The Chinooks

Gray’s First Contact

On 11 May 1792, Captain Robert Gray took the Columbia Rediviva over the Columbia River’s bar and sailed to a village that the Salishan-speaking Chehalis called cʼinúk (činúkʷ ). Gray had located the fabled Great River of the West, one of the missing legs of the Northwest Passage—the search for which motivated many explorers including the Lewis and Clark Expedition.

The ship’s logs provide the first written record of Chinookan Peoples. John Boit, a ship’s mate and brother-in-law of one of the Columbia Rediva‘s owners, wrote:

We directed our course up this noble River in search of a Village. The beach was lin’d with Natives, who ran along shore following the Ship. Soon after, above 20 Canoes came off, and brought a good lot of Furs, and Salmon, which last they sold two for a board Nail . . . . They appear’d to view the Ship with the greatest astonishment and no doubt we was the first civilized people that they ever saw . . . . At length we arriv’d opposite to a large village, situate on the North side of the River, about 5 leagues from the entrance . . . . We purchas’d 4 Otter Skins for a Sheet of Copper, Beaver Skins, 2 Spikes each, and other land furs, 1 Spike each.^[4]John Boit, A New Log of the Columbia by John Boit on the Discovery of the Columbia River and Grays Harbor, ed. Edmond S. Meany (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1921), 3,31.

Gray and his crew found more than a river. They saw abundant wood to repair ships, fresh water to replenish empty kegs, plenty of salmon and wapato, and in Boit’s opinion “strait limb’d, fine looking fellows” and “pretty” women willing to trade. On leaving, Boit concluded “and so we go – thus, thus – and no War! -!”^[5]Boit, 35.

Gray and his men were quick to spread the word, and with boosters like John Boit, many ships braved the river’s bar to trade with the Chinook. When George Vancouver sent Lieutenant Broughton over the bar in 1992, they found Captain Baker’s Jenny already anchored in what would be named Bakers Bay. Small wonder Lewis and Clark expected to find a trading ship at the mouth of the Columbia. Being there at the wrong season, they didn’t see any, but on 1 January 1806, Clark listed thirteen ships that the Chinook and Clatsop said visited regularly (see The Empty Anchorage).

“Great Higlers in Trade”

The Chinook were quick to establish themselves as the intermediaries between the European traders and the Chinookans living up the Columbia and Willamette rivers. During this period, salmon pemmican, wapato, and elk rawhide for making armor evolved from intense inter-Indian trade to major industries.

Archaeological evidence suggests that Chinookan peoples developed three major trading villages. Middle Village—the site where the expedition establish Station Camp on 15 November 1805—was primarily a trading post in response to European traders. The artifacts and buildings found there suggest the site was used more as a warehouse and staging area than a residence. The Clahclellah village at the Cascades of the Columbia—the expedition visited on 31 October 1805 and 9 April 1806—was a primary fishing site and controlled any trade items passing down the river. Cathlapotle—see November 5, 1805 and March 28, 1806—was a major factory of elk hides, or clamons, which were taken by ships to trade for sea otter skins with the Nootka and other peoples to the north. Clamon trade peaked between 1790 and 1810.^[6]Yvonne Hajda and Elizabeth A. Sobel, Chinookan Peoples of the Lower Columbia, ed. Robert T. Boyd, et al. (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2013), 111–113.

The Chinook worked at retaining their position in the Columbia River trade. When the 1810 Winship Expedition bypassed cʼinúk to instead establish a post among the Skilloots, the Chinook harassed the builders convincing them to abandon the site. With the arrival of the Astorians in 1811, Middle Village was expanded and three of Concomly‘s daughters were married to traders there. By 1825, Concomly had become the most powerful chief other than perhaps Comowool of the Clatsop. The role of the Chinook would diminish with the establishment of Fort Vancouver and its inner coastal trade route via the Cowlitz River and Puget Sound. Never-the-less, Concomly’s daughter and ex-wife of Astorian Duncan McDougall would marry Kiesno (Casino) an influential chief among Chinookan Peoples and with the Hudson’s Bay Company at Fort Vancouver.^[7]Michael Silverstein, Handbook . . ., 130, 541; Kenneth M. Ames, et al., Chinookan Peoples of the Lower Columbia, 134, 143,155–157.

