Published in 1895, Joseph A. Costello’s The Siwash: Their Life, Legends and Tales is an early ethnographic compilation documenting the oral traditions, daily customs, and folklore of the Coast Salish peoples across the Puget Sound region. A keen insight drawn from the text is how the author's reliance on the Chinook Jargon term "Siwash"—derived from the French word for "savage"—exposes the inherent paradox of late 19th-century settler literature, which eagerly commodified and preserved Indigenous heritage while viewing the people themselves through a deeply paternalistic, colonial lens. The narrative compiles regional creation myths, spiritual practices, and historical anecdotes, filtering complex indigenous histories through the perspective of the incoming white pioneers. Ultimately, the volume stands as both a foundational, albeit flawed, archive of Pacific Northwest Native American legends and a revealing historical artifact of the era's complex attitudes toward indigenous displacement.

vii, [3], 169 pages : frontispiece, plates, portraits ; 24 cm