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

Washington Washington most commonly refers to: * George Washington (1732–1799), the first president of the United States * Washington (state), a state in the Pacific Northwest of the United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A ...

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

. 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 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 industry, timber-producing area in the foothills of the Northern Oregon Coast Range north-northwest o ...

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 language, Upper Chinook: ' or '; Sahaptin language, Sahaptin: ''Nch’i-Wàna'' or ''Nchi wana''; Sinixt dialect'' '') is the largest river in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. The river headwater ...

, 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 North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere, Northern and Western Hemisphere, Western hemispheres. North Am ...

-speaking Shoalwater Bay Chinook (or Willapa Chinook) or

Clatsop The Clatsop ( Lower Chinook: ) are a Chinookan-speaking Indigenous people of 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 Co ...

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

Coast Salish peoples The Coast Salish peoples are 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 on ...

in the 19th century and their language was extinct before the 1930s." 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 River - called by the Lower Cowlitz and Upper Chehalis ''Swilaumsh''.

Archaeology

The Wolfenbarger Site is a protected archaeological site of the Willapa people near Curtis, Washington. The small parcel is part of a larger residential and agriculture village that existed between the years 1000 and 1499. The exact location is restricted to the public and considered "virtually undisturbed". It has been listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

since 1977.

References

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