Indian Removal

Paul Kane watercolor titled "A Cascade Indian."Courtesy of the Stark Museum of Art, Orange, Texas

   The epidemics of the 1830s paved the way for white settlement. Enough Americans straggled into the Willamette Valley by 1850 that by Congressional legislation white citizens could claim up to 640 acres per couple. Another epidemic in 1853 -- smallpox -- came on the heels of treaty-making efforts by Anson Dart. In October 1855 the Yakima and other Indians rebelled against U.S. control. The army rounded up indigenous people living in the Portland Basin and placed them on a Columbia Slough Reserve. In November 1855 the reserve held nearly 100 Indians.

   Although Congress never ratified the Dart treaties, which called for Indian removal to the east of the Cascade Mountains, a March 1856 conflict at the Cascades of the Columbia prompted removal of all Indians from the Willamette Valley. Removal included those remaining on the Columbia Slough Reserve. Officials forced the Middle Chinook of the Columbia Slough Reserve to the Grande Ronde Reservation. The Bureau of Indian Affairs later forced others onto the Shoalwater and Quinalt Reservations, and still others assimilated into the dominant culture. Rapid cultural devastation, unratified treaties, and dispersion to various reservations left Chinookan peoples with little political influence and no distinct geographic community, diminishing their tribal status.

   Beginning in the 1970s the Chinook attempted unsuccessfully to gain federal recognition of tribal status. The Bureau of Indian Affairs rejected their 1997 petition; however, renewed efforts by tribal members, historians, and anthropologists proved that the tribe (with over 2,000 recognized members) continued to exist as a viable political, cultural, and social unit. In January 2001, the Chinook Tribe gained federal recognition bringing hope to tribal members that they will once again be viewed as a people with a distinct and contemporary culture.