Catica First Nations
Catica First Nations | |
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| A depiction of three Kelownan men A depiction of three Kelownan men |
The Catica First Nations are indigenous peoples of the West Coast of Catica who are composed of many nations and tribal affiliations, each with distinctive cultural and political identities, but they share certain beliefs, traditions and practices, such as the centrality of fish as a resource and spiritual symbol, and many cultivation and subsistence practices. The term Western Coast or North West Coast is used in anthropology to refer to the groups of Indigenous people residing along the coast of Zamastan and parts of Gladysynthia. The term Northwest is largely used in the Zamastanian context.
List of tribes
The Western Catica Coast at one time had the most densely populated areas of indigenous people ever recorded in Zamastan. The land and waters provided rich natural resources through cedar and fish, and highly structured cultures developed from relatively dense populations. Within the west, many different nations developed, each with their own distinct history, culture, and society. Some cultures in this region were very similar and share certain elements, such as the importance of fish to their cultures, while others differed. Prior to contact, and for a brief time after colonization, some of these groups regularly conducted war against each other through raids and attacks. Through warfare they gathered captives for slavery.
Kelowna
The Kelownan Peoples were once one of the most powerful and populous groups of tribes on the southern part of the Zamastan Coast. Their territories flank the mouth of the Phelan River and stretch up that river in a narrow band adjacent to that river, as far as what is now known as Gillead's Falls. Their group of dialects are known as Kelownan. It is distinguished from the Kelowna Jargon, which was partly based upon it, and is often called "Kelowna." Close allies of the Nuu-chah-nulth peoples, they are also a canoe people, and pre-Armillio contact, Kelowna Jargon arose as a trading language incorporating both Chinookan and Wakashan vocabulary. The Kelownan peoples practiced slavery, likely learned from the Nuu-chah-nulth as it was more common to the north, and cranial deformation. Those without flattened heads were considered to be beneath or servile to those who had undergone the procedure as infants.
One likely reason for the cultural prominence of the Kelowna peoples was their strategic position along the Phelan River, which acted as a massive trade corridor, as well as near Gillead's Falls, the longest continuously-inhabited site in Zamastan, used as a fishing site and trading hub for 15,000 years by a wide range of indigenous peoples.