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Draft:Chinook Indian Nation

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Chinook Indian Nation
Formation2002
Legal status
Nonprofit organization (2002–present)
HeadquartersBay Center, Washington
Membershipabout 3,000 (2019)
Websitehttps://chinooknation.org/

The Chinook Indian Nation is an unrecognized tribe in the U.S. states of Oregon and Washington that was federally recognized from 2001 to 2002.

History

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Background

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See also: Chinookan peoples § Historic culture
The Cathlapotle Plankhouse, a replica located near the original village

The Chinookan peoples historically lived along the Lower Columbia River, from the river's mouth on the Pacific Ocean to the location of modern The Dalles, Oregon. The Lower Chinookans, including the Lower Chinook, Clatsop, and Willapa, lived near the mouth of the river; the Upper Chinookans, including the Kathlamet, lived upstream; and Middle Chinookans lived in a central region containing Willamette Valley.[1] The westernmost Chinookan tribes, the Cathlamet, Clatsop, Lower Chinook, Wahkiakum, and Willapa tribes, are the ancestors of the Chinook Indian Nation.[2]

The Chinookans ran a large trading network centered on the Columbia River. The largest unit of government was villages.[3] The village of Cathlapotle, near modern Ridgefield, Washington, was established circa 1450.[4] It became a trading hub one of the largest settlements on the river.[5] The Chinookans first traded with Europeans by May 1792, when American merchant Robert Gray.[6] In October of the same year, the Cathlapotle Chinookans met and traded with explorer William Broughton, who worked for George Vancouver.[7] The Lewis and Clark expedition entered Chinookan land in November 1804 and visited Cathlapotle for two hours on March 29, 1806. They said it had about 900 inhabitants.[8] The expedition was followed by a wave of white settlers, including Fort Astoria and Fort Vancouver, and British and American claims to the region.[9]

Once Europeans settled the area, new diseases and the introduction of alcohol led to higher death rates among the Chinook.[10] The Chinookan people faced several smallpox outbreak in the late 18th and 19th centuries and a deadlier malaria epidemic that began in 1830.[11] By 1850, the population of the Middle Chinookan region was the lowest since 1830. Cathlapotle had the highest death rate and was abandoned.[12] As the descendants of the Cathlapotle Chinookans became displaced and mixed with other tribes, multiple groups had connections to them, including the Chinook Indian Nation, though the five tribes had lived downriver from the village.[13]

Section of the Wilkes Expedition map of the Oregon Territory, with Chinook land outlined in purple

Chinook was originally the name of a village. The first source to use the term Chinook to label a region was a map by ethnologist Horatio Hale from the 1844 Wilkes Expedition. He drew boundaries based on language, which were followed by later maps.[14] Earlier maps, such as Lewis and Clark's, had only labelled villages.[15]

Treaty era and failed attempts at recognition (1851–1978)

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After the establishment of the Oregon Territory, the government was required to negotiate land with local tribes. The Donation Land Act of 1850 established a treaty process, though some settlers had already been present. The Oregon Superintendent of Indian Affairs, Anson Dart, began negotiations with Middle Chinookans with the goal of evicting them, but failed.[16]

The Tansy Point Treaty of August 1851 was negotiated between Dart and seven groups of Lower Chinookans, including the Clatsop, Cathlamet, and Lower Chinook. The final treaty, signed by Chinook leader Huckswelt,[17] would grant the Chinookans land in the region, the right to hunt and gather within the region, services from the Office of Indian Affairs, and compensation for relinquished land. The treaty was received by Congress in November. It was not signed due to opposition from Oregon delegates Joseph Lane and Samuel Thurston, so Chinookans lost land to settlers without legal recourse.[18]

The Washington Territory was formed in 1853 with Territorial Governor Isaac Stevens. He negotiated a treaty in 1855 at the Chehalis River with 350 representatives of groups including the Chinook. Stevens planned on moving the tribes to a reservation spanning from Grays Harbor to Cape Flattery.[19] The Chinook and the Cowlitz refused to sign it as Stevens's proposal would require them to relocate and live with the unfamiliar Quinault people.[20] Their rejection was motivated by anger at the result of the Tansy Point Treaty. Stevens got angry and refused further discussions.[19]

