Chinook

Northwest Coast Indian people of Washington and Oregon, U.S. At the time of first European contact, the Chinookwho were in fact composed of several smaller groups, including the Lower Chinook, the Clatsop, the Clackamas, and the Wascolived along the lower Columbia River and spoke Chinookan languages. They were famous as traders, with connections stretching as far as the Great Plains. They traded dried salmon, canoes, shells, and slaves. Chinook Jargon, the trade language of the Northwest Coast, was a combination of Chinook with Nuu-chah-nulth (Nootka) and other Indian, English, and French terms. The Chinook were first described ethnographically by the explorers Lewis and Clark, who encountered them in 1805. Their basic social unit was the clan. Chinook religion focused on salmon rites and guardian spirits, and the potlatch was an important social ceremony. Following a smallpox epidemic in the early 19th century that brought about the collapse of Chinook culture, most of the remaining Chinook were absorbed into other Northwest Coast groups and many were removed to reservations. In 2001 the Chinook gained federal recognition of tribal status. Chinook descendants numbered more than 1,500 in the early 21st century.

Chinook (shĭnʊk', chĭ-), Native American tribe of the Penutian linguistic stock. Altogether twelve main tribes spoke Chinook languages; all were in the Columbia River valley. The Chinook themselves were on the lower extremity of the river and, with the Clatsop, constituted the now extinct Lower Chinook branch of the linguistic stock (see Native American languages). The village was their main social unit, and a wealthy chief might control several villages. Slavery was common among the Chinook. Their food consisted mostly of fish, roots, and berries. They were skilled with canoes, were noted traders, and practiced the custom of potlatch. They lacked the totemic art and the secret societies of their neighbors. They were well known to the traders on the Pacific coast in the late 18th cent., and a corrupted form of their language known as Chinook jargon served as a trade language from the Columbia River to Alaska. There were some 800 Chinook in the United States in 1990, working primarily in fishing, logging, and lumbering.