Which cultural ideas and technologies came to the Plateau from the Northwest Coast?

The Plateau region served as a cultural crossroads, facilitating the exchange of various innovations with the Northwest Coast through trade and migration.1

Cultural ideas and technologies adopted from the Northwest Coast include:

• Housing: The adoption of mat-covered houses and pit houses.1
• Artistic Traditions: The practice of carving animal motifs into wood and bone.1
• Mortuary Practices: The use of cremation and scaffold burials.1
• Social and Economic Practices: Some groups near the Northwest Coast engaged in redistributive events similar to potlatches. Additionally, the high esteem held for wealthy individuals among the Klamath may have been influenced by the hierarchical social structures prevalent on the coast.2

Some of these influences were introduced by the Wishram, a Chinook group that migrated from the coast into the Cascade Mountains. While the Plateau was influenced by its neighbors, it maintained its own distinct traditions and was never as rigidly stratified as the Northwest Coast.13