Dart was succeeded in 1853 by Joel Palmer, who continued his goal of evicting Middle Chinookans. After the tribes refused to move to the east of the Cascade Mountains, Palmer planned a reservation at Grand Ronde in Western Oregon. The 1855 Willamette Valley Treaty ceded the region to the United States. In 1856, Palmer required all Middle Chinookans to move to Grand Ronde in order to appease settlers. Some refused to join and stayed in the region, where they lacked representation and often married into other tribes.[18] The Chinook Indian Nation was formed from those who stayed near the Columbia River.[21]

The United States annexed most of the region in 1855 and 1856 through a series of treaties, including the Treaty of Olympia, which established the Quinault Indian Reservation. The Chinook were not involved in these treaties. The Shoalwater Bay Reservation was created in 1861 for some Chinook and Lower Chehalis people. However, legislation of the era only addressed a small segment of Chinook people or required them to move farther than they wanted.[22] The nation began pursuing legal representation by 1899. Efforts to receive recognition continued to fail.[23]

Under an 1873 executive order by Ulysses S. Grant, allotments of the Quinault Indian Reservation were granted to "fish-eating Indians", which included the Chinook. The Chinooks sued to receive allotments in 1926 and won the 1928 court case Halbert v. United States, which was upheld in 1931 by the Ninth Circuit Court. They received their first allotment in 1933. The nation continued to advocate for recognition by maintaining enrollment lists and holding monthly council meetings.[24]

In 1956, the tribe's chairman, J. Grant Elliott, wrote to oppose the construction of the Pelton Dam on the Warm Springs Indian Reservation as he believed it would hinder access to fish for Chinook fishers.[25] Many of the tribe's children were sent to the American Indian boarding schools of Chemawa and Puyallup, where they were forced to assimilate to White culture.[26]

Federal recognition process and reversal (1978–2002)

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After the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) introduced the Federal Acknowledgement Process (FAP) in 1978, the Chinook Indian Nation began work on filing for recognition.[23] The tribe's federal recognition effort occurred at the same time as that of the Cowlitz Indian Tribe, with which it had friendly relations. Both tribes consulted historian Stephen Dow Beckham and attorney Dennis Whittlesey.[27]

The Chinook's petition passed and was signed on January 3, 2001, one of the final days of the presidency of Bill Clinton, by the Assistant Secretary of the Interior for Indian Affairs, Kevin Gover.[23] The decision excluded "those members of the petitioning group whose Indian descent is exclusively from the historical Clatsop Tribe" on the grounds that the Clatsop had lost official status under the Western Oregon Indian Termination Act and that they had joined the nation later than the other subgroups.[28][29]

A memo within the BIA raised doubts about the validity of the case on the same day as the decision.[23] Eighty-nine days later, the Quinault filed a claim to the Interior Board of Indian Appeals that the Chinook did not meet the requirements of the FAP. The board decided on August 1 that this claim did not meet the burden of proof and affirmed the original decision. However, it said that part of the case was outside of its jurisdiction. Neal A. McCaleb, Gover's successor under George W. Bush, received the case. On July 5, 2002, he revoked the recognition on the grounds that the tribe failed three of the seven FAP criteria:[30]

The petitioner failed to meet criteria (a), (b), and (c) of the acknowledgment regulations—failing to demonstrate that it has maintained political influence over its members from historical times to the present [criterion (c)], that a predominant portion of its members comprise a distinct social community at present, or since 1950 [criterion (b)], or that it has been identified historically as an Indian entity by outside observers on a substantially continuous basis [criterion (a)].

