Coast Salish: Their Art, Culture and Legends explores the rich heritage of the Indigenous peoples who have long inhabited the sheltered, island-dotted marine waterways of the Salish Sea across present-day Washington and British Columbia. Ashwell details how the region's dense temperate rainforests and deep coastal estuaries provided the absolute material foundation for this maritime culture, specifically through the immense western red cedars utilized for monumental carvings, longhouses, and the massive canoes required to navigate the expansive inland sea. By anchoring their vibrant mythology and seasonal subsistence cycles directly to the turbulent tidal currents and salmon-choked river basins of the Strait of Georgia and Puget Sound, the narrative illustrates a society inextricably bound to its aquatic environment. Ultimately, the book serves as a localized cultural geography, demonstrating how the complex coastal topography and abundant marine resources of the Pacific Northwest seaboard fundamentally shaped the unique artistic and spiritual identity of the Coast Salish people.

Flathead Mœurs et coutumes, Indiens Amérique du Nord Nord-Ouest, Côte Moeurs et coutumes, Salish, Salish (volk), Salish Indians Social life and customs, Salishan Indians