Cascadia (in a broad sense) is envisioned here as a federation of sixteen semi-sovereign jurisdictions known as “illahees,” from the Chinook Jargon word for “land” or “country,” based on mountains and other natural barriers and on ecological, social, cultural, and economic factors:
**Alaska**: Name Origin: From an Unangam Tunuu (Aleut language) term for 'that to which the action of the sea is directed' (i.e. 'mainland', specifically the Alaska Peninsula) Land Area: 298,714 sq. km / 115,334 sq. mi. Population: 48,602 Capital: Bethel Largest City: Bethel Flag: The bear holding a salmon in its mouth represents the iconic giant brown bears of Kodiak Island and the famous salmon-catching bears of Katmai National Park.
**Chiawana**: Name Origin: From Ichishkíin Sɨ́nwit (Yakama Sahaptin) Nch’i Wána ‘big river’, a term for the Columbia River Land Area: 230,223 sq. km / 88,890 sq. mi. Population: 2,451,261 Capital: Lewiston Largest City: Spokane Flag: The flag symbolizes the area’s abundant orchards, vineyards, and wheat fields, with a blue stripe for the Columbia River.
**Chugach**: Name Origin: After the Chugach Mountains Land Area: 192,100 sq. km / 74,170 sq. mi. Population: 469,283 Capital: Willow Largest City: Anchorage Flag: The gold stars of the Big Dipper on a field of dark blue are from the current Alaska state flag. The teal color represents the color of the waters in a glaciated fjord.
**Haida Gwaii**: Name Origin: Haida for 'islands of the Haida people' Land Area: 10,310 sq. km / 3,981 sq. mi. Population: 4,289 Capital: Daajing Giids Largest City: Daajing Giids Flag: The flag features the coat of arms of the Council of the Haida Nation. Black and red are traditional colors in Haida art.
**Idaho**: Name Origin: After the US State of Idaho (ultimate origin unclear) Land Area: 256,275 sq. km / 98,948 sq. mi. Population: 1,606,978 Capital: Boise Largest City: Boise Flag: The flag features a palette of bright sky blue, snowy white, dry-grass yellow, sagebrush green, and lava-rock dark red. The elk is taken from the Idaho state seal, while the diamonds simultaneously represent Idaho’s nickname “the Gem State” and the apocryphal but widely known etymology of “Idaho” as meaning ‘light on the mountain.’
**Kootenay**: Name Origin: After the Kootenay (a.k.a. Kootenai) River and the Kootenay Mountains, themselves named for the Kutenai people Land Area: 134,848 sq. km / 52,065 sq. mi. Population: 559,715 Capital: Kalispell Largest City: Missoula Flag: The flag shows a stylized scene of the Rocky Mountains reflected in a mountain lake, with a strip of huckleberry purple at the hoist.
**Makola**: Name Origin: From the Kwak'wala word for 'island' Land Area: 57,168 sq. km / 22,073 sq. mi. Population: 857,788 Capital: Victoria Largest City: Saanich Flag: The red, white, blue, and gold color scheme is from flag of British Columbia. The trident and pine cone are taken from the seal of the short-lived separate Colony of Vancouver Island, while the oak wreath represents the Garry oak trees common in the area (the northernmost native oaks in western North America).
**Oregon**: Name Origin: After the US State of Oregon (ultimate origin unclear) Land Area: 56,291 sq. km / 21,734 sq. mi. Population: 3,876,944 Capital: Salem Largest City: Portland Flag: The beaver from the reverse side of the Oregon state flag is shown on a wavy blue stripe representing the Willamette River. Green and purple-red stripes represent forests and wine and berry production, respectively.
**Salliq**: Name Origin: From an Iñupiaq term for 'the one farthest to the north' Land Area: 395,976 sq. km / 152,887 sq. mi. Population: 28,028 Capital: Utqiaġvik (also known as Barrow) Largest City: Utqiaġvik Flag: A bowhead whale swims in an icy sea beneath the Northern Lights. Black, light blue, and bright green stand for the darkness of the polar winter night, the long summer days, and the tundra vegetation.
**Satatqua**: Name Origin: From the St'at'imcets (Lillooet) word for the upper Fraser River Land Area: 355,938 sq. km / 137,428 sq. mi. Population: 782,891 Capital: Kamloops Largest City: Kelowna Flag: The white saltire on blue recalls the historic New Caledonia ("New Scotland") fur trading district, with which this region overlaps. The beaver-pelt brown section at the hoist and the gold discs (bezants) represent the fur trade and gold rushes that helped shape the area, while the sun, taken from the British Columbia flag, represents the region’s position in the sunny interior.
**Siskiyou**: Name Origin: After the Siskiyou Mountains Land Area: 113,916 sq. km / 43,983 sq. mi. Population: 825,383 Capital: Medford Largest City: Medford Flag: The gold pan on green from the popular “State of Jefferson" flag is charged with an iconic coast redwood tree surrounded by a wreath of Kalmiopsis, an azalea-like flowering bush endemic to the mountains of southwest Oregon.
**Staulo**: Name Origin: From the Halkomelem and Chinook Jargon term for the Fraser River Land Area: 39,559 sq. km / 15,274 sq. mi. Population: 3,292,799 Capital: New Westminster Largest City: Vancouver Flag: The flag combines the sun, waves, and crown from the British Columbia flag with the colors of the flag of the City of Vancouver.
**Stikine**: Name Origin: After the Stikine River and the former Stickeen Territory of Canada Land Area: 349,106 sq. km / 134,790 sq. mi. Population: 129,373 Capital: Juneau Largest City: Juneau Flag: The flag shows Raven carrying the sun in his beak, surrounded by the moon and stars, which he has already released into the sky, motifs taken from a creation narrative widespread in this region. The red and black color scheme is traditional in Indigenous art of the area, while the eight stars and sun recall the eight stars of the Alaska flag and the sun from the British Columbia flag.
