Clatsop Report

Clatsop Report

by Mia Estabrook

Introduction:

The Clatsops lived in north Oregon along the coast from the Columbia River to Tillamook, near Seaside. They flattened their heads. The mothers used strips of cloth and tied their baby’s head to a board. The Clatsops were the only tribe in the United States not moved to a reservation. They are not recognized as a tribe now. When Lewis and Clark met them in the winter of 1805-1806, there were only 3 villages of 200 people each. They had small pox.

Longhouses:

They lived in cedar planked longhouses with two doors and no windows. There were small smoke holes in the roof. A bunch of related families would live together.

Clothing:

Men wore fur robes that covered the shoulders, arms and body. Women wore cedar or arber vita bark skirts and fur robes to the thigh. Women wore lots of jewelry: anklets, bracelets, earrings, and rings made out of brass wire and blue beads. They made mats, hats, and blankets. The blankets were cloth and red or blue.

Food, Hunting, and Tools:

They hunted for sea otters, beaver, deer, elk, fowl, foxes, and wild cats. They also ate porpoises and whales that had been stranded. They used a cedar canoe and nets and gigs to catch salmon and sturgeon. They collected roots such as wappato, shaw na tak que, and wild licorice. They also ate cranberries.

Family Life and Leadership:

They did not have a council of elders or a chief. Each family lived independently.

Language:

They spoke a Chinook Jargon, the trade language used throughout the Pacific Northwest. They had their own Clatsop Dialect which is nearly extinct and is related to the Lower Chinookan language.

Hello, how do you do? 
dush-ALL-uh-NOOH-sh

Tomorrow 
guh-WISH-guss

Good
 duh-HOOTS-nuh

White person
 un-OONS

Tillamook (city)
 nish-da-TOGgy

The tide is coming in
 ‘ts-ull-ULL-leel

--Clatsop Nehalem Confederated Tribes Official Website

Mountain neakahnie

Whale ecola

--Wikipedia: Clatsop

Religious Beliefs:

They had stories of mythical heroes such as salmon, raven, gull, coyote, crane, skunk, crow, robin, blue jay, and panther. Italupus is the coyote. He made the Columbia River and all the fish in it. He taught the people how to fish, make fire and fishing nets. Saddle Mountain is where they believed they were made and it is their sacred mountain. They have ceremonies there.

Bibliography

1. 1. The Journals of the Lewis and Clark Expedition: 1805

2. 2. Wikipedia: Clatsop

3. 3. The Clatsop Nehalem Condederated Tribes Official Website

4. 4. Longhouses by Karen Bush Gibson

5/ 5. trailtribes.org: traditional and contemporary native culture