Editing Langley, Washington (section)

=== Pre-contact ===
Indigenous peoples, namely the [[Snohomish people]], have inhabited south Whidbey Island since [[time immemorial]].<ref name="SWHS">{{Cite web |title=Native Peoples |url=https://southwhidbeyhistory.org/special-topics/the-native-peoples/ |access-date=November 14, 2023 |website=South Whidbey Historical Society}}</ref> Langley is known in the [[Lushootseed|Lushootseed language]] as {{Langx|lut|sc̓q̓abac|label=none}},{{Efn|also spelled sc̓əq̓abac or c̓əq̓abac}} meaning "gooseberry bush."<ref name="Dictionary" /><ref name="Waterman" />

The site of Langley was a camping spot used during clam harvesting in the summer months.<ref name="Tweddell1953" /> Nearby, there was a village of the {{Langx|lut|dəgʷasx̌abš|label=none}}, a Snohomish band, approximately one mile east of Langley on Sandy Point ({{Langx|lut|č̓əč̓ɬqs|links=no}}).{{Efn|meaning "ripped nose"}}<ref name="Dictionary" /><ref name="Waterman" /><ref name="Tweddell1953" /> This village had a large [[potlatch]] house, which brought visitors, even as distant as the [[Samish people|Samish]], during festivities.<ref name="SWHS" />

For centuries, warfare was uncommon in Puget Sound, and mainly retaliatory in nature. The main dangers to the Snohomish at the time were the [[Haida people|Haida]] and other Northwest Coast peoples, who traveled in large war canoes from the far north to raid and pillage along the southern coasts.<ref name="Suttles-1990">{{Cite book |last1=Suttles |first1=Wayne |title=Southern Coast Salish |last2=Lane |first2=Barbara |publisher=Smithsonian Institution |year=1990 |series=Handbook of North American Indians |volume=7 |pages=485–502}}</ref>

In the 18th and 19th centuries, smallpox epidemics rocked the Northwest Coast, killing 90 percent of the population. In 1792, the village at {{Langx|lut|č̓əč̓ɬqs|label=none}} was seen by [[Joseph Whidbey]], who noted that the population seemed to be about 200 people.<ref name="SWHS" /> Later, the village would be abandoned in the late 1800s after the removal of the Snohomish people to the [[Tulalip|Tulalip Reservation]].