owns a part of the Earth Mother. She owns us. Numerous different groups might be together in one huckleberry patch. The following boundaries are to be understood in a general sense as the basic use areas of the four Cowlitz Tribal bands. Aboriginally, the Cowlitz had the largest land-base of all the Western Washington tribes.

Get the Story:
The Long View: History of the Cowlitz Indian Tribe (The Centralia Chronicle 7/7)

Related Stories:
History: Cowlitz Tribe met to elect a new president in June 1937 (06/14)
History: Cowlitz Tribe battled relocation to reservation in 1912 (6/12)