The decision noted that the tribe lacked documentation between the 1850s and 1920s.[24] Tribal chair Gary Johnson argued that the decision was arbitrary and that the tribe had almost 19,000 pages of documentation, equal to most recognized tribes. He said, "The government worked against Chinook all of these years and how can you expect us to have this perfect—and I guess I would use the term 'white man's government'—with paper trails over all this period of time. It ends up that people that are three thousand miles away are making decisions about us without even spending much time with us."[31]

Attempts at re-recognition (2002–present)

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The site of Cathlapotle fell within Ridgefield National Wildlife Refuge, run by the United States Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS). A team of Portland State University (PSU) archaeologists led by Kenneth Ames confirmed its location in the 1990s.[32] The team contacted tribes with connections to the land, as required by the National Historic Preservation Act.[33] The Chinook was the only one of the four tribes they contacted that wanted an active role in the project; the Cowlitz and Yakama were uninterested and Grand Ronde deferred to the Chinook.[13] After the Cowlitz gained federal recognition in 2003, they contacted USFWS to dispute the Chinook claim to Cathlapotle. They argued that the Cowlitz had lived in the area more recently, and that identity of the Cathlapotle Chinookans was uncertain.[34] A group that split from the Chinook Indian Nation formed the Clatsop-Nehalem Confederated Tribes and made another claim. USFWS held that the Chinook Indian Nation was the main representative of Cathlapotle.[35] It agreed to include the Cowlitz in discussions about the area and to avoid refering to the people of Cathlapotle as Chinook.[36]

The tribe and the USFWS built a reproduction of a plankhouse as an attraction for visitors.[37] The Cathlapotle Plankhouse opened on March 29, 2005,[38] ahead of a bicentennial celebration of the Lewis and Clark expedition. The Chinook Nation was hesitant about participating in the bicentennial as it focused on outsiders, and they were unhappy about the inclusion of the Clatsop-Nehalem Confederated Tribes. The tribe decided to participate because the event would bring it visibility.[39] William Clark's descendants donated a canoe to the tribe as a repayment for one stolen by Lewis and Clark.[40][41] The celebration included the Confluence Project, a collaborative project between artists, civic groups, and tribes from the Pacific Northwest, with six art installations designed in part by Maya Lin.[42]

The Chinook Indian Nation decided to seek recognition through an act of Congress, which would be less costly and risky than suing the federal government. Representative Brian Baird, who had attended the signing of the 2001 decision, joined this effort. He introduced H.R. 6689, "A Bill to Restore Federal Recognition to the Chinook Nation, and for Other Purposes", to the 110th Congress in July 2008. The bill mentioned the Chinook's role in the Lewis and Clark expedition, the Tansy Point and Chehalis treaties, and the inclusion of four of the constituent tribes in the Western Oregon Termination Act. The bill was sent to the Committee on Natural Resources and died down. Baird reintroduced it as H.R. 2576 in May 2009 and H.R. 3084 the following month. Baird, along with tribal councilor Phil Hawks, testified to the committee on July 15, but the bill failed again amid debates about the federal recognition process.[43]

The administration of Barack Obama revised the FAP, which it called "broken", and eased rules on documentation by outsiders.[44] After Baird retired, the tribe met with Congress members Jaime Herrera Beutler, Maria Cantwell, and Doc Hastings, who all suggested that the tribe reapply under the new FAP.[45] However, this revision said that tribes whose petitions have been denied are banned from petitioning again.[46] The Chinook Indian Nation challenged this rule in Chinook Indian Nation v. Bernhardt, arguing that the ban was unreasonable and beyond the power of the bureau. The court sided with the tribe.[47]

By 2010, the Chinook Nation had over 2,000 members.[21] According to tribal chair Tony Johnson, the Chinook Nation's unrecognized status hindered "economic development, the establishment of a land base, the preservation of our culture, the reinstatement of fishing and hunting rights, the ability to repatriate our ancestors’ bones and sacred items from museum collections, and the ability to better care for our community’s health and well-being."[48] The tribe's lack of funding led to the closure of its food bank in November 2011, and it could barely cover the cost of its tribal office as of 2017.[45] Senate Bill 5433 of the Washington State Senate required schools to "incorporate curricula about... the nearest federally recognized Indian tribe or tribes", which excluded the unrecognized Chinook Nation.[46]

In June 2015, the Chinook Nation launched the Chinook Executive Justice Recognition Project, directed toward Obama. Their goals were for Obama to recognize the nation via an executive order, to enact the Tansy Point Treaty, and to negotiate land for the Chinook. The project included a daily letter campaign to Obama, Clinton, and media outlets. The letters covered various Chinook-related topics and served as documentation of the culture.[49]

