Anthropology Commons^™

Chinookan Villages Of The Lower Columbia, Henry B. Zenk, Yvonne P. Hajda, Robert T. Boyd

Anthropology Faculty Publications and Presentations

Villages were the center of Chinookan life, filling the role that tribes did for Native people in other parts of North America. Every village of any size or significance had a recognized leader or chief, and constituted a named local group with which its members identified themselves. Although the villages themselves are long vanished, early travelers, missionaries, and settlers have left us eyewitness accounts of what some were like. The names and approximate locations of many more can be reconstructed from historical sources and information shared by later generations of lower Columbia River Native people.

As contributors to the recently …

Aboriginal Fisheries Of The Lower Columbia River, Virginia L. Butler, Michael A. Martin

Anthropology Faculty Publications and Presentations

This chapter, included in Chinookan Peoples of the Lower Columbia, published by the University of Washington Press in 2013, explores the aboriginal fisheries of the Lower Columbia River. The authors reviewed ethnohistorical accounts and studies of archaeological sites to create a complex picture of Columbia River fisheries that challenges the prevailing view among anthropologists that salmon was the primary and predominant fishery among Chinookan peoples. The authors show that 19th century Native fishers targeted virtually all native fish species in the Lower Columbia River, and employed a wide range of strategies and tactics to acquire and process fish.

Environment And Archaeology Of The Lower Columbia, Elizabeth A. Sobel, Kenneth M. Ames, Robert J. Losey

Anthropology Faculty Publications and Presentations

This chapter, included in Chinookan Peoples of the Lower Columbia, published by the University of Washington Press in 2013, explores the environment and archaeology of the Lower Columbia. The Columbia is the great river of the American West. The interplay of river, ocean, mountains, and climate produced a rich and productive but dynamic environment, and people have lived in and adjusted to this environment for at least 12,000 years. The Lower Columbia generally refers to the river's final 196-mile (315-kilometer) run from the western edge of the Columbia Plateau to the Pacific Ocean.

Houses And Households, Kenneth M. Ames, Elizabeth A. Sobel

Anthropology Faculty Publications and Presentations

This chapter, included in Chinookan Peoples of the Lower Columbia, published by the University of Washington Press in 2013, explores Lower Columbia Chinookan houses and households.

Households are central to understanding what anthropologists and others term complex societies-that is, societies that feature social stratification, high population densities, monumental architecture, and an emphasis on wealth. Most premodern complex societies practiced agriculture, which enabled the high levels of food production that most researchers thought were needed to support complexity. Northwest Coast peoples, however, including those along the Lower Columbia and a few other known human populations, had complex societies based on …

Lower Columbia Chinookan Ceremonialism, Robert T. Boyd

Anthropology Faculty Publications and Presentations

This chapter, included in Chinookan Peoples of the Lower Columbia, published by the University of Washington Press in 2013, explores Lower Columbia Chinookan Ceremonialism.

Traditional Chinookan ceremonies or religious rituals were particularly vulnerable to the rapid changes that came with Euro-American contact. Change and loss occurred after the epidemics of the 1830s removed many specialists and broke apart the critical mass of people needed for group performances; and in the early 1840s, when missionaries at the surviving settlements at Willamette Falls, The Cascades, and the mouth of the Columbia discouraged traditional life rites. After such experiences, the details on …

Lower Columbia River Art, Tony A. Johnson, Adam Mcisaac, Kenneth M. Ames, Robert T. Boyd

Anthropology Faculty Publications and Presentations

This chapter, included in Chinookan Peoples of the Lower Columbia, published by the University of Washington Press in 2013, explores river art of the Lower Columbia River. The authors concentrate on artwork that was created between Astoria, Oregon, and The Cascades, about 130 miles upriver.

Lower Chinookan Disease And Demography, Robert T. Boyd

Anthropology Faculty Publications and Presentations

This chapter, included in Chinookan Peoples of the Lower Columbia, published by the University of Washington Press in 2013, explores disease and demography of the Lower Columbia River Chinookan peoples. In the first century of contact, the Lower Columbia Chinookans suffered more from the effects of introduced diseases and depopulation than almost any other Native peoples in the Northwest. Yet they survived, and their numbers are increasing. This chapter is a history of Lower Chinookan disease and population, from the aboriginal state, through the disruptive early contact years, up to the rebound and revitalization of the last century.