SNASS [snas] or [snaws] — noun. Meaning: Rain. Origin: Of obscure origin, likely a manufactured onomatopoeia. Possibly Kathlamet Chinook ch’as ch’as ch’as representing the noise of rain. A highly expressive word for rain, “snass” is said to have rhymed with the English “moss”, and is the foundation for many Chinook Wawa…...
First Dept of Bioregion Flag Making Workshop hosted in Laurentia
The Cascadia Department of Bioregion is proud to announce the completion of our first bioregional flag design workshop held in New York City, in the Laurentia Bioregion of North America. It included with attendees from three different North American bioregions and focused on how bioregional flags differ from national flags,…...
Your Chinook Wawa Word of the Day: Mahsie
MAHSIE [MAH-sie] — verb. Meaning: Thanks, thank you, thankful. Origin: French, merci ‘thank you’. Sometimes rendered as ‘masi’, ‘mausie’ and even as “masiem”, the world was adopted from French as a way of saying ‘thanks’ or ‘thank you”, or to show that one is ‘thankful’, “wawa mahsie” (to give thanks,…...
The History of the Salish Sea: Bert Webber discusses the Salish Sea in KNKX Feature
The Cascadia Department of Bioregion is excited to share this wonderful article, audio feature and Salish Sea series created by local Seattle radio station KNKX. The Salish Sea is a defining example of bioregionalism in action, and more people need to know the power of it’s creation, and of place…...
A Growing Cascadian Identity – British Columbians Identify more with Washingtonians than their Canadian Neighbors
A newly released study shows that British Columbians feel a stronger Cascadian affinity to the south than with their eastern Canadian counterparts. In total - 54 percent of British Columbians felt they had the most in common with Washington state, 18 percent picked California while just 15 per cent chose…...
Canadian Forces Illegally Enter Wet’suwet’en Country in Northern Cascadia
On January 7, 2019, at approximately 2:51pm, RCMP and military forcefully breached a peaceful checkpoint on unceded Wet’suwet’en territory. Indigenous people were ripped from their homes by militarized police. There were at least 12 confirmed arrests, including an elder, and Wet’suwet’en hereditary chiefs were blocked from their own territories....
The Cascading Cascades of Cascadia – where does the name Cascadia come from?
Cascadia — the evocative name of a region, an idea, a movement — wild and free, defined by the waters flowing from the continental crest through the headwaters of the Pacific. Cascadia is a bioregion, the place we call home, an identity, movement and positive vision for the future. But where did this name…...
The Practice of Bioregionalism: An Interview with Richard Evenoff
The Department of Bioregion is proud to share an interview between Evan O’Neil and Richard Evanoff, a professor of envrionmental ethics at Aoyama Gakuin University in Japan, who recently wrote the book Bioregionalism and Global Ethics as part of our archive of bioregionalism articles and resources. The interview originally appeared…...
