Tillamook

Ian Skoggard

Calamox (Ca-la-mox), Callamuck, Callemex, Kilamex, Killamook, Killamuck, Killimuk

The Tillamook lived along the Oregon coast from Tillamook Head in Clatsop County in the north, through Tillamook County to the Siletz River in Lincoln County to the south. Settlements were concentrated in the tidewater bays of Nehalem, Tillamook (with the largest villages), Netarts and Nestucca in Tillamook County. The linguistically-distinguished subgroups were, from north to south: Nehalem, Nestucca, Salmon River, and Siletz (the most divergent). The name “Tillamook'' is Chinook in origin and means “the people of Nekelim (Nehalem).”

Lewis and Clark estimated the Tillamook population to be around 2200 in 1805-1806. A later Hudson Bay estimate put their numbers at 1500. Epidemic diseases dramatically reduced the population to about 200 by 1849. An 1871 census had them at 166. The 2010 United States census counted 90 individuals identifying as wholly or partly Tillamook.

Tillamook belongs to the Central Salish language group.

The banks of the Columbia River were first occupied at the end of the last Ice Age, around 10,000 years ago. Carbon dating of fire pits and the thickness of midden deposits at archaeological sites along the Oregon coast suggest continuous settlement for thousands of years. Tillamook legends tell of shipwrecked Spaniards marrying into local tribes and teaching metal working. The wrecks of Chinese junks in the region suggest the possibility of other encounters. A 1579 map from the voyage of Francis Drake depicts Nehalem Bay. A stone found on Mt. Nehalem bearing a carved date and the word “dios” has been attributed to Drake’s landing party. Cakes of Chinese beeswax collected and kept by the Tillamook are dated to 1680 and could have washed ashore from a Spanish galleon that sank off the coast at that time. The earliest written record of the region is in the year 1788 by English John Meares, who described the coast and Tillamook Bay. He was followed that same year by another Englishman, Robert Gray, who was able to trade for food to feed his scurvy-stricken crew. Unfortunately that encounter ended in violence, with sailors barely escaping with their lives. Gray’s visit marked the end of Tillamook isolation. Lewis and Clark provided the first description of Tillamook and Chinook culture in their 1805-1806 expedition. Fur trappers, miners, and settlers soon followed. Epidemic diseases took their toll in the 1830s, reducing the Tillamook population from Lewis and Clark’s estimate of 2200 in 1806 to 200 by 1849. Following upon the Oregon Donation Land Act of 1850 that encouraged settlement of the territory, a treaty negotiated at Tansy Point in 1851 ceded Tillamook lands to settlers in exchange for $10,500 in goods and annual cash payments over 10 years, but the treaty was never ratified by Congress. In 1897, the case was reopened and resolved, with each surviving member receiving a compensation of $262.50, or $.02 an acre for their original territory. In 1855, the Coast Reservation, later to be called the Siletz Reservation, was established along 120 miles of coastline. An executive order in 1865 and an Act of Congress in 1875 reduced its area by about three-quarters. Consequent to the Dawes Act of 1887, in 1891-92 the land was allotted as 80- acre private parcels to the residents, or up to 160 acres to those living “off reservation” who renounced their tribal affiliation. The “surplus” was sold off to non-indigenous people and business interests. The Siletz Reservation remains in existence today as a confederation of a number of regional tribes and bands. The last full-blooded Tillamook, Ellen Center, died on May 13, 1959.

The Tillamook built their villages around estuaries and sheltered bays at the mouths of rivers, where there was easy access to fresh and salt water. Villages were a day's journey from each other. Houses were made of cedar planks, bark or grass. Permanent winter homes were made from cedar and pine planking. Some dwellings were semi-subterranean to keep out the winter chill. The interiors contained beds on raised platforms against the wall and sunken fireplaces in the center. Sweathouses were made of bark and covered with packed earth. Summer homes, storage huts and menstrual huts were made of matted grass. Beginning in June, when the weather warmed up, small groups left their villages to live along rivers or out on sand spits. Summers were spent fishing for salmon and hunting.

The coastal region and rivers were abundant with fish. Weirs were constructed to channel fish into traps or narrow openings where they could be easily caught using spears, nets, clubs, or hook and line. Harpoons were used to hunt sea mammals. Fish was supplemented with shellfish, mollusks, berries, and wild bird eggs. Land animals hunted included deer, elk and, sometimes, bear, cougar and wildcat. Smaller game included beaver, otter, mink squirrels, muskrat, rabbit and chipmunk. Fire was used to flush small game into traps, and to create grassland to attract deer and elk. Deadfalls and pits were used to trap game. Food was cooked by boiling, steaming, baking, or direct heat. Salmon were dried, smoked or roasted, as was the meat of elk and deer after cutting the flesh into strips. Waterfowl were hunted with clubs, bows and arrows, or nets. A variety of berries were dried and mashed into cakes. Other wild plants and roots consumed were wild asparagus, ferns, mountain sorrel, wapato (Sagittaria latifolia), skunk cabbage, wild onion, thistle, ookow (Dichelostemma spp.) and camas (Camassia spp.).

