12,000 Years of Local History - 📍 Chinook Nation, WA

Sam Robinson, Vice Chair of the Chinook Nation, shares about the 12,000 years of Chinook history in SW Washington and NW Oregon. His stories take us to the Cathlapotle Plankhouse in Ridgefield, up the coast on a canoe journey, and through millennia of visual art that's deeply connected to the land and this place we call home. Listen in to learn about the Chinook’s past, present, and their 175-year fight for federal recognition. 

🗺️ Visit them at chinooknation.org or chinookjustice.org.

👀 For pictures, video, and more, visit the episode page.

🎉 This episode also celebrates art by Greg Robinson.

Transcript

Adriana: [00:00:00] Today we're sitting down with Sam Robinson, who is the Vice Chair of the Chinook Nation. When we talk about the culture, history, and heritage of this place we call home, we get the opportunity to look to the Chinook Nation as the original peoples of this place. They can prove their history on this land back 12,000 years. That puts them here, cultivating this area that we occupy, 5,000 years before the pyramids were even built. The Chinook have been here building homes, tending the land, fishing, creating art, sharing their culture through visual representation and oral history, song, and dance for a very, very long time.

The Chinook Nation signed a treaty with the U.S. Government way back in 1851, a couple decades before Washington was even a state. This treaty would have allotted specific tribal lands and provided governmental compensation, food, and goods. Unfortunately, the U.S. Government didn't hold up their side of the bargain, and refused [00:01:00] to sign the treaty on their end. The Chinook Nation has been fighting for federal recognition as a sovereign nation since then, and they're still fighting for it today. 

I want to quote directly from the Chinook Nation’s website, chinookjustice.org. 

“Why Federal Recognition Matters: When a tribe is federally recognized, it has a government-to-government relationship with the United States. In return for taking our lands to which we have aboriginal rights, the U.S. promised to provide tribes with protections and benefits — including housing, health care access, utilities, and food. Without federal recognition, we are denied these much needed resources and services.”

Federal recognition would also give the Chinook NAGPRA (or Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act) rights.  Currently, without recognition, they are not able to easily claim the remains of their ancestors or artifacts found on their native lands.

Today, Sam is talking to us about the history of the Chinook in this area. He talks about the Cathlapotle Plankhouse in Ridgefield and how that came to be, and he shares a little bit about the Chinook canoe journeys and their visual art.

It was a wonderful conversation, getting to know Sam and the Chinook just a little bit more, and I hope you'll take this as a jumping off point to learn more about the Chinook Nation, their incredible history, and about how you can get involved in helping them advocate for federal recognition. Thank you so much to Sam Robinson for sharing his story with us, and I hope you enjoy this conversation.

Welcome to  [00:02:00] I’m Into This Place, your deep dive into the local arts, culture, and heritage of Clark County. From fabulous new restaurants to quirky art installations to the historical sites you never even knew to look for, we’re inviting you along. Whether you're a Clark County connoisseur or just starting to get to know her, get ready to fall head over heels for this place we call home. I'm your host, Adriana Baer, and I'm into this place. Let's go.

Sam, thank you again for welcoming me to your home. 

Sam: Well, thank you for coming here and you know, and allow me to share some of our Chinook story. Lush chxi-san. Hello everyone. Ni-ka nem Sam Robinson. I'm the Vice Chairman of the Chinook Indian Nation. My father was Scott Robinson. His mother was Dora Clark. And Dora Clark's mother was Annie Hawks and Annie [00:03:00] Hawks' father was John Hawks and John Hawks was enrolled over Shoalwater Bay, Chinook. He was married to a Chehalis woman, Nelly Secina and John Hawks' father was Thomas Huckswell and Thomas Huckswell was a signer of the 1851 Anson Dart Treaty down at Tansy Point.  

And he was married to cha'isht.  cha'isht was a high status Willapa woman, a daughter of a chief, and that's how I'm able to be with you today. A little bit about the treaty. We did sign that treaty in good faith. Anson Dart came out and his job was to pick up Chinook and move him totally to Yakima out of, out of our territory.

