On Wed. Oct. 5, Gene Hunn wrote:

I still don't buy the argument that "Pacific Northwest" implies a US
nationalist perspective. It seems to me rather perfectly descriptive of
the region from a continental viewpoint. In any case, Cascadia is
presumably named for the Cascades Mountain Range, named, I presume, for
the Cascades of the Columbia, famous entrepot & portage of early trade &
settlement. Before adopting same it may be well to note that this range
is said to extend from ca. Mt. Lassen north to Manning PP in southwestern
BC, so excluding areas in BC further north... where the coastwise range
is the Coast Range. There are also ethnographic regions defined by a
combination of Native American cultural patterns/geographic parameters.
The "Northwest Coast" is Volume 7 of the new Handbook of North American
Indians, with coverage extending from NW California to Yakutat Bay, more
or less. This contrasts with the "Plateau" culture area, the volume for
which is in press at this time, which includes essentially all Native
peoples of the Fraser/Columbia River basins (minus the upper Snake River
plains). There's many ways to cut the cake. The problem with a title
with "coast" in it is that it seems to preclude the interior basins of
the Columbia & Fraser.

Also, note Hitchcock & Cronquist's flora is the _Flora of the Pacific
Northwest_ and it includes besides all of Washington State, southernmost
British Columbia, northern Idaho, western Montana, and northern Oregon...
essentially the Fraser/Columbia drainage "bioregion."

This is my last words on the subject.

Gene Hunn.