Dugout canoes, made from a single log, were important for fishing, transportation, and trade. Small canoes accommodated two to three people for travel and for fishing in bays and rivers. Canoes holding up to a dozen people were used on rivers for trade. Larger canoes, upwards of fifty feet long and able to carry twenty to thirty people, were used for sea travel. The Tillamook were renowned basket makers and their baskets were popular trade items. They made tools from stone, wood, and bone. Chert and obsidian were flaked to make axe heads, scrapers, and projectile points. Stone was also ground and polished to make mauls, clubs, and mortars and pestles. Elk and deer antlers were used to make wedges to split wood. Chisels were made from beaver teeth. Bird bone was used to make whistles and sewing needles. Cedar is easy to carve and was used for bowls, spoons, clubs, cradles, bows and arrows, canoes, and head rests. Mats, clothes, and baskets were made using fibers from a variety of sources, including cattails, spruce and cedar roots, cedar bark, ferns, and grasses. Clothes and blankets were also made from animal skins, including deer, seal, elk, bear and beaver; sea otter pelts were the most valued.

The Tillamook were part of an extensive trading network that included the Chinook, who lived along the Columbia River and controlled the slave trade up and down the coast. Slaves were traded for dentalium shell money from western Vancouver Island and, in historical times, for glass beads and metal buttons. The Tillamook also traded in canoes, dried clams, furs, sea shells, and baskets.

Men fished for salmon and hunted marine animals such as seals, sea lions and birds. Women collected clams and shellfish, made baskets, and dressed skins.

Although there was no formal private ownership of land, villages laid claim to nearby fishing spots. Individual families could own smaller fishing holes. Female elders controlled clam beds and other food gathering areas.

Women were ready to marry after completing the rituals associated with first menses. A man had to be mature enough to hunt and support a spouse, around 18-20 years old. Marital partners were sought outside the village. There was no prohibition against marrying first cousins, but it was rare. An interested male suitor would send shell money to the father via a messenger. If the father accepted, he sent money in return. On the day of the marriage, the groom and his family paid a bride price, followed by speeches and a feast of fish, meat and berries. The young couple usually lived in the husband’s village. The Tillamook practiced polygyny, as well as levirate and sororate marriage.

Up to four families lived in a house, two per hearth.

All children inherited equally, blood relatives ahead of stepchildren.

The practice of using a cradle board to flatten the foreheads of babies distinguished all freemen. At six years old, the parents held a naming ceremony, which involved ear piercing for boys and girls. They were named after deceased relatives. Gendered activities were taught at an early age. Boy’s toys included canoes, bows and arrows, and war clubs. Girls were taught to gather food, weave baskets, and make bone tools. Corporal punishment was rare. Moral tales about the fate of bad people were told around the hearth in the evening. An important stage in the life cycle for young men and women was acquiring a guardian spirit, under the tutelage of a shaman. Boys in their early teens went out alone into the forest to fast, hoping to find a spirit associated with the career they desired, that of a hunter, shaman, or warrior. They would not declare their spirit until the winter ceremony. At her first menstruation a young woman was secluded in a hut. During this time women would fast and seek a guardian spirit chaperoned by a female shaman. A woman married soon after her first menses.

The Tillamook had four social classes: leaders, a middle class, the poor, and slaves. Only chiefs owned slaves. Shamans were the most esteemed individuals, as their spirits were most formidable. Supernatural spirits associated with wealth, warfare and hunting were less powerful and esteemed. The poor had little or no spiritual powers. Slaves lived on their own. Female slaves became wives of their captors. Children of slaves remained slaves. Slaves could have powerful spirit helpers, which could give them more status than some freemen; however, they could only free themselves by escaping from their owner.

The village was the main political unit, typically consisting of several extended families. Villages averaged 25 people in size; some could be as large as 200. Leadership was situational, centered on activities such as trade, warfare or fishing. Most decisions were made collectively by the village elders. The chief’s duties were primarily to tend to the welfare of his people and guard against attacks.

