Coast Salish Place Names of the San Juan Islands

Many maps add our indigenous names as an afterthought. The goal of the map below is to flip the narrative to prioritize our relationship and history with this territory that have been here since time immemorial over the contemporary names that have been normalized only relatively recently by today’s broader society. This map helps to breathe life and acknowledgement into our place names as each person interacts with the audio links and locations.  

It is important for our community and the broader public to be informed that the tribes in this area were the original caretakers of this land and that we continue to do this work of protecting our mother earth for our current and future generations. 

Our language and culture contemporarily and in the past are profoundly intertwined into this landscape. It is through the language that we understand how our ancestors walked this earth and why we must always perform our sacred duty of protection to our mother earth. Our places are not separate from our language and culture, they are one with our language and culture. It is here that our stories, songs, ceremonies, and daily activities have taken place since time immemorial. This is something we want everyone to know. 

We are still here, and we always have been.  

Want to learn more about Samish Language and other projects the Language Program is involved in? Please visit our website or contact Samish Indian Nation Language Program.

StoryMap Created By: Casey Palmer-McGee, Samish Indian Nation GIS Program Manager

To learn about other StoryMaps and GIS Applications Samish has created, please visit our GIS website below: