Ethnos

Quinault

Quinault (tribe) is a group of Native American peoples from western Washington state in the United States. The Quinault people settled onto reservation lands after signing a treaty with the former Washington Territory in 1856. The reservation's main population lives in Taholah, Washington.

There is an original Quinault language, which is a part of the Salishan family of languages. In modern times, the Quinault is a mixture of separate indigenous peoples. The mixture of members with ethnic ties to the modern Quinault tribe is made up of the Quinault, Hoh, Chehalis, Chinook, Cowlitz, Queets, and Quileute peoples; linguistically, these groups belong to three language families: Chimakuan (Quileute, Hoh), Chinookan (Chinook groups), and Salishan (Chehalis, Cowlitz, Queets, and Quinault).

Like many Northwest Coast natives, the Quinault relied on fishing from local rivers and the Pacific Ocean for food and built plank houses (longhouses) to protect themselves from the harsh, wet winters west of the Cascade Mountains.***
See also: Quinault Indian Nation - History of the Quinaults