Seeking Federal Recognition

In the mid–nineteenth century, the trading era diminished and new phases in United States–Indian relationships emerged. During each of these phases—treaties, removals, wars, land claims, assimilation, allotments, termination, and the modern Federal Acknowledgment Program—the first peoples of the Columbia River fared worse than most Native American peoples during this era. Not having federal recognition precludes the Chinook Tribe from having the rights, privileges, and sovereignty awarded to the majority of Native American Peoples.

On 5 August 1851, near a Clatsop village along a small creek that formed a small projection into the Columbia River estuary, the Clatsop signed a treaty negotiated with Oregon Territory Superintendent for Indian Affairs Anson Dart. The Nehalem Tillamooks signed a similar treaty the next day followed by treaties with the Chinooks and Cathlamets. Ten treaties were signed in all collectively known as the Tansy Point Treaties. A significant portion of lands would have been ceded, but the Chinook and Clatsop would have been allowed to live and fish in many of their traditional places. Many in Congress considered Dart’s treaties too generous towards the Indians and tabled them.

The Tansy Point treaties were never ratified nor rejected creating a legal morass which the Lower Chinook still are untangling. In 1855, confused and angry over the Tansy Point treaties, the people refused a treaty offered by Territorial Governor Isaac Stevens. Throughout the Oregon Territory, frustrations over the 1855 treaties led to the Puget and Plateau Indian wars. The lower Chinook remained peaceful. In 1864, the lands from the unratified treaties were taken by decree and the Chinook were asked to move to one of two small reservations in Chehalis and Shoalwater Bay. This led to legal land claims in the early 20th century, but the owners were awarded only .20 cents an acre for lands valued at $1.25 per acre.

The stress of coping with United States policies caused external rifts and internal splits. Dividing the territory into Oregon and Washington created artificial boundaries that divided the Chinookan peoples in ways that did not match their traditional system of families and villages further weakening their collective polity. In 1932, several ignored tribes were given allotments on the Quinault Reservation leaving the Quinault without any tribal land. As for the newcomers, they were not given voting rights. The Termination policies of the 1950s saw an inner split among the Chinook.^[8]David G. Lewis, Chinookan Peoples, 320–321; Cesare Marino and Stephen Dow Beckham, Handbook . . ., 171,175, 181; “Making Treaties,” … Continue reading

In the 1970s, the Federal Acknowledgment program presented a new method of gaining federal recognition and the Chinook Tribe—consisting of the Lower Chinooks, Clatsops, Willapas, Wahkiakums and Kathlamets—were eager to take the path presented. Their claim was initially approved only to be reversed by the Bureau of Indian Affairs. The struggle for federal recognition continues to this day. ^[9]For more on seeking Federal recognition, see Andrew Fisher and Melinda Marie Jetté, Chinookan Peoples, Chapter 14.

Return to Tansy Point

The process of becoming a federally recognized tribe has had some positive outcomes: cultural revitalization, historical clarification, renewed relationships among internal divisions, and the resurgence of the Chinuk Wawa language with its new dictionary and higher education curriculum. In spring 2019, the Chinook Indian Nation purchased a 10-acre site at the Tansy Point Treaty Grounds. At the time of this writing, they have raised nearly enough money to add a structure for cultural and community gatherings, erect an interpretive kiosk, and restore the rest of the site’s habitat to its natural state.^[10]“Preserve Tansy Point Treaty Grounds,” https://www.gofundme.com/f/preserve-tansy-point-treaty-grounds; Cindy Yingst, “Tribes show just how important Tansy Point is,” The … Continue reading