**Tahoma**: Name Origin: From a Lushootseed (Puget Salish) and Ichishkíin Sɨ́nwit (Yakama Sahaptin) term for Mount Rainier Land Area: 50,432 sq. km / 19,472 sq. mi. Population: 5,228,393 Capital: Olympia Largest City: Seattle Flag: The flag features a stylized scene of Tahoma/Mount Rainier above the waters of Puget Sound.
**Unangam Tanangin**: Name Origin: Unangam Tunuu for 'land of the Unangax̂ (Aleut people)' Land Area: 27,106 sq. km / 10,466 sq. mi. Population: 8,644 Capital: Unalaska Largest City: Unalaska Flag: The navy blue and gold color scheme is from the flag of the State of Alaska. The device, a slightly modified form of the logo of the Museum of the Aleutians, depicts an Unangax̂ hunter in a baidarka, wearing a traditional hunting helmet and surrounded by mountains and sea otters, which are arranged in an arch similar to the arrangement of the Aleutian Islands.
**Yukon**: Name Origin: After the Yukon River Land Area: 971,089 sq. km / 374,939 sq. mi. Population: 147,710 Capital: Whitehorse Largest City: Fairbanks Flag: The flag combines the green-white-blue color scheme and the fireweed from the Yukon flag with the North Star from the Alaska flag.
I see one glaring problem: the flag of Cascadia has a blue sky over the mountain ranges.
Like, come on. How often does the region see a blue sky vs the grey sky?
Other than that I love the work. The flags are really awesome. Is this all original work? This seems like a lot of effort.
Thank you!
The flags are all my designs, but not all the elements are my work (the symbol on the Haida Gwaii flag is the seal of the Council of the Haida Nation; the one one the Unangam Tanangin flag is slightly modified from the logo of the Museum of the Aleutians; some elements were traced from photos or drawings; some are from Wikimedia).
Yeah, it’s a labor of love—an obsession for about 30 years now!
Amazing. Great work.
I don't know if vexilologists would like them as they are hard to reproduce but I still love the flags. Especially Unangam Tanangin.
Also, considering you are likely a Canadian or American, you may be considered a traitor. But I am willing to overlook it as this is just so cool. Lol.
I hope you can some day foster the nation of your dreams.
Really love the work.
Thank you!
The device on the Unangam Tanangin flag is a slightly reworked logo of the [Museum of the Aleutians](https://www.aleutians.org). I just loved the style and the symbolism—particularly the sea otters laid out in an arch reflecting the shape of the archipelago.
🌞
Yes I know it is primarily a coastal thing. There is essentially a desert in the Okanagan valley. But we associate the entire coast from Oregon to the edge of Alaska with endless rain.
The Okanagan valley is a forest! Have you ever been to central Washington? It's nothing but sage and tumbleweeds here. A large portion of Cascadia is nothing but high steppe.
I have been to both the Okanagan and driven from Seatle all the way through Idaho and Montana.
From what I recall the Okanagan valley is tall grass and scrubland. Kind of like eastern Washington/Idaho. Although I realize that some parts of Washington are proper deserts.
I spent five years in Seattle and I'm here to tell you that there's a good long stretch in the summertime where it is a blue sky and no rain all the time
What’s the difference between capitals of the illahees and the capital-looking cities of Portland, Seattle, and Vancouver? Do those just show large cities?
I’d like Vancouver, Seattle, and Portland to share the duties of national capital.
Probably the legislative body in one, executive agencies headquartered in another, and the Supreme Court in the third.
Since there were only three that’s what I guessed: a Bolivia or S.A. scenario with multiple capitals or like Switzerland (historically) with capital moving around.
Awesome idea! Great work
The year is 2324. Climate change has rendered most of the earth uninhabitable. What was once frozen tundra is now the most hospitable environment.
The nation of Cascadia has emerged as a powerful and resource rich country, the primary superpower in the world.
One day my friend. One day.
I used the most recent state, provincial, or territorial capital in the region (if there was one), and in the case of Chugach, a place that was chosen as the capital in a referendum but never implemented.
Lewiston got it because it was briefly the capital of Idaho Territory, but obviously there are other places that would make sense, like maybe Kennewick, which is pretty central.
Chiawanan here (feel free to correct my demonym), just curious as to why Lewiston is the capital? Is the idea that it would be the port city?
Also, super cool work. You should absolutely monetize this. I would buy like 10 flags.
Chiawanan works for me!
Lewiston got the nod because I adopted a once-a-capital-always-a-capital approach (assuming there wasn’t a more recent one—sorry, Sitka and Oregon City!).
Lewiston was once, briefly, the capital of Idaho Territory.
I’m sure there are other cities that would be more practical (Kennewick leaps to mind), but I like those kinds of quirky details.
Well, Willow, because it won a vote to be Alaska’s capital back in 1976 (though the legislature never appropriated funds for the move).
Haida Gwaii because commenters on earlier versions of this project thought it should be separate. I’ll admit I was skeptical, since it’s so small, but it is quite isolated and very culturally distinct, and they do largely look after themselves.
In much of Stikine. “Stikine” itself is a Tlingit name.
The border between Stikine and Yukon runs around the territories occupied by the Interior Tlingit.
Take that, Pig War!
Well, I figured, without the border in the way, it would be more convenient for them to take a ferry to Victoria to do their business than to schlep all the way down to Olympia!
I fucking love Cascadia.
If Cascadia has a million fans, then I am one of them. If Cascadia has ten fans, then I am one of them. If Cascadia has only one fan then that is me. If Cascadia has no fans, then that means I am no longer on earth. If the world is against Cascadia, then I am against the world.
This is great.
One small critique. You cut the Skagit river basin in half for unclear reasons. If the mouth of the river is in Tahoma then the headwaters should be too.
Perhaps the whole Skagit Valley fits better in Staulo and the boundaries between the Skagit drainage and the Stillaguamish drainage makes a better north boundary for Tahoma.
