Chinook (people)

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Traditional tribal area of ​​the Chinook and today's reservations in the northwest of the USA (orange)

Chinook describes on the one hand a group of Indian tribes in the north-western USA , more precisely in the state of Washington , on the other hand in a narrower sense the tribe of the Lower Chinook on the lower Columbia River . Your residential area is counted as part of the north-western cultural area , which gained fame primarily due to the huge carvings, although they themselves contributed little to it. Their history shows particularly clearly how little European ideas of tribal structures help to illuminate. She is also extremely involved.

history

Early history

The Chinook were primarily a people of the rivers and lived primarily on salmon and game, on roots and berries. Following the Columbia upwards, the Clatsop, Cathlamet, Multnomah, Watlala or Cascade, the Clowwewalla (also called Cushooks, Chahcowah or Willamette-Tumwater), Clackamas, Chilluckittequaw (Hood River) and the Wasco (Wascopam, Walla Walla) settled above the Lower Chinook. .

The Lower Chinook lived on the north side of the Columbia Estuary to Grays Bay , but also on the coast north to Willapa and Shoalwater Bay . Around 1800 the tribe is said to have comprised around 800 members. The total number of Chinooks is estimated at up to 16,000.

Interview with Edward Curtis in the New York Times with a photo of a Chinook woman wearing Chinese coins as a headdress

Even before the arrival of the Europeans, the Chinese and Chinook traded, as Edward Curtis suspected. One of his photos shows that the Chinook used Chinese coins as headdresses.

European contacts

The Lewis and Clark expedition were the first to report on the Chinooks on the lower Columbia River. When they met them, they estimated their number to be 400. They were armed only with spears, an indication that the European trade, which had started around 1778 and mostly included rifles, was not yet fully in the region, more precisely the Clatsop Had reached extent. According to Lewis and Clark's report, they also knew exactly the names and sizes of the ships that had come to them before the two Americans.

Before the great epidemics, the Chinook were the most important traders on Columbia, the main waterway between the west coast and the inland. From the mouth of the Columbia up to The Dalles they dominated the trade as middlemen. It is significant that Chinook jargon became the lingua franca of trade, albeit interspersed with European terms. Most of the trade took place in Celilo and The Dalles. The Chinook formed the trading hub between the northwest coast to Alaska on the one hand and the plains , the interior of the continent, on the other. The Nez Percé , then the Crow and Flathead took over the connection .

After clashes with white gold diggers , the Chinook were almost completely wiped out in a battle on September 1, 1858 against the troops of George Wright (1803-1865). This battle became known as the Battle of Four Lakes (now Spokane ). In it 500 US soldiers faced a little less than 500 Indians. The battle was preceded by the defeat of Colonel Edward J. Steptoe (1816–1865) in May.

Epidemics and the displacement from trade and in reservations led to the separation and consolidation of residential groups, which, as with all tribes of the Northwest, are the real focus of integration. This creates the impression of disintegrating and newly forming tribes, which, in contrast, saw the whites as the focus of integration.

Wasco Wishram wife, Edward Curtis

In the reservations of the states of Washington and Oregon , i.e. Warm Springs, Yakima, Chehalis, Quinault and Grand Ronde, some groups of the Lower Chinook gathered. The largest group was formed by the Wasco in Warm Springs around 1950. Many had used their relatives and changed reservations, had married there and were often considered to be members of the new tribe. After the Second World War, 120 “Upper Chinooks” lived in the Quinault Reservation, as well as in the Shoalwater Bay and Chehalis Reservations. In 1970, 609 Chinooks including the Wasco were registered.

The Clatsop lived in the Cape Adams area, on the south side of Columbia, up to Tongue Point and south to Tillamook Head in Oregon.

They united with other remnant tribes and moved to the Grand Ronde Reservation in Oregon. Its population was around 700 in 1955, a year later the people living there were no longer recognized as Indians. The reservation was canceled, but they are still suing for land rights.

The Cathlamet inhabited the south shore between Tongue Point and Puget Island and the north shore from Grays Bay to east of Oak Point. They numbered around 300 members at the time of Lewis and Clark, but their number fell to only 50 to 60 by 1849. They are considered extinct.

The tribe of the Clackamas, named after the river, lived on the Clackamas River , east of the Willamette River to near Oregon City and on the Cascade Range . Lewis and Clark estimated them at 1,800 tribesmen, in 1851 there were 88, in 1910 even 40. In 1937 they had recovered to 81 people. In all censuses, however, it seems to have been impossible to precisely assign the living groups found to the “known” tribes.

The Multnomah or Wappato, closely related to the Clackamas, lived around Sauvies Island in the mouth of the Willamette River . The Watlala or Cascade Indians lived at the Columbia Falls. Around 1780 they numbered 3,200 people, Lewis and Clark estimated them at 2,800. They are probably absorbed in the neighboring tribes. Also on the Willamette River lived the Clowwewalla, which included the Cushooks, Chahcowahs, Willamette-Tumwater and other bands .

Indians fishing at the Celilo Falls, 1941

Lewis and Clark estimated the Chilluckittequaw to be 1,400 tribesmen. Some of them lived in Celilo Falls and Warm Springs until 1895 .

The Wasco lived around The Dalles in Wasco County, Columbia. Together with the remnants of the Watlala and other groups, they moved to the Warm Springs Reservation, where they still live today. They were the most powerful tribe of the Upper Chinook and with them the remnants of the smaller tribes fused.

Flathead skull.

Together with other tribes, the Chinook were given the nickname Flathead because of their skulls , which were deformed for decoration ( macrocephaly ) .

The US census 2000 counted 1,689 Chinooks again. In 1996, 12 Chinooks spoke their traditional language. In 2001 they were granted the status of an Indian tribe for the first time, but this decision was revoked in 2002. In 2007 they numbered well over 2,000 people, and several hundred are waiting to be registered.

See also

literature

  • George Gibbs (Ed.): Dictionary of the Chinook Jargon, or, trade language of Oregon ; New York: Cramoisy Press 1863 (PDF, 184 kB)
  • Jim Holton, Chinook Jargon: The Hidden Language of the Pacific Northwest ; 2004
  • Robert H. Ruby, John A. Brown: The Chinook Indians, Traders of the Columbia River ; o. O. 1976
  • Wayne Suttles (Ed.): Handbook of North American Indians , Vol. 7: Northwest Coast. Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington DC 1990. ISBN 0-87474-187-4
  • John R. Swanton: The Indian Tribes of North America ; Smithsonian Institution, Bureau of American Ethnology, Bulletin 145; Smithsonian Press, Washington DC, 1969
  • Edward H. Thomas: Chinook: A History and Dictionary ; 1969

Web links

Commons : Chinookan  - album with pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. Chinook Nations ( Memento of the original from December 12, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. .  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.chinookindian.com
  2. ^ Lives 22 years with Indians to get their secrets , in: New York Times, April 16, 1911, p. 5.
  3. See decision of 2001 .