And, uh, our ancestors refused to do that. You know, they refused to leave the bones of the ancestors. They refused to leave the land that had been giving to them for so many years. The reason Anson Dart was out there is because, you know, our land been occupied illegally for several years beforehand by who we refer [00:04:00] to as “Bostons,” because all those people were coming from Boston early on. As Anson Dart said that we needed to, you know, leave.

Uh, the Bostons actually stood up for us and said, Chinook were good neighbors. And that they shouldn't have to leave. So Anson Dart negotiated a treaty with us that would allowed us to stay in part of our territory in the Naselle, in that lower Willapa Bay. And uh, then he took off. So we didn't do a lot of hunting and gathering at that time just because we knew that the government was gonna be giving us provisions.

Um, but little did we know that they weren't coming. So it was a rough winter for our folks. The treaty made it back to the DC, to the Senate, and uh, one of the senators back there told Anson Dart they weren't gonna pay him because he didn't do the job he was sent to do and move us to Yakima. Then the same senator said that there were so few Chinook there at the treaty grounds that by the time the ink dried, we'd all be dead.

And so they didn't [00:05:00] ratify our treaty. So we sat there without a treaty, but we didn't leave the lands. We are, our territory starts just west of Longview in a place called Oak Point. It's on both sides of the Columbia River and so on the Washington side we have the Wahkiakum which is Cathlamet area. And then you go further down and you'll, uh, hit the lower Chinook, who my third great grandfather was a headsman of that area.

When he signed a treaty, he was signing off that area. We, today, we call Long Beach in Ilwaco and then up, up, up into the bay over as the Willapa. And then on the Oregon side we have the Cathlamet, and then that goes all the way down to about Tongue Point near Astoria. And then you got the Clatsop that goes from Tongue Point all the way down to the coast to Tillamook head.

So we cover a big area. That's where our people are, and that's where we stay and that's where we claim to be. But the important thing, especially when I'm talking with, you know, government officials and stuff, is that you gotta remind them that we're a sovereign nation. You know, sovereignty [00:06:00] isn't given to you.

You, you, you, you were born with it, you know, and because we never left, you know, our lands or our ancestors, that's where we get our sovereignty. You know, a lot of tribes were picked up and marched away, and they have a certain status of sovereignty, but they may not be on their traditional lands, but the government, you know, kind of gave them that sovereignty or acknowledged that sovereignty.

Like I said, we get it from the bones of our ancestors and we feel pretty good about doing that and staying there.  

Adriana: So you still do not have status according to the United States government as an independent nation, correct? 

Sam: Right. And I'm glad you said status, because often you know, people, people refer to us as either federally recognized or not federally recognized.

And we refuse to say we're not federally recognized because we deal with a lot of government agencies. We just don't have the status. The status, what it'll bring, you know, it will bring, you know, healthcare for our people, elder care, [00:07:00] education, resources, because we'll be able to do traditional gatherings and huntings and fishings.

But one of the real, real important things is when they sign those streeties to remain with the bones of the ancestors, today, we don't have NAGPRA rights. We don't have those rights to protect the bones of our ancestors, and we often have to go to a neighboring tribe and get them involved if, if some remains come up.

A lot of our ancestral remains or burial items are stored in museums or in universities. And the government about five, six years ago told all these, these organizations that they need to get those off the shelves and back to the tribes. So it's a good, it's a good thing, right? But they're only dealing with the federally recognized tribes.

We don't have our federal status. We don't have the rights to go and claim those and somebody else will take them. That probably won't even end up in the territory they came from and probably not respected the way they should be in our Chinook way. You know, that's a big push as we go for our federal status.

Adriana: So a lot of people here locally are [00:08:00] familiar with the Cathlapotle Plankhouse that is at the Ridgefield Wildlife Preserve. I am really interested in the history of that particular spot of land. 

Sam: Yeah. 

Adriana: Will you tell us about it? 

Sam: Sure. In this area there was a lot of villages up and down. This was pretty densely populated area.