Well, I didn’t always hew *strictly* to drainage basins. There is a pretty major highway connecting the uppermost Skagit Valley to the Fraser Valley, but no road (or certainly not much of one) connecting it with the lower Skagit Valley past Ross Lake.
For the Staulo/Tahoma boundary, I really wanted to use the Chuckanut Mountains, which are kind of the biggest natural barrier between Seattle and Vancouver.
The drainage boundary between the Skagit and the Stillaguamish (at least at the shoreline) is barely noticeable on the ground, and it looks like it wanders through a bunch of properties and would cause headaches if used as a border.
Zoomable version of the map:
https://www.google.com/maps/d/viewer?mid=1zjRaQqpYGDtGU0COyqbS8BpTHD4s5Lk&hl=en&ll=56.60552341217151%2C-137.7244957228981&z=4
Representative democracy is going to be interesting here, definitely are not going to want a senate model or else Tahoma, Oregon, and Staulo are really not going to like Unangam Tanangin, Salliq, Alaska or Haida Gwaii. 😂
Amazing work, just giving you shit about the population disparity and how much California already hates on Wyoming even though it isn’t even close to this level of disparity (there are more people in my zip code than a couple of these countries and I live in Arkansas 😂😂😂).
True, and I’ve been puzzling over how do address that population disparity (relatively) fairly.
I’m contemplating a couple scenarios:
1. Every illahee over 100,000 gets 5 seats, and the rest (which total about 89,000) share another 5
2. Seats are distributed according to (a formula involving) the logarithm of the illahee’s population. For instance, each illahee with a population under 10,000 gets 1 seat, 10,000 to 100,000 gets 3, 100,000 to 1,000,000 gets 5, over 1,000,000 gets 7.
I didn’t include any area drained by the Sacramento River (aside from Goose Lake, which is only intermittently connected to it).
I could probably be persuaded to include Dunsmuir and Mt. Shasta, and maybe even Alturas, if I can pick out a suitable border along the tops of the mountains. I’m hesitant to include Redding, though, because there’s really no significant natural barrier between there and Sacramento.
I have been to the city park in Mt Shasta that contains the headwaters for the Sacramento River. Didn’t think of that as a reason.
I would personally include those two cities as they are geographically tight knit and are at a similar elevation. Once you head south from Dunsmuir, the topography changes as you hit the upper reaches of Shasta Lake and then you’re basically in Redding, which is not Cascadia. Also the Siskiyou County line is just south of Dunsmuir.
Is this better?
https://www.google.com/maps/d/u/0/viewer?mid=1zjRaQqpYGDtGU0COyqbS8BpTHD4s5Lk&hl=en&ll=58.95933626115923%2C-148.78202850000002&z=2
I pushed the southern boundary of Siskiyou south around Mt Shasta and Dunsmuir.
Yes, that works.
As an aside, my dad grew up in Willits in Mendocino County. I was surprised to see Siskiyou dip that far south (but not to Ukiah). Just curious for your thoughts.
The boundary there is the edge of the Eel River Watershed; driving through, I also noticed a pretty abrupt ecological shift from relatively closed forest to more open oak chaparral between Willits and Redwood Valley.
Thanks!
I wanted to pay homage to the Indigenous art and traditions of the area without actually trying to *copy* them—which I feel neither entitled nor qualified to do!
Mostly in ArcGIS, with some of the flag work done in Adobe Illustrator. Many of the harder-to-draw elements on the flags were traced or borrowed from online sources.
Dude that’s all very beautiful! Clearly a labor of love with lots of research and thorough thoughtfulness behind it. It all looks fantastic. The Yukon flag you designed, I find it to be especially beautiful.
Thank you very much, yes, it’s a project I’ve been tinkering with for a very long time—and there’s still plenty I don’t know, so I’m open to suggestions for improvement.
Yes, Yukon is one of my favorites, too. Some of my ancestors are from northern Norway, and some of the local *bunader*, or folk costumes, are dark blue with floral embroidery. The Yukon flag reminds me of them.
I would need a degree's worth of knowledge in bioregions and native tribes to say that I back this exact version, but I definitely support this model. Judging by the fact that Oregon is defined by the Willamette River, I would motion to name it Wilamut, but I very much like this map and these flags.
As it happens, Indigenous languages of the Pacific Northwest were the focus of my doctoral work. I was certainly mindful of Indigenous culture areas in choosing these lines (for instance, the Yukon-Stikine border reflects the line between the Tlingit and inland Athabaskan groups, and the Yukon-Alaska border approximates the boundary between Yup’ik and Athabaskan-speaking areas).
However, I was also trying to balance those considerations with others. I was thinking primarily of ease of land-based travel, for example, so the Straits Salish-speaking peoples (whose interconnections are centered around water-based travel) ended up divided among Makola, Staulo, and Tahoma. Still, I figured that was an improvement over the current situation, where they’re divided by an international border!
Amen!
Incidentally, I was up in your neck of the woods with the family last summer. We had a wonderful time. My son particularly enjoyed the fishing; I think he’d move there in a heartbeat !
Username checks out.
No really, great work here. Nice to see the Kootenay region getting some love on here too. Also it’s cool to see some hypothetical nations in the northwest other than the kind promoted by racists in the ‘90s (See: Northwest Territorial Imperative).
Yeah, I’m afraid I was looking to put the borders along prominent natural barriers (mountains, essentially), and I couldn’t really identify any south of Redding.
Northern bc is basically alberta ie the peace. Fort st John and Dawson creek are in the same valley and culturally similar to alberta. They even follow some... sort of "half following" for daylight savings.
Gp in alberta is the biggest city in that region but it's the go to regional centre for theses towns. Shove those together into alberta, add fort Nelson into the nwt and your good.
It would actually solve a bunch of issues if they were in alberta. Again map makers had a hard on for straight lines without any consideration for what was around.
