The Chinook Nation is a group of Native Americans who speak one of the Chinookian languages. They are primarily based in Oregon and Washington and were first encountered by Lewis and Clark in 1805. The Chinooks were primarily fishermen and hunters and had separate names for each individual tribe. They lived in long houses near waterways and used long canoes for transportation. The Chinooks also had a tradition of flattening the heads of some children to elevate their social status.
Chinook is the name given to multiple Native American groups who share a common history of speaking one of the three major Chinookian languages. Now numbering approximately 2,000 members, the Nation of Chinook Indians is predominantly based in Oregon and Washington in the northwest corner of the continental United States. The history of the Chinooks with Westerners dates back to 1805, having been described by members of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, but they had been known by traders in that region for more than a decade before that.
When he first met Lewis and Clark, the Chinook nation was thought to be much smaller than it actually was. Initially, the Chinooks numbered approximately 400. This did not take into account the large groups of Chinooks scattered across the Columbia River in what would become the northwestern United States and southwestern Canada.
Individual groups of Chinook Indians had separate names for each individual tribe. To unify them into one group was the use of one of the variants of the Chinook language. There are five bands: Lower Chinook, Kathlamet, Clatsop, Wahkiakum and Willapa. The name Chinook comes from the anglicization of its toponym, Tsinuk, and became the name applied to all Chinook Indians.
The Chinook Indians were not nomads. Primarily fishermen and hunters, Chinook men fished for salmon as their primary food source. Chinook women harvested plants and clams and did most of the housework, including child rearing. A mostly peaceful tribe, the Chinook Indians fought to protect their lands but preferred to settle disputes with athletic contests.
The original languages of the Chinook Indians are thought to have been lost. Most members of the nation speak English. Chinook slang, also called Chinook Wawa, a combination of their language and several others used to conduct trade, is still spoken by some people today.
A coastal people, the Chinook Indians tended to live near waterways. Their dwellings were long narrow houses made of cedar and with peaked roofs. Often an extended family lived together in one of the houses, which could be more than 100 meters long. The primary mode of transportation for the Chinooks were long canoes.
Chinook Indians formerly distinguished the features of some of their young by flattening their heads. They did this by using the flat planks of the cradle used to carry newborns, pressing with them on the crowns of some children’s heads. This flattened appearance was believed to elevate them in the social hierarchy.
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