The tribe worked with state and federal agencies, but its status prevented it from protecting land. It purchased land near Astoria, Oregon with funding from donors including the Oregon Community Foundation, the Meyer Memorial Trust, and the Collins Foundation. The land included a Chinookan village and a gathering place where the Tansy Point Treaty had been signed. The tribe is in the process of establishing a land trust for the site, as of 2023.[50]

Administration and membership

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A red building with a sign that says "Chinook Tribal Office"
The Chinook Tribal Office in Bay Center, Washington

The Chinook Indian Nation is based in Bay Center, Washington. It is governed by an elected tribal chair and a council with nine members. It has committees on communications, culture, enrollment, fisheries, fund development, health and social services, lands, and scholarship.[10] The tribe's land claim spans from the Pacific Ocean to around Oak Point, Washington in the east.[13]

The tribe has about 3,000 citizens, as of 2021. Citizens are descended from the Lower Chinook, Clatsop, Willapa, Wahkiakum, and Kathlamet tribes.[51][10] The Chinook Indian Nation includes one of the largest populations with Clatsop ancestry.[29] Most citizens live near the tribes' historical homeland in the counties of Pacific and Wahkiakum in Washington and Clatsop and Columbia in Oregon.[2][52] The tribal council discouraged tribal disenrollment in 2016.[53] The organization owns less than five acres of land, donated by members.[54]

Activities

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A crowd facing a lake with many canoes lined up.
Tribal Canoe Journeys 2014

The Chinook Indian Nation participates in efforts to revive the canoe tradition. The tribe considers canoes a vital aspect of its culture.[55] The revitalization has led to canoes being part of everyday activities as well as events and ceremonies. The most famous canoe revitalization event is the Tribal Canoe Journeys, an annual gathering of indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest.[56] Though members of the Chinook Nation had worked with the event since its creation in 1989, the nation began participating in Tribal Journeys in 2005, along with the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde. The two tribes combined their resources and began jointly participating in the event. As both tribes increased their presence at the event, they began participating separately, though they continued collaborating.[57][2] The popularity of Tribal Journeys led to a decrease in drug problems among the Chinook.[58]

Chinook Jargon is the heritage language of the Chinook Indian Nation.[59] The organization works on language revitalization using informal methods, unlike more formal initiatives by Grand Ronde.[60] The Cathlapotle Plankhouse is a cultural center that holds educational events. It was built by volunteers and is located in the Ridgefield National Wildlife Refuge, near the site of Cathlapotle.[61] The tribe uses the plankhouse for events such as the Winter Gathering, a meeting of tribes.[62]