Conduct was sanctioned through custom, public opinion, precedent, family decision, and/or heads of families. Individuals with good speaking abilities helped smooth over interfamilial difficulties. In most cases, monetary compensation was required to resolve disputes.

Most intercommunity disputes were settled by arbitration leading to monetary compensation. A dance and feast would follow to seal the deal. The Tillamook fought surrounding tribes, although not their immediate neighbors. Wars were conducted for the purpose of acquiring slaves or tribute, or to avenge murder. Chiefs led the attack, usually at night, but did not themselves fight. Weapons consisted of poison arrows, spears, knives, and clubs. Slave raiders would only capture women and children, killing all adult males. Captives were either enslaved or ransomed.

The Tillamook believed that all animals, rocks and trees were endowed with spirits. Spirits were also responsible for changes in the tides and weather.

To become a shaman, a person fasted and danced for five days. Shamans used small bones to kill their enemies. Conversely, they could cure the sick and dying by taking out small bones. Serious illness caused by violations of tribal taboos also was treated by a shaman, and sickness due to soul loss required a shaman's efforts to recover it. Failure to cure a patient was blamed on sorcery. Certain rocks and trees were considered sacred, and were places where shamans could recharge their powers.

A celebration of the first catch of the salmon season involved a careful cleaning and cooking of the fish, making sure blood and bones were burned. Tribal elders danced the Salmon Spirit Dance. Winter dances, also involving gambling and storytelling, were the largest and most important ceremonies. The Tillamook believed winter was the time when the spirits were most accessible, and shamans renewed their powers by sponsoring a dance. It was also a time when recent initiates publically declared their guardian spirits, with a dance that related the story of the spirit quest. A Ghost Dance enacted the common creation myth of the region. Elaborate costumes and face painting were worn for the dances.

The Tillamook were expert basket makers, weaving geometric designs such as zigzags, chevrons, squares, triangles, and steps, and designs representing a variety of animals, such as birds and elk. They had many legends about the transformer Tk’a, thunderbird, crow, panther, the dancer, the warrior, and old woman Xî′lgō. The Tillamook adorned themselves with wood, bone and bead ornaments worn around the wrist, waist and neck. Women wore their hair in two braids and men in one. Reddening the hair was considered attractive. Women tattooed their arms and legs. The use of red and blue body paint was common, especially for ceremonial events. The playing of drums, rattles, and whistles accompanied dance performances. Songs and chants were associated with guardian spirits and the professions they supported. The headboards of shamans’ beds were carved and painted with symbols of their guardian spirits. Carvings of faces have been found on a variety of stone objects, such stone weights for gill nets.

Midwives delivered babies. Sweat houses were used for medicinal purposes. Camas bulbs were used to cure boils, and to bring relief for rheumatism, bruises and sprains. Western Trillium was applied to sores and Solomon’s Seal was used on open cuts. Cascara buckthorn was used as a laxative. The ground seeds of the Tall Larkspur were used to kill head lice. Urine could also be used for head lice, and was drunk as an emetic. Additional remedies included the use of California poppy to relieve toothache, Brake Fern roots to kill intestinal worms, and breast milk to soothe eye ailments.

Funerals did not start until all the relatives of the deceased gathered. The body was cleaned, wrapped in a blanket, and the face painted red. The corpse was placed in a canoe built for the occasion and carried to the burial ground. Gifts brought by attendees were buried with the deceased. Mourning involved cutting the hair very short, and could last a year, including regular visits to the gravesite, crying, chanting and singing. After a year or two, the bones were reburied in a special ceremony.

Upon death the soul embarked on a long journey to the land of the dead, where game, fish and birds were plentiful. There, it joined other deceased members of its community, who lived together in one house and danced at night. Bad people took longer to reach the land, or never arrived at all, instead ending up in a land where they were enslaved by a bad chief and had to eat snakes and vermin.

The culture summary was written by Ian Skoggard in November, 2021. Leon G. Doyon modified the section “History and Cultural Relations” and added population figures in February, 2022.

Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians (2022). “Our Heritage: History and Culture.” https://www.ctsi.nsn.us/heritage/. Accessed February 1, 2022.

Jacobs, Elizabeth Derr (2003). The Nehalem Tillamook. Corvallis: Oregon State University Press.

Sauter, John and Bruce Johnson (1974). Tillamook Indians of the Oregon Coast. Portland, Or.: Binfords & Mort.

United States Census Bureau (2013). American Indian and Alaska Native Tribes in the United States and Puerto Rico: 2010 (CPH-T-6). https://www.census.gov/data/tables/time-series/dec/cph-series/cph-t/cph-t-6.html. Accessed January 27, 2022.