Clatsop
The Clatsop were a Chinookan-speaking people who lived on the south side of the Columbia River estuary and along the northern Oregon coast, in the vicinity of present-day Astoria. The Corps of Discovery established Fort Clatsop in December 1805 in their territory, naming the winter encampment after them, and maintained close relations with the Clatsop throughout the wet, difficult winter of 1805–1806. The Clatsop provided valuable geographic information, traded food (particularly fish, berries, and roots), and alerted the expedition to a beached whale on the coast. Like other Lower Chinookan peoples, the Clatsop practiced cranial modification, lived in cedar longhouses, and depended heavily on salmon, though their population was already declining from exposure to diseases introduced by European and American maritime traders.
Biography
The Clatsop were a Chinookan-speaking people who lived on the south shore of the Columbia River estuary, near present-day Astoria, Oregon. The expedition built Fort Clatsop in their territory and maintained a generally positive relationship during the winter of 1805-1806.
The Clatsop traded fish, roots, and other provisions with the expedition, and their chief Coboway visited the fort regularly. The expedition named their winter quarters “Fort Clatsop” in honor of this relationship.
When the expedition departed in March 1806, they gave the fort to Coboway. The Clatsop later suffered severe population decline from introduced diseases and were eventually absorbed into the broader Chinookan cultural sphere. Today the Chinook Indian Nation (which includes Clatsop descendants) continues to seek federal recognition.