Notable people

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References

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  1. ^ Daehnke 2017, p. 36–37.
  2. ^ a b c Daehnke, Jon D. (2019). "A Heritage of Reciprocity: Canoe Revitalization, Cultural Resilience, and the Power of Protocol". The Public Historian. 41 (1): 64–77. ISSN 0272-3433.
  3. ^ Daehnke 2017, p. 37–38.
  4. ^ Johnson 2017, p. 14.
  5. ^ Daehnke 2017, p. 62.
  6. ^ Daehnke 2017, p. 40.
  7. ^ Daehnke 2017, p. 41, 64.
  8. ^ Daehnke 2017, p. 42, 62.
  9. ^ Daehnke 2017, p. 44–45.
  10. ^ a b c Daehnke 2017, p. 52.
  11. ^ Daehnke 2017, p. 46.
  12. ^ Daehnke 2017, p. 63.
  13. ^ a b c Daehnke 2017, p. 70.
  14. ^ Daehnke 2017, p. 91.
  15. ^ Daehnke 2017, p. 101.
  16. ^ Daehnke 2017, p. 48.
  17. ^ Daehnke 2017, p. 175.
  18. ^ a b Daehnke 2017, p. 49.
  19. ^ a b Daehnke 2017, p. 50.
  20. ^ Sweeney, Rosemary (2001). "Federal Acknowledgement of Indian Tribes: Current BIA Interpretations of the Federal Criteria for Acknowledgment with Respect to Several Northwest Tribes". American Indian Law Review. 26 (2): 203–231. doi:10.2307/20070681. ISSN 0094-002X.
  21. ^ a b Crawford O'Brien, Suzanne (2013). Coming Full Circle: Spirituality and Wellness among Native Communities in the Pacific Northwest. University of Nebraska Press. p. 76. ISBN 9780803248595. Project MUSE 26412.
  22. ^ Daehnke 2017, p. 50–51.
  23. ^ a b c d Daehnke 2017, p. 55.
  24. ^ a b Barber, Katrine (2013). "Shared Authority in the Context of Tribal Sovereignty: Building Capacity for Partnerships with Indigenous Nations". The Public Historian. 35 (4): 20–39. doi:10.1525/tph.2013.35.4.20. ISSN 0272-3433.
  25. ^ Allen, Cain (2003). "Replacing Salmon: Columbia River Indian Fishing Rights and the Geography of Fisheries Mitigation". Oregon Historical Quarterly. 104 (2): 196–227. ISSN 0030-4727.
  26. ^ Daehnke 2017, p. 53.
  27. ^ Daehnke 2017, p. 73.
  28. ^ Gover, Kevin (January 3, 2001). "Final Determination to Acknowledge the Chinook Indian Tribe/Chinook Nation (Formerly: Chinook Indian Tribe, Inc.)". Federal Register. 66 FR 1690. Retrieved December 27, 2024.
  29. ^ a b Deur, Douglas (2016). "The Making of Seaside's "Indian Place": Contested and Enduring Native Spaces on the Nineteenth Century Oregon Coast". Oregon Historical Quarterly. 117 (4): 536–573. doi:10.5403/oregonhistq.117.4.0536. ISSN 0030-4727.
  30. ^ Daehnke 2017, p. 56.
  31. ^ Daehnke 2017, p. 57.
  32. ^ Daehnke 2017, p. 65–66.
  33. ^ Daehnke 2017, p. 67.
  34. ^ Daehnke 2017, p. 72.
  35. ^ Daehnke 2017, p. 75–76.
  36. ^ Daehnke 2017, p. 134.
  37. ^ Daehnke 2017, p. 121.
  38. ^ Daehnke 2017, p. 112.
  39. ^ Daehnke 2017, p. 122.
  40. ^ Daehnke 2017, p. 143.
  41. ^ Erickson & Krotz 2021, p. 14.
  42. ^ Daehnke 2017, p. 3.
  43. ^ Daehnke 2017, p. 58.
  44. ^ Daehnke 2017, p. 24.
  45. ^ a b Daehnke 2017, p. 59.
  46. ^ a b Daehnke 2017, p. 25.
  47. ^ Lee, Ama (September 1, 2022). "Two Classes of Tribes: Unifying the State and Federal Recognition Systems". Columbia Human Rights Law Review. 54 (1): 274.
  48. ^ Daehnke, 2017 & 54.
  49. ^ Daehnke 2017, p. 175–177.
  50. ^ Daehnke, John D.; Lafrenz Samuels, Kathryn (2023). Heritage and Democracy: Crisis, Critique, and Collaboration. University Press of Florida. p. 250. ISBN 9780813070360. Project MUSE 103991.
  51. ^ Cushman, Daehnke & Johnson 2021, p. 52.
  52. ^ Daehnke 2017, p. 6.
  53. ^ Minke, Tabitha (2016). "Christman V. Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde: A Chapter in the Disenrollment Epidemic". American Indian Law Review. 41 (1): 201–217. ISSN 0094-002X.
  54. ^ Johnson 2017, p. xii.
  55. ^ Daehnke 2017, p. 144.
  56. ^ Cushman, Daehnke & Johnson 2021, p. 51.
  57. ^ Cushman, Daehnke & Johnson 2021, p. 57.
  58. ^ Daehnke 2017, p. 161.
  59. ^ Duncan, Switzler & Zenk 2023, p. 1115.
  60. ^ Duncan, Switzler & Zenk 2023, p. 1135.
  61. ^ Daehnke 2017, p. 112, 121.
  62. ^ Daehkne 2017, p. 123.
  63. ^ Daehnke 2017, p. 176.

Works cited

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