There was an archeological dig on the refuge, and they put it out to all the tribes, you know, that they thought might be interested to see if they wanted to get involved. We felt that we needed to take care of those cousins. You know, so we, we got involved with Portland State to go in there and good relationships were made with Portland State.

You know, they, they wanted to sit down with Chinook and try to figure out why people were doing certain things and why things the way they were, you know? And we felt really good about that. So Ken Ames was the, the head professor on that, on that project. And I remember one day I was talking to Ken Ames just about the population in this area.

He was telling me that this area from Ridgefield to Washougal down into the [00:09:00] Portland basin, it was the most populated area in all of North America, even while the 13 colonies were being settled on the other coast. Just in this area alone, there was over 50,000 Chinook people living here in several villages.

You know, the biggest house that they found was, uh, was over at the Portland Airport, where the Portland Airport is today. And I believe that was like about 60 by 300. You know, just, just monstrous house. But there's a lot of folks, a lot of folks here, a lot of activity. 

But anyway, the Cathlapotle Village was a young village. That we were looking at, there was 14 houses down there. Two of those houses were big houses. They're 50 feet wide and 200 feet long. Lewis and Clark wrote, wrote about it, you know. On their way down, they didn't stop at the village. They were a little further up river, and all they did is complain about the birds keeping 'em up all night.

And then they, then they took off and went down to the coast and they did stop at it on the way back and they said there were about 900 Chinook people living there at that time. Even though by the time they [00:10:00] got there, you know, the population had been decreased quite a bit. Spaniards brought smallpox in about 400 years before they came around.

Adriana: I think it's so important to pause for a moment where you said it was a relatively young village. 

Sam: Yeah. 

Adriana: How old was it? 

Sam: People lived in those same houses for over 500 years. 

Adriana: Right. 

Sam: A little bit about the villages too is, you know, you have 14 houses, so what you'll have is you'll have 14 headsmen or headswomen that are the heads of each house and people living in that house could be related to this person, but often they may not be because they just feel that that person can create this cohesiveness in this house, that everybody's gonna be doing their jobs and understanding the taboos and doing all that work, and so they want to be in that house. 

Adriana: How many people would live in one of these houses? 

Sam: The Cathlapotle Plankhouse was a medium sized house.

The one that we have today, it's like 35 by 65 roughly, [00:11:00] and there'd be about 65 people living in that house. 

Adriana: Wow. So when you were working with these archeologists and you found the, the original location of this community, I'm curious about how the plankhouse, the one that's there now, sort of came out of that. Were they intending to build it and then they found the location? Or was it the other way around? They found the history and then said, let's honor it?

Sam: Yeah. It took 'em quite a few years. They found the history and they were working on it for several years and, and then the Lewis and Clark commemoration came by and then somebody had the idea that, you know, hey, there's some gonna be some funding.

People came out, out of the community to be involved, you know, so there's a lot of non-Chinook people working on it, going out there, stripping the bark off the trees and shaping things, splitting the planks by hand with stone and elk horn. So it, it, it was a really good experience and a lot of good comradery to make this happen. 

So we were able to do all the work away from the site where we were gonna build it, you know, [00:12:00] on another area. And that took a, took a few years. Then once we got all the pieces, you know, ready to put together, we couldn't do it in the Chinook way. Being on the government property, they had to bring a contractor in with cranes and stuff to do it. You know, in the old ways, we probably would've, well we would've made, you know, rope outta cedar bark. It just a big, uh, a lot of people just lifting everything into place. That's the way it would've happened.

But so it got, it got built, you know, it was gonna be a replica of the village houses down there. And we came into the house and, and we lit fires in the hearths and, and we started drumming a blessing, you know, for the house.

And, and right away, we just said this, this isn't a replica, this is just the most modern of Chinook houses. And like our canoes being built from live trees, it has a soul. Mm-hmm. So we have to treat it with respect, certain things we need to do, you know, and so it became our cousin. So today I always refer to the plankhouse as our cousin.

