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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Chinookan groups
Chinookan groups include:
- Cathlamet
- Cathlahmahs
- Chilluckittequaw
- Clatsop
- Chahcowah
- Clackama
- Clowwewalla
- Cushook
- Echelut (Wishram-Wasco),
- Killaniuck
- Klickitat
- Multnomah
- Skilloot
- Wahkiakum (Wac-ki-a-cum)
- Wappato
- Wascopan
- Watlata (Cascade or Wishram).
Most surviving Chinookan natives live in the towns of Bay Center, Chinook, and Ilwaco in southwest Washington.
Language
The term Chinookan also refers to a several languages of two Northwest Coast Native American languages in the Oregon Penutian family: Upper Chinookan (Wishram-Wasco) and Lower Chinookan. Both Chinookan languages are nearly extinct.
These languages were the base from which the Chinook Jargon, a pidgin used between different peoples for trading, was created.
- Lower (Coastal) Chinookan
- Shoalwater dialect, spoken in southwestern Washington around southern Willapa Bay.
- Clatsop dialect, spoken in northwestern Oregon around the mouth of the Columbia River and the Clatsop Plains.
- Middle Chinookan
- Multnomah dialect, spoken on Sauvie Island and in the Portland area in northwestern Oregon
- Kathlamet dialect, spoken in northwestern Oregon along the south bank of the lower Columbia River.
- Wahkiakum dialect, spoken in southwestern Washington along the north bank of the lower Columbia River.
- Clackamas dialect, spoken in northwestern Oregon along the Clackamas and Sandy rivers
- Watlala dialect, spoken in north-central Oregon along the Columbia River Gorge.
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 princess, was the first man to teach English in Japan, in 1847-1848, including educating Einosuke Moriyama, one of the chief interpreters to later handle the negotiations between Commodore Perry and the Tokugawa Shogunate.
External links
- Chinook Indian website (http://www.chinookindian.com/)
- Chinook Nation Official Website (http://www.chinooknation.org/)