Chinookan
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Chinookan refers to several groups of Native Americans in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. In the early 19th century, the Chinookan peoples lived along the lower and middle Columbia River in present-day Oregon and Washington. The Chinookan tribes were those encountered by the Lewis and Clark Expedition in 1805 on the lower Columbia.
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[edit] Chinook Lifestyle
Chinook Indians were not nomadic, similar in western Washington and Oregon. At birth the Chinookans would place a board on their childs head, and press it down. This would flatten the childs head, which gave them a look of loyalty and beauty. Their government was based on social ranking, similar to the British at the time. Those with round heads were slaves, those with flat heads were the more wealthy. You were born into your social ranking. Since they lived off the coast of the Pacific Ocean, they were skilled whale hunters. Conflict did not occur much for the Chinook Indians, or other coastal tribes for that matter. Since the tribes stayed in one certain land area, conflict over land was scarce.
[edit] Today
Today, descendants of the Chinook Indians struggle for freedom. They desperately want to be recognized as a tribe, which the government fails to do. Construction is currently ruining land they wish to preserve, due to the fact they do not have a reservation.
[edit] Chinookan groups
Chinookan groups include:
- Cathlamet
- Cathlahmahs
- Chilluckittequaw
- Clatsop
- Chahcowah
- Clackamas
- Clowwewalla
- Cushook
- Echelut (Wishram-Wasco),
- Kilooklaniuck
- Multnomah
- Skillot
- Wahkikum (Wac-ki-cum)
- Wappato
- Wascopa
- Watlata (Cascade or Wishram).
Most surviving Chinookan natives live in the towns of Bay Center, Chinook, and Ilwaco in southwest Washington. Many books have been written about the Chinook, including, Boston Jane: an Adventure.
[edit] Famous Chinookans
- Ranald MacDonald (3 February 1824 – August 24, 1894), a half-Chinookan, born in Fort Astoria, Oregon, to Archibald MacDonald, a Scottish Hudson's Bay Company fur trader, and Raven, a Chinook Indian, was the first American to teach English in Japan, in 1847-1848, including educating Einosuke Moriyama, one of the chief interpreters that would later handle the negotiations between Commodore Perry and the Tokugawa Shogunate
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
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