Before we were here, the animals were here, and they thought they were people. So they were [00:13:00] laying down all those taboos that Chinook people were gonna live by. So bear, eagle, salmon, whoever, all of 'em got together and talked about how you dealt with marriage or death or whatever it was, you know? I mean, it could be everything from the time you get up in the morning till you go to bed, you know how you do things when you're doing your work and so forth.

You know, because often people will say, well, what was your religion? And we'll say taboos. Things you had to do, you know, it could be walking down a path and you see a frog in the middle. You always go to the right. Or it could be a woman wouldn't wear beads around her neck because she doesn't want to confuse that child to wrap that umbilical cord around its neck.

And so they didn't wear beads. Or it's how you ate and what you ate and how you prepared food. There's all kinds of taboos that Chinook had to live by. And we just skimmed the surface right now. But we hope to, you know, really get deep into it. And it's hard to live in two worlds. Today's modern world and in that world. But you know, there's, there's certain things we do follow. [00:14:00] 

[MUSIC]

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[MUSIC FADES]

Sam: These are dancing paddles that I made for my granddaughter Destany and my wife Mildred, because they're canoe [00:15:00] family members. And often, you know, the women get out and they do a paddle song, you know, and they need dancing paddles. So I said, well, I'll make your own, you know? So. 

Adriana: What are the canoe journeys like?

Sam: The canoe journey started, you know, I can't remember how many years ago. It's 25 years or so ago. And it started with a, you know, during the Centennial Accord and the Centennial Accord is, you know, a time when the, the, the, uh, tribes would get together with the Governor and talk about the way it needed to be.

And so a group from Quileute, Queets, Hoh, Quinault I believe it was five canoes, Emmett Oliver, he was enrolled Quinault, but he was a Chinook man from the Willapa Bay. He, he, he brought the Willapa spirit out and, and anyway, they paddled to Seattle. And part of it was, is that they realized that a lot of these folks hadn't been connected with their culture.

Uh, a good portion of 'em maybe, [00:16:00] you know, they were self-medicated, so they hadn't been without alcohol or drugs, uh, for a long time, and they hadn't connected with their ancestors in a long time. So it was a sobriety paddle and they went around the horn and came into Seattle, and then it just kept growing and growing.

So early on, I could remember we would take off and we didn't have a big canoe. We had a, uh, 20, 23, or 26 foot canoe, Skwak’-wal was its name. Skwak’-wal is our Chinook name for lamprey eel 'cause we can feel that it can climb the falls like a lamprey eel. And Grand Ronde, they, they wanted to be a part of it, you know, because they had, you know, drummers and so forth and, and, uh, but they didn't have a canoe at all. So we, we shared, you know. 

But you know, you, you, you, you start, you start and you go into a village, you know, and there's protocols, you know, so you tell these people that you've come a long ways, you know, that you're tired and you're hungry [00:17:00] and you want to come ashore. And we, we, we were so blessed the fact that, you know, our language was still alive, you know, so Tony Johnson, our chairman, he was our skipper at the time, uh, would be able to pull up to the nose, up to the beach, and ask for permission to come ashore in Chinook Wawa, and some of those tribes that we were coming into, maybe they hadn't preserved their language quite yet or brought it back. Um, I can remember one time coming in to Tulalip, I wasn't in the canoe, but I was standing up amongst their people and, uh, near a couple elder ladies.

And as Tony was speaking, and when he got done, they were like, “Oh, that was so beautiful.” They're so touched, you know? So it made me proud. And also early on, you know, I mean all these people realized they all had over years and years and years, thousands of years, tens of thousands of years, had relationships with Chinook, you know, because of our ancestors traveling.

Up and down the coast, all the way up to Alaska and all the way down to [00:18:00] Northern California, that when you hear them, when they eventually they start speaking their, their language, you start picking up Chinook words here and there because they were, everybody knew our language. 

Adriana: Wow. 