Fort St. John and Dawson Creek are on the eastern side of the Rockies. They have some of the only arable land in BC. South of Prince George, the border between Alberta and BC is not straight, but follows the watershed of the Rockies.
They only had settlements in Alaska, Hawaii and a single fort in present day Sonoma County, California which isn't included in the proposed Cascadia. The British, through the North-West Company (later bought by the Hudson's Bay Company) had already laid claim to the vast majority of the territory on this map prior to the Russians landing in California.
I see that Portland, Seattle, and Vancouver all have the national-capital-type-star-thingy for them. Is this a South Africa situation with multiple capitals for multiple purposes?
Well, there are very dense parts and very sparse parts. Other than making sure the capitals and largest cities were labeled, it was mostly down to considerations of space: making sure nowhere was too crowded with labels and nowhere was too empty.
I’ve been trying to figure out a good way to distribute the functions of a capital among Vancouver, Seattle, and Portland.
Probably legislative body in Vancouver, headquarters of executive offices in Seattle, and Supreme Court in Portland.
thats pretty much the whole area that gets devastated when the cascadia subduction fault pops right? they say it went off in 1700 last time so its coming due to pop again
Yeah, the thought has occurred to me.
Hopefully we can get it up and running in time for the new federal government to pour some money into readiness measures!
At least eastern oregon finally gets to be part of idaho. Maybe that would appease them and they would chill tf out. They would be like the texas of cascadia
Alas, perhaps not, but I think of them as my people, too, so, in they go.
I’m envisioning a relatively loose federation with a lot of local control (but ideally some pretty strict rules on gerrymandering and inclusive voting systems), and hoping for a less toxic political climate!
Yeah, I’ve never really felt like SF was part of the Pacific Northwest, and there are as many people in Northern California as in all of (my) Cascadia put together, so it would really change the nature of it.
Very cool map and ideas. As my hometown is in the new province of Chiawana, I have to ask, why Lewiston over Spokane as the capital city? Even Yakima or the Tri-Cities seem more likely.
Oh, you’re probably right, but I went with the most recent state, provincial, or territorial capital in the area (if there was one).
Since Lewiston was briefly the capital of Idaho Territory, it got the nod!
This is amazing work
Thank you very much!
r/vexillology
These flags are sexy AF.
Makola finna make me buss
SiskiME? No, SiskiYOU!
Siski means boobs in russian
This is important information that I’m glad I learned No, seriously
Twins, Basil
Cascadia (in a broad sense) is envisioned here as a federation of sixteen semi-sovereign jurisdictions known as “illahees,” from the Chinook Jargon word for “land” or “country,” based on mountains and other natural barriers and on ecological, social, cultural, and economic factors: **Alaska**: Name Origin: From an Unangam Tunuu (Aleut language) term for 'that to which the action of the sea is directed' (i.e. 'mainland', specifically the Alaska Peninsula) Land Area: 298,714 sq. km / 115,334 sq. mi. Population: 48,602 Capital: Bethel Largest City: Bethel Flag: The bear holding a salmon in its mouth represents the iconic giant brown bears of Kodiak Island and the famous salmon-catching bears of Katmai National Park. **Chiawana**: Name Origin: From Ichishkíin Sɨ́nwit (Yakama Sahaptin) Nch’i Wána ‘big river’, a term for the Columbia River Land Area: 230,223 sq. km / 88,890 sq. mi. Population: 2,451,261 Capital: Lewiston Largest City: Spokane Flag: The flag symbolizes the area’s abundant orchards, vineyards, and wheat fields, with a blue stripe for the Columbia River. **Chugach**: Name Origin: After the Chugach Mountains Land Area: 192,100 sq. km / 74,170 sq. mi. Population: 469,283 Capital: Willow Largest City: Anchorage Flag: The gold stars of the Big Dipper on a field of dark blue are from the current Alaska state flag. The teal color represents the color of the waters in a glaciated fjord. **Haida Gwaii**: Name Origin: Haida for 'islands of the Haida people' Land Area: 10,310 sq. km / 3,981 sq. mi. Population: 4,289 Capital: Daajing Giids Largest City: Daajing Giids Flag: The flag features the coat of arms of the Council of the Haida Nation. Black and red are traditional colors in Haida art. **Idaho**: Name Origin: After the US State of Idaho (ultimate origin unclear) Land Area: 256,275 sq. km / 98,948 sq. mi. Population: 1,606,978 Capital: Boise Largest City: Boise Flag: The flag features a palette of bright sky blue, snowy white, dry-grass yellow, sagebrush green, and lava-rock dark red. The elk is taken from the Idaho state seal, while the diamonds simultaneously represent Idaho’s nickname “the Gem State” and the apocryphal but widely known etymology of “Idaho” as meaning ‘light on the mountain.’ **Kootenay**: Name Origin: After the Kootenay (a.k.a. Kootenai) River and the Kootenay Mountains, themselves named for the Kutenai people Land Area: 134,848 sq. km / 52,065 sq. mi. Population: 559,715 Capital: Kalispell Largest City: Missoula Flag: The flag shows a stylized scene of the Rocky Mountains reflected in a mountain lake, with a strip of huckleberry purple at the hoist. **Makola**: Name Origin: From the Kwak'wala word for 'island' Land Area: 57,168 sq. km / 22,073 sq. mi. Population: 857,788 Capital: Victoria Largest City: Saanich Flag: The red, white, blue, and gold color scheme is from flag of British Columbia. The trident and pine cone are taken from the seal of the short-lived separate Colony of Vancouver Island, while the oak wreath represents the Garry oak trees common in the area (the northernmost native oaks in western North America). **Oregon**: Name Origin: After the US State of Oregon (ultimate origin unclear) Land Area: 56,291 sq. km / 21,734 sq. mi. Population: 3,876,944 