To further flog the PC-ness of geographical nomenclature...

The term Pacific Northwest as a reference to the northwestern
portion of the United States was preceeded in the late 18th
century and very early 19th century by reference simply the
Northwest Territory. After the close of the Revolutionary War
and the peace treaty with Great Britian, the new United states
acquired title to the lands west to the Mississippi River. What
was not a part of the thirteen original states was organized as
the Northwest Territory and the Southwest Territory. The
Northwest Territory was soon divided into the territories (and
later states) of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, and
Wisconsin.

As the United States expanded westward to the Pacific Ocean, the
original Northwest Territory was for a time refered to as "the
old northwest" to distinguish it from the new Pacific Northwest.

Canada has its own Northwest Territories. But it encompasses
northern and northeastern Canada but not northwest Canada --
Yukon Territory in in northwest Canada. Go figure...

"The New Pacific," a trans-boundary business quarterly published
in Vancouver, BC tends to refer to their market area (Alaska, BC,
Alberta, Washington, Oregon, and Idaho) as Cascadia. Last year
they sponsored a contest to design a Cascadia flag which they
are now selling.

The US Army Corps of Engineers once and maybe still does term
our region as the Pacific Northeast because it is on the
northeast shores of the Pacific Ocean. On the other hand, they
were able to convince themselves that California was the
Pacific Southeast...

As for myself, I guess I prefer "Cascadia" to designate our
region.

As for Mexico, my experience there is that they refer to
residents of the USA as Norte Americanos, and to residents of
Canada as Canadians. All the people of Latin American seem to
regard themselves as americans in a generic sense, and do feel
that the United States has no arm-lock on "American."

Doug Canning
Olympia, Washington
dcanning at igc.apc.org