Anthropologists divide "the indigenous inhabitants of North America's western littoral into two broad culture areas: 'California' and the 'Northwest Coast'"
(Graeber / Wengrow, 175)
one difference: art
"Artistic traditions of the Northwest Coast are all about spectacle and deception: the theatrical trickery of masks that flicker open and shut, of surfact figures pulling the gaze in sharply opposed directions. [...] Californian spirituality provides an almost perfectly antithesis [...] Californian art entirely avoids the use of masks." (201)
Northwest Coast artistic traditions are still widely considered among the most dazzling the world has ever seen: immediately recognizable for their strong focus on the theme of exteriority--a world of masks, illusions, and facades" (202)
see 1982's The Way of the Masks