Chinook Indian Talk

Re: for: Tenas

From: tenas
Date: 3/5/2003
Time: 4:07:29 AM
Remote Name: 137.53.105.80

Comments

I was concerned about whether or not this was “Tidewater” because Comcomly’s winter village would have been on, or near, tidewater. As you know, Comcomly and his people would have moved all but the framework of their lodges. The rise and fall of the tides would have helped in this move, particularly with the numerous large cedar planks.

Chinook canoes, even the large ones, were built light and were flat bottomed. Even heavily laden they did not draw a great deal of water. For these reasons they negotiated sloughs and mud flats well. [If you are familiar with James G. Swan’s book you may recall the rather impressive recounting of a portage around a fallen tree.]

Lewis and Clark met Comcomly in October of 1805. Much has been made of this meeting, but in truth it was a brief and rather uneventful encounter.

Comcomly was in the process of portaging his village over to Willapa bay. He quickly sized up the explorers and saw that they had little of value for his people. The meeting lasted no more than an hour.

As for the size of Comcomly’s village, certainly during the salmon seining season it would have swelled to perhaps as many as 1000. But in 1805, for most of the year, it was probably no more than a couple hundred. Comcomly was not, at that time, high chief of the Chinooks. Stacum was high chief and Comcomly was simply one of several subordinate clan chiefs. Comcomly’s star was on the rise however, and by 1811 he was high chief above Stacum. The number of people attached to his clan and his village would have steadily grown with his power.

Comcomly and his people did in fact move to a winter camp. That much is established. All of the clans would have come together in the winter village. So, as you suggest, this may very well be a significant site to study.

I am assuming here that by a “study” you are referring to an archeological dig.

I do not know of any professionally dug sites in the Naselle River area.

There are a thousand sites worthy of study in the Chinook Cultural area. Amateurs, some with good intentions, have raided most of these sites.

As for the sites yet undug… well, you should always respect the Memeloose Tillicum and tread lightly upon their homes.

The exception to me is a site such as Ozette where conditions were such that wood, bone and even fiber objects were preserved. It would seem some Memeloose wish their story to be told in more detail.

Archeological digs are expensive and time consuming. Portland State will be kept busy cataloging objects from Cathlapootle for years to come, and I doubt there will be room in their budget for another such undertaking soon.

Federal and State money is drying up. Perhaps private funding could be found.

In the mean time, a number of sites have already been dug and there is a good deal yet to learn from what was uncovered.

Last changed: March 05, 2003