essay
The Chinook Indians in the early 1800s
Western shore: Oregon country essays honoring the American revolution • Portland • Published In 1975 • Pages: 120-149
By: Ray, Verne Frederick.
AbstractBrief abstract written by HRAF anthropologists who have done the subject indexing for the document
In the early 1800s the United States was in a process of territorial expansion and sought to acquire the Oregon country with its profitable trade on the lower Columbia. To accomplish this, president Thomas Jefferson enlisted the services of Meriwether Lewis and William Clark to survey and explore the region and establish friendly relationships with the Native Americans of the area, learning in the process as much about them as possible to insure the success of Jefferson's plan. This document compares the adequacy of the cultural equipment of the whites (here in terms of the personnel of the Lewis and Clark party) and the Indians in handling the problems posed by the environment of the Chinookan area and by the social milieu. The Indians encountered in this area were the tribes of the lower Columbia Valley and adjacent regions, namely the Lower Chinook proper, the Kathlamet, and the Clatsop (p. 123). Ray presents several excerpts from the journals of the expedition that provide ethnographic information on the Chinookan people (e.g., navigational skills, canoes, language, clothing, etc.).
- SubjectsDocument-level OCM identifiers given by the anthropology subject indexers at HRAF
- Reviews and critiques
- Theoretical orientation in research and its results
- History
- Acculturation and culture contact
- Vocabulary
- External trade
- Boats
- Navigation
- Behavior toward non-relatives
- cultureCulture name from the Outline of World Cultures (OWC)
- Chinookans of the Lower Columbia River
- HRAF PubDateThe date HRAF published the document
- 2004
- RegionThe area the document pertains to
- North America
- Sub RegionThe more specific area the document pertains to, which is located within the Region
- Northwest Coast and California
- Document TypeMay include journal articles, essays, collections of essays, monographs, or chapters/parts of monographs
- essay
- Evaluation
- Creator TypeThe type of person writing the document, e.g. Ethnographer, Missionary, Archaeologist, Folklorist, Linguist, Indigenous Person, and so on.
- Explorer
- Document Rating A ranking done by HRAF anthropologists based on the strength of the source material on a scale of 1 to 5, as follows: 1 - poor; 2 - fair; 3 - good, useful data, but not uniformly excellent; 4 - excellent secondary data; 5 - excellent primary data.
- 5: Excellent Primary Data
- AnalystThe HRAF anthropologist who subject indexed the document and prepared other materials for the eHRAF culture/tradition collection
- John Beierle ; 2002
- Field DateThe date the researcher conducted the fieldwork or archival research that produced the document
- early 1800s
- Coverage DateThe date or dates that the information in the document pertains to
- early nineteenth century
- Coverage PlaceLocation of the research culture or tradition (often a smaller unit such as a band, community, or archaeological site)
- Lower Chinook region, southern Washington and northern Oregon, United States
- NotesAdditional notes
- Verne F. Ray
- Includes bibliographical references
- LCCNLibrary of Congress Control Number
- 75016799
- LCSHLibrary of Congress Subject Headings
- Chinook Indians