The Willapa or Willoopah, also known as Kwalhioqua / Kwalhiokwa, were a Northern Athapaskan-speaking people in southwestern

Washington Washington commonly refers to: * Washington (state), United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A metonym for the federal government of the United States ** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered o ...

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

. Their territory was the valley of the

Willapa River The Willapa River is a river on the Pacific coast of southwestern Washington in the United States, approximately long. It drains an area of low hills and a coastal plain into Willapa Bay, a large estuary north of the mouth of the Columbia River. ...

and the prairie between the headwaters of the

Chehalis Chehalis may refer to: People * Chehalis people, a Native American people of Washington state **Lower Chehalis language **Upper Chehalis language * Sts'Ailes people (Chehalis people), a First Nation in British Columbia * Chehalis First Nation, Bri ...

and

Cowlitz River The Cowlitz River is a river in the state of Washington in the United States, a tributary of the Columbia River. Its tributaries drain a large region including the slopes of Mount Rainier, Mount Adams, and Mount St. Helens. The Cowlitz has a ...

s. Together with the Clatskanie people (also: ''Tlatskanai / Klatskanai'', according to tradition originally part of the "Suwal/Swaal" subgroup) in the upper Nehalem River Valley and along the headwaters of the Klaskanine and

Clatskanie River The Clatskanie River is a tributary of the Columbia River, approximately long, in northwestern Oregon in the United States. It drains a timber-producing area in the foothills of the Northern Oregon Coast Range north-northwest of Portland. It ...

in northwestern Oregon they spoke dialects of the now extinct Kwalhioqua-Clatskanie (Kwalhioqua–Tlatskanai) language, the Willapa dialect was the most divergent. The Kwalhioqua lived north of the lower

Columbia River The Columbia River (Upper Chinook: ' or '; Sahaptin: ''Nch’i-Wàna'' or ''Nchi wana''; Sinixt dialect'' '') is the largest river in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. The river rises in the Rocky Mountains of British Columbia, C ...

, the Clatskanie (Tlatskanai) to the south, separated by the territory of the

Lower Chinook Lower Chinook is a Chinookan language spoken at the mouth of the Columbia River on the west coast of North America. Dialects * Clatsop (Tlatsop) was spoken in northwestern Oregon around the mouth of the Columbia River and the Clatsop Plains ...

-speaking Shoalwater Bay Chinook (or Willapa Chinook) or

Clatsop The Clatsop is a small tribe of Chinookan-speaking Native Americans in the Pacific Northwest of the United States. In the early 19th century they inhabited an area of the northwestern coast of present-day Oregon from the mouth of the Columbia R ...

and the Kathlamet (Cathlamet), who spoke another Chinookan variant. The Kwalhioqua-Clatskanie people were dispersed among

Coast Salish peoples The Coast Salish is a group of ethnically and linguistically related Indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest Coast, living in the Canadian province of British Columbia and the U.S. states of Washington and Oregon. They speak one of the Coa ...

in the 19th century and their language was extinct before the 1930s." Victor Golla, Atlas of the World's Languages 2007 pg. 17 The Willapa or Kwalhioqua had two subdivisions or subgroups: * the Suwal or Swaal (or "Upper Willapa River Valley Kwalhioqua") on headwaters of the Chehalis River - called by the Lower Cowlitz and Upper Chehalis ''Owhillapsh''. * the Wela'pakote'li or Willapa (or "Lower Willapa River Valley Kwalhioqua") on Willapa Riverhttp://www.hiddenhistory.com/page3/swsts/wash1.HTM#Kwalhioqua (Swanton) - called by the Lower Cowlitz and Upper Chehalis ''Swilaumsh''.

References

Native American history of Washington (state) Native American tribes in Washington (state) {{Washington-stub