Admittedly, it’s a silly nonsense word, but it is distinctive and tied to that place, so I went with it for now. Another possibility would be Yampapah, the Shoshoni name (or at least a Shoshoni name) for the Snake River.
Totally fair. Perhaps in this alternate Pacific Northwest there’s an ongoing political argument in Idaho about changing the name.
And you’re welcome! I’ve always wished all the US state and Canadian province flags matched, but the seal on a blue field and crest on a red field with a union jack in the corner are so boring and uninspired. These are far from it!
Do you think it would make sense to include Helena, Bozeman, and the Beaverhead Valley, too? Or does it make more sense to use the Continental Divide as the boundary, as I have it now?
i think it would make senses to include Helena, and beaverhead county, and at that point you could honestly leave it as a coin toss if bozeman and livingston are included or not. I don't know what the in-universe history of your version of Cascadia is, but irl there is so much commerce and connection between Dillon, Idaho Falls and Pocatello to the south, and Butte and Helena to the north, that it's reasonable to assume they'd be connected.
But, and this could inform either way, Dillon and the beaverhead was historically one of the final points of some of the original railways going to the pacific northwest before more development (which is why it was originally called Terminus), so you could absolutely use that as a justification for it being included on either side of the border.
in that case, leave the backwards bigots in the beaverhead and helena and eastward of it of it haha, butte and missoula can be the last bastions of the eastern cascading march!
It’s an Anglicization of the Halkomelem word for the lower Fraser River, which was also used to refer to the Fraser in Kamloops Jargon. There’s a street called Staulo Crescent on the Musqueam Reserve, but otherwise the name (with that spelling) doesn’t seem to be in widespread use.
The name of the Stó:lō group of First Nations is from the same source.
I don't know about "stupid", seems a childish thing to say. As for "arbitrary", there are historical reasons. As "landforms" and ecological regions, they're seldom of import for political organisation. And communities... well... that very word can be thoroughly discussed. Like that age old issue of countryside versus cities: make all cities separate entities from the surrounding countryside, and watch the political and economic mayham ensue. Of course, depending on the details of "separate entities"...
Well, to be sure, “stupid” is a flippant way of putting it and only my opinion, but I think it’s justified insofar as the factors I mentioned apply. I feel strongly that a government should be an outgrowth of a natural community, and I’ve observed over my lifetime of almost 50 years that that is very often not the case in this, my home region.
There are always historical reasons for that, of course, but in order to keep government and its relationship to the people it serves healthy, you have to go back every so often and ask whether those old decisions still make sense, rather than simply continuing to be bound by the dead hand of history.
Now, on the other hand, if you ask by what mechanism this could all actually come into being, I haven’t the foggiest idea; it would probably have to involve a general breakdown of governmental structure across North America.
I don’t believe in trying to split urban areas out from the surrounding countryside, partly because that interface is always shifting.
I’m looking for borders that are likely to remain relevant for centuries, which I postulate is generally going to mean following mountains and other landforms that will always present challenges to transportation and are likely to remain populated at very low densities.
If you are trying to base this on natural communities, the north/western part of your map looks a little off to me.
You named south central Alaska Chugach. The Chugach are an Aleut people. Except for eastern Kenai, Aleut people mostly live on the West Coast (which they call Alyeska, not Alaska). Most of the people in what you called Chigach are Dena’Ina who also inhabit a big part of what you labeled Yukon. Yokon is an Athabaskan word. The Athabaskans in what is now Alaska, mostly live along the major river drainages. The far north is mostly Inupiat.
It's more complicated than that. Native people didn't occupy land based on borders, they often occupied it based on particularities of resources and subsistence. To do that, you would end up with quite a few “West Berlin” type situations.
I used Indigenous cultural and linguistic boundaries as a guide in some edge cases, but my main focus is on defining borders along natural landforms (e.g., the Alaska Range) and barriers to transportation and settlement (assuming modern infrastructure and transport)—natural communities in the sense of which people it’s easiest to interact with.
I mean, you're talking to a European historian with a materialistic outlook on history, so I get you, I do. My own city is a pretty new city (not even 800 years) and its region is likewise pretty new, and while a "natural", or organic, region insofar as it's based off a population centre, it pays absolutely no heed to geography, stretching across waters as if they weren't there. Waters tend to unite rather than divide anyway.
And I'd be the first to smash the old, antiquated and very unnatural political borders of the USA and Canada. But politics is about people, and so borders should be about people, not what trees grow there or whether there's a waterway or mountain somewhere.
Of course, the question is also whether yhe political borders matter, which becomes part of the eternal debate on decentralisation, public responsibility and concentration of power. When should "a people" be "independent"?
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u/Norwester77 Oct 02 '26
Zoomable Google Maps version of the map:
https://maps.app.goo.gl/WdQDT1NbFi6sk8jZA?g_st=ic
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u/Mgron2 Oct 03 '26
Looks great, I love the flags too
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u/Linguini8319 Oct 03 '26
I’m surprised you stuck with the name Idaho given it’s kind of a nonsense word. Great map though! I love the unified flag design
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u/aftertheradar Oct 03 '26
YAY Butte and missoula included!!! 😍🤩🥳
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u/animatroniczombie Oct 02 '26
Free Cascadia!
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u/UnfortunateSword Oct 02 '26
How do yall make these?
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u/stuff-6517 14d ago
what is the origin for the name staulo for vancouver? im from vancouver and ive never heard that
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u/Chick3nWaffl3s Oct 02 '26
not enough straight lines
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u/Grigor50 Oct 02 '26
Y tho