Clatsop
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The Clatsop (in the original language, La t cap, meaning "placed of dried salmon) are a small tribe of Chinookan-speaking Native Americans in the Pacific Northwest of the United States. In the early 19th century they inhabited an area of the northwestern coast of present-day Oregon from the mouth of the Columbia River south to Tillamook Head. The tribe has no formal recognition today and struggled in recent years to retain its identity. The remaining members now form an unofficial confederation with the Salishan-speaking Nehalem (Tillamook) tribe that once inhabited the area around Tillamook Bay.
The Clatsop dialect used by the tribe is a nearly-extinct dialect of the Lower Chinookan language, a language in the Oregon Penutian family.
History
The tribe was encountered at the mouth of the Columbia in 1805 by the Lewis and Clark Expedition. The expedition named their last encampment Fort Clatsop after the tribe, whose nearest village was approximately 7 mi (12 km) away. The tribe later gave its name to Clatsop County, Oregon. According to the journals of William Clark, the Clatsop comprised about 200 people living in three separate villages of large cedar-plank houses. Clatsop members regularly visited the fort for trading purposes.
The Clatsop shared salmon, berries, and hunting tips with the Corps of Discovery. In contrast to the Corps' interactions with the Plains Indians the previous winter, their interaction with the Clatsop were more limited. The two groups did not mingle for social occasions and the fort was opened to trading only 24 days during the winter. Part of the reason may have been the existing relationship between the British and the coastal Chinook tribes, resulting in a demand by the Chinook for higher prices for their goods at a time when the Corps' supply of "Indian Gifts" had dwindled. Only two Clatsop, named Coboway and Cuscalar, appear regularly in the members' journals.
In an 1851 treaty, the Clatsop-Nehalem tribes ceded 90 percent of their land to the U.S. government. Unlike other tribes, the members did not move to a reservation but scattered throughout the area over time.
The remaining 200 members of the Clatsop-Nehalem have an average age of 65 and are scattered across Oregon and southwestern Washington. The last known speaker of the Tillamook language died in 1972. The tribe applied for membership in both the Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians and Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde but were turned down. In January 2001, the confederation gained official in the first step towards official status, but it was reversed based partly on opposition from the Quinaults, a historical enemy of the Chinooks. The bicentennial of the Lewis and Clark Expedition in 2004 has provided renewed interest in the status of the Clatsop-Nehalem.
The Tillamook County Pioneer Museum in Tillamook contains exhibits on the history of the Clatsop. Tribal members have secured 20 acres (8 hectares) of oceanfront property in Tillamook County where they hope to build a longhouse from cedar planks to serve as a headquarters and museum.
External links
- Clatsop-Nehalem Confederated Tribes (http://www.clatsop-nehalem.com/)
- University of Missouri-St. Louis: Clatsop tribe (http://www.umsl.edu/~econed/louisiana/Am_Indians/14-The_Clatsop/14-the_clatsop.html)