Tillamook (tribe)

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Tillamook
Total population

Unknown (Not separately enumerated after joining the Siletz reservation in 1856)
Regions with significant populations
Flag of the United States United States
Oregon
Languages
English, Tillamook
Religions
traditional beliefs
Related ethnic groups
Native American,
Siletz (tribe)

The Tillamook are a Native American tribe from Oregon of the Salish linguistic group. The name Tillamook is a Chinook term meaning "people of Nekelim (or Nehalem)" and is also spelt Calamox, Gillamooks and Killamook

Contents

[edit] Language

The Tillamook initially spoke Tillamook, a Salish language, but gradually began to use english in greater amounts. The last speaker of Tillamook died in 1970, rendering the language extinct. [1]

[edit] History

The traditional location of Tillamook people was between the Necanicum River and the eponymous Tillamook Bay, with villages and subdivisions at Nehalem, Nestucca, Chishucks, Chucktin, Kilherhursh, Kilherner and Towerquotten, with Chucktin being the southernmost village[2].

According to anthropological and archeological research, the first ancestors of the Tillamook settled in that area in the 1400s, living in an area ranging from Cape Lookout to Cape Meares.[3]. NAHDB calculations estimate the population at about 2200 in at the beginning of the 1700s.

The first documented western encounter with the Tillamook was in 1788 by Robert Haswell, a crewman on Robert Gray's ship. A second encounter was in late 1805 by the Lewis and Clark Expedition while wintering at Fort Clatsop, where Lewis and Clark described a village of around 1000 people living in about 50 houses[4], estimating the entire population at around 2200. According to the expedition, The staple food source of the Tillamook was salmon, which they caught during the annual salmon run of April to October and used throughout the year, preserving it by drying it and grinding it into a powder.

1824 and 1829 saw a pair of smallpox epidemics, and combined with the arrival of Oregon Trail settlers in 1841 and the resulting conflicts led to the 1845 estimate by Wilkes showing only 400 Tillamook remaining. [5]. This was further reduced, with a 1849 estimate by Lane of only 200. In 1856 the Tillamook and more than 20 other tribes were placed on the Siletz Reservation, meaning that further population estimates are impossible since they are not separately enumerated. In 1898 the Tillamook became the first tribe to sue the US government for compensation for the lands they had taken, along with the Clatsop. In 1907, along with two other tribes, they were awarded $23,500.

[edit] Culture

According to the work of Franz Boas, The culture of the Tillamook tribe was significantly different from that of their Salish neighbors, evidently influenced by the tribes of northern California.[6]

The Tillamook were skilled basket-weavers[7], and had a detailed mythology with links to existing events; the Story of the Thunderbird and the Whale, for example, reflects the large earthquake in that region in 1700.

[edit] See also

Native American
Tillamook language
Siletz Reservation

[edit] External links

[edit] References

  1. ^ http://www.ethnologue.com/14/show_language.asp?code=TIL
  2. ^ http://www.accessgenealogy.com/native/oregon/
  3. ^ http://www.chenowith.k12.or.us/tech/subject/social/natam_or/coastal.html
  4. ^ http://www.nationalgeographic.com/lewisandclark/record_tribes_092_14_10.html
  5. ^ http://www.fourdir.com/tillamook.htm
  6. ^ http://www.accessgenealogy.com/native/tribes/indiantribehistory9.htm
  7. ^ http://www.collectorsguide.com/fa/fa004.shtml
  • Franz Boas, 1898, Traditions of the Tillamook Indians, Journal of American Folklore, V. 11, pp. 23-38. THE THUNDER-BIRD

A Tillamook Legend p. 23-27

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