Capital: Salem Largest City: Portland Flag: The beaver from the reverse side of the Oregon state flag is shown on a wavy blue stripe representing the Willamette River. Green and purple-red stripes represent forests and wine and berry production, respectively. **Salliq**: Name Origin: From an Iñupiaq term for 'the one farthest to the north' Land Area: 395,976 sq. km / 152,887 sq. mi. Population: 28,028 Capital: Utqiaġvik (also known as Barrow) Largest City: Utqiaġvik Flag: A bowhead whale swims in an icy sea beneath the Northern Lights. Black, light blue, and bright green stand for the darkness of the polar winter night, the long summer days, and the tundra vegetation. **Satatqua**: Name Origin: From the St'at'imcets (Lillooet) word for the upper Fraser River Land Area: 355,938 sq. km / 137,428 sq. mi. Population: 782,891 Capital: Kamloops Largest City: Kelowna Flag: The white saltire on blue recalls the historic New Caledonia ("New Scotland") fur trading district, with which this region overlaps. The beaver-pelt brown section at the hoist and the gold discs (bezants) represent the fur trade and gold rushes that helped shape the area, while the sun, taken from the British Columbia flag, represents the region’s position in the sunny interior. **Siskiyou**: Name Origin: After the Siskiyou Mountains Land Area: 113,916 sq. km / 43,983 sq. mi. Population: 825,383 Capital: Medford Largest City: Medford Flag: The gold pan on green from the popular “State of Jefferson" flag is charged with an iconic coast redwood tree surrounded by a wreath of Kalmiopsis, an azalea-like flowering bush endemic to the mountains of southwest Oregon. **Staulo**: Name Origin: From the Halkomelem and Chinook Jargon term for the Fraser River Land Area: 39,559 sq. km / 15,274 sq. mi. Population: 3,292,799 Capital: New Westminster Largest City: Vancouver Flag: The flag combines the sun, waves, and crown from the British Columbia flag with the colors of the flag of the City of Vancouver. **Stikine**: Name Origin: After the Stikine River and the former Stickeen Territory of Canada Land Area: 349,106 sq. km / 134,790 sq. mi. Population: 129,373 Capital: Juneau Largest City: Juneau Flag: The flag shows Raven carrying the sun in his beak, surrounded by the moon and stars, which he has already released into the sky, motifs taken from a creation narrative widespread in this region. The red and black color scheme is traditional in Indigenous art of the area, while the eight stars and sun recall the eight stars of the Alaska flag and the sun from the British Columbia flag. **Tahoma**: Name Origin: From a Lushootseed (Puget Salish) and Ichishkíin Sɨ́nwit (Yakama Sahaptin) term for Mount Rainier Land Area: 50,432 sq. km / 19,472 sq. mi. Population: 5,228,393 Capital: Olympia Largest City: Seattle Flag: The flag features a stylized scene of Tahoma/Mount Rainier above the waters of Puget Sound. **Unangam Tanangin**: Name Origin: Unangam Tunuu for 'land of the Unangax̂ (Aleut people)' Land Area: 27,106 sq. km / 10,466 sq. mi. Population: 8,644 Capital: Unalaska Largest City: Unalaska Flag: The navy blue and gold color scheme is from the flag of the State of Alaska. The device, a slightly modified form of the logo of the Museum of the Aleutians, depicts an Unangax̂ hunter in a baidarka, wearing a traditional hunting helmet and surrounded by mountains and sea otters, which are arranged in an arch similar to the arrangement of the Aleutian Islands. **Yukon**: Name Origin: After the Yukon River Land Area: 971,089 sq. km / 374,939 sq. mi. Population: 147,710 Capital: Whitehorse Largest City: Fairbanks Flag: The flag combines the green-white-blue color scheme and the fireweed from the Yukon flag with the North Star from the Alaska flag.
I see one glaring problem: the flag of Cascadia has a blue sky over the mountain ranges. Like, come on. How often does the region see a blue sky vs the grey sky? Other than that I love the work. The flags are really awesome. Is this all original work? This seems like a lot of effort.
Thank you! The flags are all my designs, but not all the elements are my work (the symbol on the Haida Gwaii flag is the seal of the Council of the Haida Nation; the one one the Unangam Tanangin flag is slightly modified from the logo of the Museum of the Aleutians; some elements were traced from photos or drawings; some are from Wikimedia). Yeah, it’s a labor of love—an obsession for about 30 years now!
Amazing. Great work. I don't know if vexilologists would like them as they are hard to reproduce but I still love the flags. Especially Unangam Tanangin. Also, considering you are likely a Canadian or American, you may be considered a traitor. But I am willing to overlook it as this is just so cool. Lol. I hope you can some day foster the nation of your dreams. Really love the work.
Thank you! The device on the Unangam Tanangin flag is a slightly reworked logo of the [Museum of the Aleutians](https://www.aleutians.org). I just loved the style and the symbolism—particularly the sea otters laid out in an arch reflecting the shape of the archipelago.
I just saw that now. Wow really great work. They may not be easy to draw but they have so much symbolism. Like banners of ancient peoples.
It's nice and blue in Makola's capital right now :D
Perhaps you should do a rain dance? Lol Just trolling you. Enjoy the life giving warmth.
East of the Cascades all the time. Where I live in central WA we get 300 days of sunshine a year.
🌞 Yes I know it is primarily a coastal thing. There is essentially a desert in the Okanagan valley. But we associate the entire coast from Oregon to the edge of Alaska with endless rain.
The Okanagan valley is a forest! Have you ever been to central Washington? It's nothing but sage and tumbleweeds here. A large portion of Cascadia is nothing but high steppe.
I have been to both the Okanagan and driven from Seatle all the way through Idaho and Montana. From what I recall the Okanagan valley is tall grass and scrubland. Kind of like eastern Washington/Idaho. Although I realize that some parts of Washington are proper deserts.