Sam: You know, by the time the Bostons came in, they said, well, all these people have different languages, but they're keeping a speaking a common language. Then the other thing I always tell people, we got cousins everywhere. Because of that travel and marriages and, and whatever, you know, we got cousins all over the place. So often when we get ready to start on these journeys, you know, it'll be like Nisqually, Hey, why don't you start with us?

Or Squaxin Island, or Quinault or whoever, you know, these different, different, different tribes that they know they got Chinook blood. But early on, you know, early on, you know, when we tell them we didn't have federal status, they were just like, what do you mean? Chinook? You know, because we're so known. In 1889 when Washington State became a, got their statehood, a lot of people[00:19:00] had nicknamed or referred to it as the Chinook State, you know, and it's well written that that's the way it was. 

So I'm, I'm pretty proud of that too. I gotta remind them that, you know. But canoe journeys, you know, I mean, what it really did for people, and especially art, you know, is, is that it connected people with the old ways because people, you know, maybe they didn't know how to pull cedar bark properly. You know, you just don't go out and pull, bark off a tree. First you gotta find a tree you want to pull, bark off from. Usually you wanna find a tree that you can hug, 'cause the bark's not too thick and it's easier to process. And then you go, you know, you put your hands on the trees and you just gotta bond with that tree until you get that good feeling that the tree is aware and that it's gonna allow you to take that piece of bark and you cut a piece, uh, across the bottom, maybe about six to eight inches wide, and then you pull that bark as high as you can again to break it off. 

And then you take it down and you separate the inner bark from the outer [00:20:00] bark. So you have that smooth bark that we use to, to make the hats and the clothing and everything.

But then when you're done, you wanna make sure you leave it with tobacco, a song, or leave it in a good way. And I've been out in the forest and I've seen big trees where you can see where the ancestors had pulled off some bark and it had sealed up. Yeah. So it doesn't hurt the tree at all. Cedar trees, we call 'em the giving tree.

You know, they give us houses, canoes, material for clothing and, uh, medicines.

Adriana: So now the canoe journeys, you are bringing young people 

Sam: mm-hmm. 

Adriana: And you're going up the coast, right? 

Sam: Yeah. It depends on where, where the, where we're gonna be going, you know? I mean, often we're out there eight to 10 days, and we're traveling about 25 to, I think the longest is about 42 miles a day, 12 hours a day, you know, each day.

Like I said, we ask for permission to come ashore and, um, the people, [00:21:00] you know, they'll grant us permission to come ashore. You know, we tell 'em we're tired, hungry, we travel a long ways and want permission to come ashore. And they'll say, come ashore, come ashore. We got snacks here for you on the beach, and we'll make sure you're able to get showers and, and have a place to lay your head.

Which our ground crew comes ahead and ahead of us and gets everything set up. Then they'll get us a dinner and and then if there's time, you know, we will take the floor. And be able to share some songs and do some gifting. The next morning you pick up those folks and they go with you to the next one, the next one, next one.

So you keep doing that every night. By the time we land in today's world, it's definitely 110-plus canoes landing. Then that singing and dancing goes on for like five or six days. They, they go from the furthest away to the closest. So for about three days, you're hearing all this Salish songs and dances, you know, from up north.

And so when we took the floor and we were out there for three hours and we were done, people were coming up to us saying, [00:22:00] “Wow, we've never heard that.” 'cause they didn't know this Columbia River style. 

Adriana: Do you think that the Columbia River itself, and the terrain here is what is being responded to in the song and the dance and the visual art?

Sam: Yeah. I, I think it has to do with landscape. My friend from the Duwamish, they always refer to us as “the ancient ones” because that glacier didn't really get down this far. You know, so we were around a lot longer than they were, you know, in this area, and we have evidence of that, you know, being around.

Adriana: And so do you feel like the Chinook art, it looks more primitive or it looks older than some of the other art? 

Sam: Yeah, for sure. We can, we can prove the existence in this, in this area, 10 to 12,000 years ago. So you're talking like, you know, 5,000 years before the pyramids were built, we could probably prove that we were around a lot longer.

