Native

Americans: The
Chinook Tribe

By: Addison Rose

Starting Information
Chinook is pronounced "chih-nook." This is an English
pronunciation of the Salishan place name Tsinuk, which was also
the name used for the Chinook Jargon trade language.
The Chinook Indians are original people of the Pacific Northwest
Coast. They live in present-day Washington and Oregon.

Chinook Native Language

In the past, they spoke their native Chinook language, which
was a complicated language with many sounds that don't exist
in English.
Nobody speaks this language anymore.
But some elders still speak a second language, called the
Chinook Jargon, which was a trade language of the Northwest
Coast that combined words and sounds from Chinook, Nootka,
English, and other languages.
An easy Chinook Jargon word, "klahowya" (pronounced klahhow-yuh) is a friendly greeting.

Chinook Tribe Government

Organization
In the past, each Chinook village was led by its own local chief or
headman, who was always a high-ranking clan leader. Today, the
Chinook Indians are governed by a tribal council elected by all the people
The Chinook Nation is not federally recognized by the United States.
That means Chinook people do not have a reservation or live on tribal
lands. They live scattered throughout towns and villages in Oregon and
Washington state.
Although most Chinook people belong to the Chinook Nation, not all of
them do. Some Chinook people have joined together with members of
other Northwest Coast tribes in the Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians.

Chinook Gender Roles

Chinook women gathered plants, herbs and clams and did most
of the child care and cooking.
Men were fishermen and hunters and sometimes went to war to
protect their families.
Both genders took part in trade, storytelling, artwork and music,
and traditional medicine.
Chinook clan leaders could be either men or women.

Chinook Children
Many Chinook children like to go hunting and fishing with their
fathers.
A form of lacrosse was a popular among teenagers as it was
among adult men.
Like many Native Americans, Chinook mothers traditionally
carried their babies in cradleboards on their backs.
Chinook parents also engaged in the practice of flattening the
foreheads of their babies by restraining the forehead in tight
bandages on the cradleboard while the bones were still soft.

Chinook Homes
The Chinooks lived in coastal villages of rectangular cedar-plank houses called
plankhouses.
Usually these houses were large (up to 70 feet long) and each one housed an
entire extended family.
The size of the structure depended on the wealth of the family that built it, or,
the number of families that inhabited it. Each family that lived in a plankhouse
occupied a specific part.
Mats hung from the rafters acted as makeshift walls and separated the house
into different living spaces. At the center of the plankhouse was a fireplace,
where all of the inhabitants gathered to eat and socialize. Sleeping platforms
were erected along the walls and food was hung from the rafters to dry.
Today, old-fashioned buildings like these are still made from cedar wood, but they
are only used for ceremonial purposes.

Chinook Homes Pictures

Chinook Clothes
Chinook men didn't usually wear
clothing at all, though some men wore a
breech-clout.
Women wore short skirts made of cedar
bark or grass.
In the rain, the Chinooks wore tule rush
capes, and in colder weather, they wore
fur robes and moccasins on their feet.
Later, after European influence, the
people began wearing blanket robes
Today, some Chinook people still have a
blanket cloak or basket hat, but they
wear modern clothes like jeans instead
of breechcloths.

Chinook Hairstyles
Both men and women sometimes wore a basket hat made of
finely woven spruce root.
The Chinooks sometimes painted their faces, using different
designs for war, religious ceremonies, and mourning, and
women also wore tribal tattoos in geometric designs.
Most Chinook people wore their hair long and loose, though
some women adopted other fashions like braids from
neighboring tribes.
Unlike men from some Northwestern tribes, Chinook men did
not wear facial hair.

Chinook Food
The Chinook Indians were fishing people. Their staple food was
salmon. The women of the tribe would cut them up and dry them.
Chinook men also caught many other kinds of fish and sea mammals
from their canoes and hunted deer, birds, and small game on land.
Chinook women gathered clams and shellfish, seaweed, berries, and
roots.
The Chinook also took some marine animals such as clams and
mussels.
Unlike other northwest coast tribes, the Chinook rarely hunted sea
mammals such as whales and seals

Chinook Art
Chinook artists are known for their fine bear-grass baskets and
woodcarving arts.
Like other Northwest Coast tribes, the Chinook carved
remarkable canoes from the abundant sources of timber, but
did not carve totem poles like their neighbors to the north.
The Chinook were famous from their horn carvings, which were
fashioned from the horns of mountain goats and bighorn sheep.

Chinook Woodcarvings

Chinook Tools and Weapons

Chinook fishermen used harpoons and nets when fishing.
Hunters used bows and arrows, and trappers set snares.
In war, Chinook men fired their bows or fought with spears and
war clubs. Chinook warriors would wear armor made of
hardened elk hide to protect themselves from enemy archers.

Chinook travel and interaction

with others
Chinook Indian tribe made large dugout canoes by hollowing out cedar
or fir logs. The Chinook tribe used these canoes to travel up and down the
sea coast for trading, fishing and hunting, and warfare.
The Chinooks were known for their skill as traders. Their most important
trading partners were the Nootka, Klamath, and Interior Salish tribes.
Their trade network extended all the way south to California and east to
the Great Plains. Occasionally different Chinook bands would fight wars
against each other or against other Northwest Coast tribes, but mostly
they remained dominant through trade and control over the Columbia
river mouth.
They traded fish products, furs, cedar, carvings, and slaves. They used
shells as a form of currency as well.

Chinook Religion
The Chinook practiced many interesting spiritual beliefs and
ceremonies.
One of the most important ceremonies was the First Salmon
Rite, in which each family group welcomed the annual migration
of the salmon from the Pacific Ocean through Chinook Territory.
The Chinook also believed in the vision quest, a ceremony in
which adolescent boys and girls ventured into the wilderness to
find guardian spirits that would help give them powers in
hunting or curing or bestow upon them good luck and new
songs and dances.