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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

Background

The Chinookan peoples historically lived along the Columbia River and on the Pacific Ocean near the river's mouth. The westernmost Chinookan tribes, the Lower Chinook, Clatsop, Willapa, Wahkiakum, and Kathlamet tribes, comprise the Chinook Indian Nation.

Once Europeans settled the area, new diseases and the introduction of alcohol led to higher death rates among the Chinook.

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

The 1851 Tansy Point Treaty, which would grant the Chinook federal recognition, was signed but not ratified by Congress. The tribe participated in a failed treaty negotiation in 1855 at Chehalis River with Territorial Governor Isaac Stevens. 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.

Many Chinook people were relocated to the Grande Ronde reservation in the 1850s. The Chinook Indian Nation was formed from those who refused to join the reservation as they wished to stay near the Columbia River. The nation began pursuing legal representation by 1899. Efforts to receive recognition continued to fail.

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.

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. 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.

Federal recognition process (1978–2002)

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. Their 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. 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.

A memo within the BIA raised doubts about the validity of the case on the same day as the decision. 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:

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 , that a predominant portion of its members comprise a distinct social community at present, or since 1950 , or that it has been identified historically as an Indian entity by outside observers on a substantially continuous basis .

The decision noted that the tribe lacked documentation between the 1850s and 1920s. 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."

Attempts at re-recognition (2002–present)

Some members of the Chinook Indian Nation wanted to respond to the decision by suing the federal government. Others believed that seeking recognition through an act of Congress would avoid the cost and uncertainty of the judicial system. 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.

The administration of Barack Obama revised the FAP, which it called "broken", and eased rules on documentation by outsiders. 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. However, this revision said that tribes whose petitions have been denied are banned from petitioning again. 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.

By 2010, the Chinook Nation had over 2,000 members. 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.

The tribe contributed to a bicentennial celebration of the Lewis and Clark expedition. William Clark's descendants donated a canoe to the tribe. The celebration included the Confluence Project, a collaborative project between artists, civic groups, and tribes from the Pacific Northwest, with six art installations designed by Maya Lin.

According to tribal chair Tony Johnson, the Chinook Nation's unrecognized status hinders "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." 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. 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.

Administration and membership

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.

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

Activities

The Chinook Indian Nation participates in efforts to revive the canoe tradition. 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. 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.

Chinook Jargon is the heritage language of the Chinook Indian Nation. The organization works on language revitalization using informal methods, unlike more formal initiatives by Grand Ronde.

References

1. ^ 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.
2. ^ Daehnke 2017, p. 52.
3. 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.
4. ^ 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.
5. ^ Daehnke 2017, p. 55.
6. ^ 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.
7. 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.
8. Daehnke 2017, p. 53.
9. 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.
10. ^ 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.
11. Daehnke 2017, p. 56.
12. Daehnke 2017, p. 57.
13. Daehnke 2017, p. 58.
14. Daehnke 2017, p. 24.
15. ^ Daehnke 2017, p. 59.
16. ^ Daehnke 2017, p. 25.
17. Lee, Ama (September 1, 2022). "Two Classes of Tribes: Unifying the State and Federal Recognition Systems". Columbia Human Rights Law Review. 54 (1): 274.
18. 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.
19. Erickson & Krotz 2021, p. 14.
20. Daehnke 2017, p. 3.
21. Daehnke, 2017 & 54. sfn error: no target: CITEREFDaehnke201754 (help)
22. Cushman, Daehnke & Johnson 2021, p. 52.
23. Daehnke 2017, p. 6.
24. 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.
25. Johnson 2017, p. xii.
26. Cushman, Daehnke & Johnson 2021, p. 51.
27. Cushman, Daehnke & Johnson 2021, p. 57.
28. Duncan, Switzler & Zenk 2023, p. 1115.
29. Duncan, Switzler & Zenk 2023, p. 1135.

Works cited

• Daehnke, Jon D. (November 1, 2017). Chinook Resilience: Heritage and Cultural Revitalization on the Lower Columbia River. Indigenous Confluences. University of Washington Press. doi:10.1515/9780295742274. ISBN 9780295742274.
  • Johnson, Tony A. Foreword. In Daehnke (2017).
• Dagostino, Carmen; Mithun, Marianne; Rice, Keren, eds. (December 18, 2023). The Languages and Linguistics of Indigenous North America. The World of Linguistics. Vol. 13.2. De Gruyter Mouton. doi:10.1515/9783110712742. ISBN 9783110712742.
  • Duncan, Phillip T.; Switzler, Valerie (Lamxayat); Zenk, Henry B. "Chinookan family, with special reference to Kiksht and notes on Chinuk Wawa". In Dagostino, Mithun & Rice (2023).
• Erickson, Bruce; Krotz, Sarah Wylie, eds. (March 16, 2021). The Politics of the Canoe. University of Manitoba Press. doi:10.1515/9780887559112. ISBN 9780887559112.
  • Erickson, Bruce; Krotz, Sarah Wylie. Introduction. In Erickson & Krotz (2021).
  • Cushman, Rachel L.; Daehnke, Jon D.; Johnson, Tony A. "Chapter 2 This Is What Makes Us Strong: Canoe Revitalization, Reciprocal Heritage, and the Chinook Indian Nation". In Erickson & Krotz (2021).

• Chinookan tribes
• Former American Indian reservations
• Unrecognized tribes in the United States
• Native American tribes in Washington (state)
• Native American tribes in Oregon