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Collection: Cascadian Demographics

The Northwest’s Latino Residents

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The Northwest is home to more than 1.4 million people who self-identify as Hispanic or Latino. In this installment of my ongoing analysis of the region’s demographics we’ll take a closer look at the geography associated with Northwest Latinos. (Past examinations have included Chinese American and black residents.)

Overall, the three Northwest states have remarkably similar shares of Latino residents. Oregon’s population is 11.7 percent Hispanic, compared with 11.2 percent in both Idaho and Washington. In British Columbia, by contrast, less than 1 percent of residents claim Latino heritage.

Uniquely among Northwest jurisdictions, Washington has more than a dozen municipalities with overwhelmingly Hispanic populations.

All of Washington’s majority-Latino cities and towns lie to the east of the Cascade Mountains. Cities on the western Columbia Plateau (Mattawa, Royal City, Warden, Othello, and Quincy) and cities in the lower Yakima Valley (Mabton, Granger, Wapato, Toppenish, Sunnyside, and Grandview) dominate the rankings. With the exception of Pasco, all of Washington’s majority-Latino places are small towns.

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The Northwest’s Black Residents

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I’m a number cruncher, so one way I’m observing Black History Month is by examining census figures for the Northwest’s African-American and African-Canadian populations. (Another way is here.) Although the Northwest does not have a large black population relative to many places in the United States, the region is home to nearly 340,00 residents who self-identify as black, representing 2.1 percent of the population. Among Cascadia’s African-descended people the vast majority, 71 percent, make their homes in western Washington.

It’s often forgotten that Washington’s black communities can trace roots to the years when the area was still contested by Britain and the United States, nearly a decade before the Washington Territory was created. Today, a portion of the relatively large black population in Washington can be explained by the state’s numerous military bases and the strong tradition of military service among African Americans.

The Northwest’s black population is so centered on Puget Sound that Sound-area locales claim all but one of the top 30 spots in the region for shares of people of African descent. In fact, a rank-ordered list for the Northwest turns out to be simply a list of places in Washington, 29 around the Puget Sound and one in eastern Washington. Here it is:

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George Washington Bush

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Surely one of the more fascinating and unjustly overlooked characters in the Northwest’s pioneer history is George Washington Bush. He was, by some accounts, the first American to establish a permanent settlement in what is now Washington. He was, in a literal sense, a trail-blazer, a home-steader, and farmer. He was also black, and so became a pioneer against racial discrimination on the frontier.

Rather than submit to racially discriminatory laws passed in Missouri, he sold his farm there and headed west in 1844 in search of a freer country in Oregon, aiming to settle in the Rogue River Valley. A veteran of the War of 1812, Bush had actually already been to Oregon, having lived there as a mountain-man and traveling to the Pacific with a fur company some twenty years earlier. As a consequence of his considerable experience, he was asked to co-lead a party of five families, together with Michael T. Simmons.

When the Bush-Simmons party reached the Columbia River, however, they discovered that the Oregon Provisional Government had recently enacted a Black Exclusion Law. Faced with continued mistreatment as a second class citizen—including legally-sanctioned flogging if he settled in Oregon—Bush took his family north. The rest of the party, all of whom were apparently white, abandoned their plans in order to join Bush in forging a path to a site near present-day Tumwater, now known as Bush Prairie.

In the burgeoning south Puget Sound region, Bush became well regarded for his skill as a farmer, as well as his remarkably open-handed generosity. He was also known for his unusual comity with his Indian neighbors, providing medical treatment when epidemics occurred and teaching his family to speak the Nisqually language.

Yet the racial exclusion laws that had dogged him from Missouri to Oregon continued to plague him.

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The Northwest’s Chinese Residents

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In honor of Chinese New Year, I thought it would be fun to crunch some Census numbers to get a sense of where people of Chinese heritage live in the Northwest. In the tables  below, I’ve rank-ordered places in the Northwest according to their share of people who self-identify as Chinese.

As you’ll see, a couple of interesting stories emerge. British Columbia, and especially the Vancouver metro area, have a far greater share of people of Chinese descent than any other place in the Northwest. And in the states, the historical Chinese population centers in Portland and Seattle have given way to newer Chinese settlements in the suburbs.

Now, let’s dig in. First up, here’s a look at Washington:

(CDP means “Census Designated Place,” which often refers to unincorporated places.)

In national terms, a remarkably large share of Washington’s population is Chinese. Only five other states claim a larger percentage (Hawaii, California, New York, Massachusetts, and New Jersey, but just barely.) Interestingly, despite the city of Seattle’s rich historical legacy, Chinese populations are far more prevalent in Seattle’s eastside suburbs around Bellevue. In fact, the real story of Chinese settlement today seems to center on Bellevue, which boasts nearly half as many people of Chinese descent as Seattle, a place roughly five times bigger.

Scanning the list, you probably won’t recognize all those place names unless you’re a geography whiz. So here’s a quick run-down for some of the less familiar ones: Carlsborg is just west of Sequim on the Olympic Peninsula; Larch Way is sort of east of Lynnwood; Klahanie is basically on the Sammamish Plateau; Fairwood and Maple Heights-Lake Desire are both southeast of Renton; and Clear Lake is east of Burlington in Skagit County.

Figures of Oregon, Idaho, and British Columbia are below the jump.

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