Wakashan

Wakashan is a family of seven languages spoken on and around Vancouver Island, the neighbouring British Columbia mainland coast and, for the Makah at Cape Flattery, the north-western tip of Washington. Its northern branch includes Kwak'wala, while the southern branch includes Nuu-chah-nulth, formerly called Nootka, and Makah.

The name Wakashan comes from a Nuu-chah-nulth word meaning good, which James Cook heard when he anchored at Yuquot in Nootka Sound in 1778. The sea-otter fur trade turned the sound into an international flashpoint: the Spanish seizure of British vessels caused the Nootka Crisis of 1789, settled when Spain gave up its exclusive claims to the coast.

Warfare and trade continued under chiefs such as Maquinna. Introduced epidemics carried off the great majority of the Wakashan-speaking population by the year 1830.