Did Chinook indians make totem poles?

Answer 1

Historically the only native groups that produced totem poles were on the north-west coast of the USA and Canada: the Haida, Tlingit, Kwakiutl, Nootka and their neighbours. The immense cedar trees used to produce those carvings are plentiful on the north-west coast and those tribes lived in semi-permanent village sites.

The Shoshones, like 80% of native groups, did not live in permanent villages, meaning that they moved from place to place to follow their various food sources; they had no access to enormous cedar trees and no wish to produce large wood carvings that had to be planted firmly and permanently in the ground.

Totem poles were definitely not a feature of most native American cultural groups.

The links below take you to historic images of various Shoshone villages, without any totem poles:

Answer 2

Totem poles were historically limited to the coasts of British Columbia and Alaska and were not made further south. The Chinook were inhabitants of the coastal areas of Washington and Oregon - too far south to be part of the "totem pole tradition".

In more recent times some Canadian totem poles have been moved (some illegally) into the USA by unscrupulous people and set up in Washington state, giving the false impression that local natives may have made them.

Answer 3

No