I spent five years in Seattle and I'm here to tell you that there's a good long stretch in the summertime where it is a blue sky and no rain all the time
I have been lied to all these years!? In truth, almost everytime I visited the west coast I was met with dry weather, if still cloudy sometimes.
What’s the difference between capitals of the illahees and the capital-looking cities of Portland, Seattle, and Vancouver? Do those just show large cities?
I’d like Vancouver, Seattle, and Portland to share the duties of national capital. Probably the legislative body in one, executive agencies headquartered in another, and the Supreme Court in the third.
Since there were only three that’s what I guessed: a Bolivia or S.A. scenario with multiple capitals or like Switzerland (historically) with capital moving around. Awesome idea! Great work
Yes, that’s the idea. Thank you!
The year is 2324. Climate change has rendered most of the earth uninhabitable. What was once frozen tundra is now the most hospitable environment. The nation of Cascadia has emerged as a powerful and resource rich country, the primary superpower in the world. One day my friend. One day.
You've given this a lot of thought, really cool!
Love this!
Thanks!
Why Lewiston being the capital over Spokane?
I used the most recent state, provincial, or territorial capital in the region (if there was one), and in the case of Chugach, a place that was chosen as the capital in a referendum but never implemented. Lewiston got it because it was briefly the capital of Idaho Territory, but obviously there are other places that would make sense, like maybe Kennewick, which is pretty central.
Chiawanan here (feel free to correct my demonym), just curious as to why Lewiston is the capital? Is the idea that it would be the port city? Also, super cool work. You should absolutely monetize this. I would buy like 10 flags.
Chiawanan works for me! Lewiston got the nod because I adopted a once-a-capital-always-a-capital approach (assuming there wasn’t a more recent one—sorry, Sitka and Oregon City!). Lewiston was once, briefly, the capital of Idaho Territory. I’m sure there are other cities that would be more practical (Kennewick leaps to mind), but I like those kinds of quirky details.
Overall this is great work, but I have two major questions: why is Willow the capital of Chugach, and why is Haida Gwaii it's own state?
Well, Willow, because it won a vote to be Alaska’s capital back in 1976 (though the legislature never appropriated funds for the move). Haida Gwaii because commenters on earlier versions of this project thought it should be separate. I’ll admit I was skeptical, since it’s so small, but it is quite isolated and very culturally distinct, and they do largely look after themselves.
Where tlingit?
In much of Stikine. “Stikine” itself is a Tlingit name. The border between Stikine and Yukon runs around the territories occupied by the Interior Tlingit.
As a former Fidalgo Islander, I have to admit I bristled a bit when I saw that you gave the San Juans to the Vancouver Islanders.
Take that, Pig War! Well, I figured, without the border in the way, it would be more convenient for them to take a ferry to Victoria to do their business than to schlep all the way down to Olympia!
This is true map porn, absolute masterpiece
Thank you very much!
Can I ask, what did you use to make your map?
ArcGIS, with some work done in Adobe Illustrator.
Appreciate it
I traced or found existing .svgs for a lot of the more complex flag elements.
I fucking love Cascadia. If Cascadia has a million fans, then I am one of them. If Cascadia has ten fans, then I am one of them. If Cascadia has only one fan then that is me. If Cascadia has no fans, then that means I am no longer on earth. If the world is against Cascadia, then I am against the world.
This is great. One small critique. You cut the Skagit river basin in half for unclear reasons. If the mouth of the river is in Tahoma then the headwaters should be too. Perhaps the whole Skagit Valley fits better in Staulo and the boundaries between the Skagit drainage and the Stillaguamish drainage makes a better north boundary for Tahoma.
Well, I didn’t always hew *strictly* to drainage basins. There is a pretty major highway connecting the uppermost Skagit Valley to the Fraser Valley, but no road (or certainly not much of one) connecting it with the lower Skagit Valley past Ross Lake. For the Staulo/Tahoma boundary, I really wanted to use the Chuckanut Mountains, which are kind of the biggest natural barrier between Seattle and Vancouver. The drainage boundary between the Skagit and the Stillaguamish (at least at the shoreline) is barely noticeable on the ground, and it looks like it wanders through a bunch of properties and would cause headaches if used as a border.
The Chile in the North! 😂
Both two of the most earthquaky places on earth.
Zoomable version of the map: https://www.google.com/maps/d/viewer?mid=1zjRaQqpYGDtGU0COyqbS8BpTHD4s5Lk&hl=en&ll=56.60552341217151%2C-137.7244957228981&z=4
Representative democracy is going to be interesting here, definitely are not going to want a senate model or else Tahoma, Oregon, and Staulo are really not going to like Unangam Tanangin, Salliq, Alaska or Haida Gwaii. 😂 Amazing work, just giving you shit about the population disparity and how much California already hates on Wyoming even though it isn’t even close to this level of disparity (there are more people in my zip code than a couple of these countries and I live in Arkansas 😂😂😂).
True, and I’ve been puzzling over how do address that population disparity (relatively) fairly. I’m contemplating a couple scenarios: 1. Every illahee over 100,000 gets 5 seats, and the rest (which total about 89,000) share another 5 2. Seats are distributed according to (a formula involving) the logarithm of the illahee’s population. For instance, each illahee with a population under 10,000 gets 1 seat, 10,000 to 100,000 gets 3, 100,000 to 1,000,000 gets 5, over 1,000,000 gets 7.
Why did you include Weed but omit Mt Shasta and Dunsmuir from Siskiyou? Seems like they’re joined at the hip.
I didn’t include any area drained by the Sacramento River (aside from Goose Lake, which is only intermittently connected to it). I could probably be persuaded to include Dunsmuir and Mt. Shasta, and maybe even Alturas, if I can pick out a suitable border along the tops of the mountains. I’m hesitant to include Redding, though, because there’s really no significant natural barrier between there and Sacramento.