But you had those big, uh, floods that brought in a lot of silt. So, you know, it's kind of hard to dig down.[00:23:00] further, you know, and so we just say we've always been here. 

Adriana: Yeah. So Sam, as you know, I always ask everybody at the end of the episode to shout out somebody local who they love. But before we do that, a quick reminder to all of you listening about our free weekly newsletter.

This is the best way to get event updates and to see photos and videos of our podcast guests and their art. When you sign up for our newsletter, you help us grow and gain sponsors who support this free arts and culture content. So if you're not signed up for our newsletter already, it's super easy. The link is in the show notes and you can just click on there.

All right, Sam, who would you like to shout out today? 

Sam: I'd like to shout out my cousin, Greg Robinson. You know, he is a wonderful artist and he is got a, he's got a pretty unique history. He decided he was gonna start studying Chinook art, you know, so he started looking at petroglyphs and photos of some of these collections of ancient art.

Art that was [00:24:00] tens of thousands of years old. He started doing some carvings outta cedar. He's also a weaver. You know, he's, we woven things outta sweet grass and public art. Now he's, now he's doing public art. He did the basalt piece out at Parker's Landing in Washougal and Dr. Ken Ames said that it was the largest stone piece of Chinook art in today's world.

Because all the other ones were in museums and this one's out in public. And, uh, he did a couple of them, uh, over at the Tilikum Crossing. Tilikum meaning Chinook. And, uh, he's more than willing to share with folks and teach people, you know, and he's got a lot of people that are, that he teaches how to do the Chinook style. Bring, bring back that old Columbia River style, that ancient style.

Adriana: Is there anything that you haven't shared yet that you would like to share? 

Sam: Well, I'd just like to, you know, let people know that we're all here. You know, we never left the bones of our ancestors when they came out to move us to Yakima, we said we, we refuse to leave. [00:25:00] So we, we live on the land that was providing for our ancestors and, and their bones as well.

And that's where we get our sovereignty. It's something we were born into, and it's our responsibility to stay in that territory and keep that sovereignty going. And, uh, just to say it, Chinook justice, you know, if you connect with that or, or Everyday Chinook on our Instagram, you could see our story and see that we're still out there.

Adriana: Sam, thank you for sharing some of your wonderful stories with me today, and I just really appreciate your time. 

Sam: Well, thank you. I always appreciate people getting our story out to a broader audience and it's wonderful. Máh-sie. Hy-iu’ mah-sie. Many thanks. 

[MUSIC]

Adriana: And now let's hear from you. This is our Community Voices segment, where you call in to shout out your favorites in local arts culture and Heritage Community Voices is sponsored by Johnson Bixby. At Johnson [00:26:00] Bixby, you get a financial planning and portfolio management team that helps you imagine what's possible in life, create a plan, and get there over time. Advisory Services by Johnson Bixby, SEC registered. Securities through Private Client Services. Member Finra, SIPC. 

Guest: Hi, I'm Corina. I moved to Vancouver from Hawaii about four years ago, and when I'm missing good Hawaiian food, I always go to Husubis’.

They have musubi to die for and the best authentic poke you can imagine. Check 'em out. They're downtown and also at the Farmer's Market. 

Guest: Hi, I'm Ken. And I wanna give a loving shout out to Heights Yoga on Divine Road. This is an incredible yoga studio with a variety of classes, not a bad teacher. And two days a week, um, [00:27:00] they offer.

Free community courses. You do have to sign up ahead of time, but come and experience some yoga. This place is magic. 

We'd love to hear from you. What are your favorite spots in Clark County? Who really deserves a shout out? Give us a call and leave a message, or send us a voice note via email. All the details on how to do that are in the show notes.

I’m Into This Place is produced and edited by me, Adriana Baer. Engineering and mixing by Shawn Lee Martin. This episode was recorded at the home of Sam Robinson, who's the Vice Chair of the Chinook Nation. You can visit everyday Chinook on Instagram to follow along and get involved with their fight for federal recognition. You can find out more about us and them at imintothisplace.com. See you out there.