Twana

Indigenous group in North America

the language

Twana (Twana: təwəʔduq) is the collective name for a group of nine Coast Salish peoples in the northern mid Puget Sound region. The Skokomish are the main surviving group and self identify as the Twana today. The spoken language, also named Twana, is part of the Central Coast Salish language group. The Twana language is closely related to Lushootseed. The nine groups making up the Twana are the Dabop, Quilcene, Dosewallips, Duckabush, Hoodsport, Skokomish, Vance Creek, Tahuya, and Duhlelap. By 1860 there were 33 settlements in total, with the Skokomish making up the majority of the population. Most descendants of all groups now are citizens of the Skokomish Indian Tribe and live on the Skokomish Indian Reservation at Skokomish, Washington.

Ancestral origins of the Twana include the Proto Salish people of the northwest Americas who migrated into Washington and split into 23 distinct tribes, each speaking its own language. The trade was so extensive that the sea otter population was almost diminished by 1792, and there was subsequently little non native contact in the region for about 30 years. The Twana along with dozens of nearby tribes then experienced the ceding of their land with a series of treaties, starting with the Oregon Treaty (1846) and later the Washington Territory (1853).

Native Americans of the Coast Salish region resided in semi permanent villages, usually moving between summer and winter locations over the course of the year in accordance with fishing and crop seasons. Winter locations consisted of permanent plank houses and summer locations held temporary tent style dwellings. Permanent villages could include homes, sweat houses, and potlatch houses. Twana chiefs had their own speaker that delivered speeches to the villagers. There were individuals who made morning calls to wake up the village as well. Status and wealth was divided among social classes. Ceremonies included the winter dance, soul recovery, elaborately painting boards, and Tamanawas. Twana potlatches could be held at any time of the year but were common in the winter. The extravagant gathering was hosted or sponsored by an individual man or group of men, who were the gift donors. Guests were invited from nearby villages and tribes, who recipients of the hosts' gifts, as a display of wealth and power. These items of wealth could include woven blankets, dentalia, clamshell disk beads, robes, pelts, bone war clubs, canoes, and slaves. Upon death, bodies were not buried but placed in canoes or grave boxes, followed by a ceremonial gathering that included a feast and the deceased's belongings being given away. Some upper class individuals of the Twana were members of a secret society, named after the society sprit "growling of an animal." The society held exclusive events similar to the potlatch, with an individual sponsor, feasts, and gifting. All members of the society possessed the society spirit, acquired through initiation. Members of the society were usually wealthy or upper class, and initiation took place in adolescence. Initiation included several stages: showing the society spirit (where members ceremonially danced with duck shaped rattles), laying down initiates (the initiates were sent into an unconscious trance after the society spirit possessed them), playing of the society spirit (members perform more dances for one or more nights), reviving the entranced initiates (the initiates, still unconscious, have blood dripped onto them and yelling society members lift them in the air a number of times until they awaken and run into the forest), bathing [ritually] the initiate (initiates are bathed in a river by their parents, given ceremonial garments, fed, and taught the secret society spirit dance), and working or practicing the initiate (society members and new initiates practice the society spirit dance and novices become entranced, represented by vomiting blood).

Today, most of the Twana population live on the Skokomish Indian Reservation and the Chehalis Indian Reservation. On the Skokomish Reservation, Twana members hold personal naming and salmon run festivals. There is a tribal K 4 school on the Reservation. The Twana language is spoken and taught through a language project, and similarly there is a basket project that several neighboring tribes take part in.