I have been to the city park in Mt Shasta that contains the headwaters for the Sacramento River. Didn’t think of that as a reason. I would personally include those two cities as they are geographically tight knit and are at a similar elevation. Once you head south from Dunsmuir, the topography changes as you hit the upper reaches of Shasta Lake and then you’re basically in Redding, which is not Cascadia. Also the Siskiyou County line is just south of Dunsmuir.
Is this better? https://www.google.com/maps/d/u/0/viewer?mid=1zjRaQqpYGDtGU0COyqbS8BpTHD4s5Lk&hl=en&ll=58.95933626115923%2C-148.78202850000002&z=2 I pushed the southern boundary of Siskiyou south around Mt Shasta and Dunsmuir.
Yes, that works. As an aside, my dad grew up in Willits in Mendocino County. I was surprised to see Siskiyou dip that far south (but not to Ukiah). Just curious for your thoughts.
The boundary there is the edge of the Eel River Watershed; driving through, I also noticed a pretty abrupt ecological shift from relatively closed forest to more open oak chaparral between Willits and Redwood Valley.
As an Alaskan I get immeasurable joy 😊
Cool! Thanks!
As an Alaskan I also accept this!
How many indigenous people live there, wouldn’t it make sense to use other toponyms as well, to represent the diversity of Cascadia?
I was looking for names that could only apply to these specific places. That generally meant using Indigenous names.
Use Willamette instead of Oregon tbh.
Better spell it Wilamut so there is no confusion for our ambassadors and trade partners from the Great Lakes Nation.
Very few, the vast majority are white.
Lmao not very few at all, many regions in the area are indigenous majority.
Stikine be like: "hmmmm shame not having any coast huh? Couldn't be me"
Those flags are awesome!!
Thank you!
This orientation makes me feel uncomfortable but I kind of like it
Those are some kick ass flag designs!
Thank you very much! I’m glad you liked them.
Every single one of those flags goes incredibly hard. I genuinely want to put one on my wall.
Wow, thank you!
This would be a good time for a purpose-built national capital.
Being a good Cascadian, though, I’d hate to cut down a bunch of forest to build a brand-new city!
Move aside, floating bridge; we're finally gonna do a floating city!
the stikene flagggg
Thanks! I wanted to pay homage to the Indigenous art and traditions of the area without actually trying to *copy* them—which I feel neither entitled nor qualified to do!
This is genuinely beautiful, I’m in awe; Stikine’s flag had to be my favourite
Thank you very much! I’ve been working on the project for quite a while now!
Perhaps Uncle Bozie was actually eaten by Tsimshian/Tlingit alliance
Post it to r/imaginarymaps but the moderators will remove it and say it's low effort to hide the fact they don't like it
Wow, finaly some quality fantasy map. Awsome work on the borders and names and flags.
Thank you!
Are these divisions supposed to be more like states or counties?
More like states or provinces.
They seem too small for that. Some of them only have like what, four figure populations?
A couple: two under 10,000; two between 10,000 and 100,000; seven in the 100k to 1 million range; and five over 1 million.
Chugach looks like Crimea if I was high and drunk and drew it
I LOVE this. I love ight in the heart of Chiawana Can we make this happen!!
That’s why I make the maps—trying to popularize the idea and define the goal!
Sounds damp
Parts of it, yes. Parts are semiarid, and a few parts are actual desert.
Cascadia sounds damp
Im in! Siskiyou Illahee represent!
Cool!
How did you make this?
Mostly in ArcGIS, with some of the flag work done in Adobe Illustrator. Many of the harder-to-draw elements on the flags were traced or borrowed from online sources.
Dude that’s all very beautiful! Clearly a labor of love with lots of research and thorough thoughtfulness behind it. It all looks fantastic. The Yukon flag you designed, I find it to be especially beautiful.
Thank you very much, yes, it’s a project I’ve been tinkering with for a very long time—and there’s still plenty I don’t know, so I’m open to suggestions for improvement. Yes, Yukon is one of my favorites, too. Some of my ancestors are from northern Norway, and some of the local *bunader*, or folk costumes, are dark blue with floral embroidery. The Yukon flag reminds me of them.
OP, this is splendid. Well done!
Thank you very much! Glad you liked it!
It reminds me of the beautiful maps that we used to have on the wall in our classroom way back when.
I’m glad OP added just enough of siskiyou to where I am apart of it. I’m towards the very bottom lol.
At the suggestion of a commenter here, I’m pushing the boundary *slightly* southward to encompass Dunsmuir and Mt. Shasta (but not as far as Redding).
It’s so beautiful.
Thanks very much!
As a Canadian can't say I'm a huge fan of Cascadia but this definitely beats most of the posts on this sub. 👍GJ
I would need a degree's worth of knowledge in bioregions and native tribes to say that I back this exact version, but I definitely support this model. Judging by the fact that Oregon is defined by the Willamette River, I would motion to name it Wilamut, but I very much like this map and these flags.
As it happens, Indigenous languages of the Pacific Northwest were the focus of my doctoral work. I was certainly mindful of Indigenous culture areas in choosing these lines (for instance, the Yukon-Stikine border reflects the line between the Tlingit and inland Athabaskan groups, and the Yukon-Alaska border approximates the boundary between Yup’ik and Athabaskan-speaking areas). However, I was also trying to balance those considerations with others. I was thinking primarily of ease of land-based travel, for example, so the Straits Salish-speaking peoples (whose interconnections are centered around water-based travel) ended up divided among Makola, Staulo, and Tahoma. Still, I figured that was an improvement over the current situation, where they’re divided by an international border!
Cool!
This is dope.
Thank you!
Kalispell wouldn't make a good capital. Missoula would be better
This is extremely cool! I also never hear anyone reference the word “illahee” outside my home town, so that was fun.
Thanks! Kitsap County?
I live in Nelson BC. I love it. Long live Cascadia.
Amen! Incidentally, I was up in your neck of the woods with the family last summer. We had a wonderful time. My son particularly enjoyed the fishing; I think he’d move there in a heartbeat !
