Chinook Indian Talk

Re: for: Tenas

From: Steady Eddie
Date: 3/4/2003
Time: 8:01:14 AM
Remote Name: 68.67.17.161

Comments

Tenas--

That's a great map that you linked to. Thanks.

By "tidewater" do you mean: Does the river, fed by these 6 creeks, rise and fall with the tides?

Yes it does. But it is not much of a "river" as you would imagine it. My wife's Grandparents lived right on the Upper River for years and it flowed right behind their house. At that point, it was perhaps (at the most) eight feet wide. The White Man built a dam at the fish hatchery just upstream, and that may have changed the River's flow. One cannot, today, stand on the Upper River's banks and imagine ANY canoe making it up-river, but during Comcomly's time, perhaps there was much more flow, and the River was wider and deeper. The canoes that the Chinook used would have been "freight" canoes, laden with weight, and drawing plenty of water.

Lewis & Clark were here during the wintertime when much of Comcomly's Village (and people) would have been snug and warm, way up in their box canyon. Lewis & Clark never got to see Comcomly's Village during the boom times of Summer. There were, no doubt, Chinooks that came down to see the White Man out of curiosity. But any estimates of Comcomly's Village population(made by Lewis & Clark at the time) would be at best, a guess.

All this, of course, revolves around the assumption that the Winter Camp of Comcomly is a fact.

And my point is: If it is a fact, has this location ever been studied?

Steady Eddie

Last changed: March 04, 2003