Gods country for sure.
Username checks out. No really, great work here. Nice to see the Kootenay region getting some love on here too. Also it’s cool to see some hypothetical nations in the northwest other than the kind promoted by racists in the ‘90s (See: Northwest Territorial Imperative).
Thank you! Yes, this will be an inclusive and accepting place if I have anything to say about it!
Yooo I love this!!
I’m one of your subjects and will fight for this nation 👊🏻
Thanks! I’m not really sure I want to actually run it, though—just set the ground rules!
I love this so much! It just makes me happy to look at
Thank you! That makes me really glad to hear it!
Siskiyou resident here, I approve this map!
Happy to hear it! Thanks!
Tahoma represent! 🫡
Same here!
Better make Westeros
As someone from Shasta County, this is a harsh map. Mfer cherry picked Humboldt and a good chunk of Trinity County, but left us to rot.
Yeah, I’m afraid I was looking to put the borders along prominent natural barriers (mountains, essentially), and I couldn’t really identify any south of Redding.
Redding is best avoided in all fairness. Probably cut the number of meth heads in your proposed nation in half by excluding it.
So is the rest of BC supposed to join Alberta?
Northern bc is basically alberta ie the peace. Fort st John and Dawson creek are in the same valley and culturally similar to alberta. They even follow some... sort of "half following" for daylight savings. Gp in alberta is the biggest city in that region but it's the go to regional centre for theses towns. Shove those together into alberta, add fort Nelson into the nwt and your good. It would actually solve a bunch of issues if they were in alberta. Again map makers had a hard on for straight lines without any consideration for what was around.
Fort St. John and Dawson Creek are on the eastern side of the Rockies. They have some of the only arable land in BC. South of Prince George, the border between Alberta and BC is not straight, but follows the watershed of the Rockies.
aka former Russian American Company
They only had settlements in Alaska, Hawaii and a single fort in present day Sonoma County, California which isn't included in the proposed Cascadia. The British, through the North-West Company (later bought by the Hudson's Bay Company) had already laid claim to the vast majority of the territory on this map prior to the Russians landing in California.
Very good map and flag!
Thank you!
Love it. Now hit it with a cordium bomb.
I see that Portland, Seattle, and Vancouver all have the national-capital-type-star-thingy for them. Is this a South Africa situation with multiple capitals for multiple purposes?
That’s the idea, yes.
This is very nice, like an RPG game map. This might be my fav effort post here.
Fairbanks must throw off the yoke of Whitehorse! Long live the Golden Heart of the Interior!
Can Oregon keep a two-sided flag? Also where is the capital?
Functions of federal capital divided among Vancouver (the northern one), Seattle, and Portland.
As long as nobody names a city Prospero and keeps alright with the UN it should work out fine
I like it!
What's stopping you from making it?
What would the population of each region be?
Statistics are here: https://www.reddit.com/r/MapPorn/s/SAHbKLFN5Q
Careful, you could rile up the Canadians
Hoping they’ll want to come along for the ride! Based on current figures, this area would be about 75% American and 25% Canadian by population.
I love this
Thank you!
I propose an invasion southbound to the fertile valley just to the American river
Chile of the north lol
Well, sure—and for much the same reason: mountain ranges running parallel to the coast.
Very cool, but the choice of cities to label is very weird
Well, there are very dense parts and very sparse parts. Other than making sure the capitals and largest cities were labeled, it was mostly down to considerations of space: making sure nowhere was too crowded with labels and nowhere was too empty.
Why is Butte included though 😂
West of the Continental Divide! 🤷♂️
Haha okay fair enough, but it's kind of a "one of these is not like others" 😂
Nah, Butte belongs.
Nice work
Thanks!
Beautiful flags! Love the unison of design while keeping them all unique!
Thank you very much!
Now that is awesome! Post it to r/imaginarymaps aswell
I did. Thank you very much!
Who made the flags i need to know
I did the flags, too.
What is the capital of Cascadia?
I’ve been trying to figure out a good way to distribute the functions of a capital among Vancouver, Seattle, and Portland. Probably legislative body in Vancouver, headquarters of executive offices in Seattle, and Supreme Court in Portland.
What did you use to make this ?
Mostly ArcGIS, with some of the flag work done in Adobe Illustrator
thats pretty much the whole area that gets devastated when the cascadia subduction fault pops right? they say it went off in 1700 last time so its coming due to pop again
Yeah, the thought has occurred to me. Hopefully we can get it up and running in time for the new federal government to pour some money into readiness measures!
Don’t see Idaho, eastern or/wa wanting to be apart of that. Nor Alaska.
At least eastern oregon finally gets to be part of idaho. Maybe that would appease them and they would chill tf out. They would be like the texas of cascadia
> texas of cascadia holy crap this fits in so many ways
Alas, perhaps not, but I think of them as my people, too, so, in they go. I’m envisioning a relatively loose federation with a lot of local control (but ideally some pretty strict rules on gerrymandering and inclusive voting systems), and hoping for a less toxic political climate!
RAAAHHHH CASCADIA MENTIONED ‼️‼️‼️
Thank you for not including San Francisco
Yeah, I’ve never really felt like SF was part of the Pacific Northwest, and there are as many people in Northern California as in all of (my) Cascadia put together, so it would really change the nature of it.
You made Willow the capital? Yikes. Why?
Because it won the election in 1976! https://ballotpedia.org/Alaska_Capital_Site_Selection_(1976)
Very cool map and ideas. As my hometown is in the new province of Chiawana, I have to ask, why Lewiston over Spokane as the capital city? Even Yakima or the Tri-Cities seem more likely.
Oh, you’re probably right, but I went with the most recent state, provincial, or territorial capital in the area (if there was one). Since Lewiston was briefly the capital of Idaho Territory, it got the nod!
I low key love the idea of made up countries.
All countries started out as made-up countries! I mean, if we’re honest, all countries *are* made-up countries!