Location
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Shelter
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Food
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Tools and Weapons
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Climate and Environment
The Chinookan peoples were not nomadic but rather occupied traditional tribal geographic areas. They had a form of society marked by social stratification consisting of a number of distinct social castes of greater or lesser status. Upper castes included shamans, warriors, and successful traders and were a minority of the community population compared to common members of the tribal group. Members of the superior castes are said to have practiced social isolation, limiting contact with commoners and forbidding play between the children of the different social groups.
Some Chinookan peoples practiced slavery, a practice borrowed from the northernmost tribes of the Pacific Northwest. These slaves are said to have been encouraged to practice thievery on behalf of their masters, who excluded themselves from such practices as unworthy of high status.
At birth some Chinookan tribes would flatten children's heads by binding them under pressure between boards, a process said to have been initiated when the infant was about 3 months old and to have continued until the child was about one year of age. This served as a means of marking social hierarchy that placed flat-headed community members above those with round heads. Those with flattened and deformed skulls additionally refused to enslave others with a similar condition, thereby reinforcing the association of a round head with servility (an excessive willingness to serve or please others). Such tribes were known colloquially by early white explorers in the region as "Flathead Indians."
Living near the coast of the Pacific Ocean, they were skilled elk hunters and fishermen. The most popular fish was salmon. Owing partly to their non-migratory living patterns, the Chinook and other coastal tribes had relatively little conflict over land with one another. They also lived in long houses with more than fifty people in one long house.
Nez Perce is a misnomer given by the interpreter of the Lewis and Clark Expedition at the time they first encountered the Nez Perce in 1805. It was a French term meaning "pierced nose." This is an inaccurate description of the tribe. They did not practice nose piercing or wearing ornaments. The "pierced nose" tribe lived on and around the lower Columbia River in the Pacific Northwest and are commonly called the Chinook tribe by historians and anthropologists. The Chinook relied heavily upon salmon, as did the Nez Perce. The peoples shared fishing and trading sites but the Chinook were much more hierarchical in their social arrangements (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinookan_peoples)
Some Chinookan peoples practiced slavery, a practice borrowed from the northernmost tribes of the Pacific Northwest. These slaves are said to have been encouraged to practice thievery on behalf of their masters, who excluded themselves from such practices as unworthy of high status.
At birth some Chinookan tribes would flatten children's heads by binding them under pressure between boards, a process said to have been initiated when the infant was about 3 months old and to have continued until the child was about one year of age. This served as a means of marking social hierarchy that placed flat-headed community members above those with round heads. Those with flattened and deformed skulls additionally refused to enslave others with a similar condition, thereby reinforcing the association of a round head with servility (an excessive willingness to serve or please others). Such tribes were known colloquially by early white explorers in the region as "Flathead Indians."
Living near the coast of the Pacific Ocean, they were skilled elk hunters and fishermen. The most popular fish was salmon. Owing partly to their non-migratory living patterns, the Chinook and other coastal tribes had relatively little conflict over land with one another. They also lived in long houses with more than fifty people in one long house.
Nez Perce is a misnomer given by the interpreter of the Lewis and Clark Expedition at the time they first encountered the Nez Perce in 1805. It was a French term meaning "pierced nose." This is an inaccurate description of the tribe. They did not practice nose piercing or wearing ornaments. The "pierced nose" tribe lived on and around the lower Columbia River in the Pacific Northwest and are commonly called the Chinook tribe by historians and anthropologists. The Chinook relied heavily upon salmon, as did the Nez Perce. The peoples shared fishing and trading sites but the Chinook were much more hierarchical in their social arrangements (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinookan_peoples)
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Chinook Blessing
We call upon the earth, our planet home, with its beautiful depths and soaring heights,its vitality and abundance of life, and together we ask that it: Teach us, and show us the way. We call upon the mountains, the Cascades and the Olympics, the high green valleys and meadows filled with wild flowers, the snows that never melt, the summits of intense silence, and we ask that they: Teach us, and show us the way. We call upon the waters that rim the earth, horizon to horizon, that flow in our rivers and streams, that fall upon our gardens and fields, and ask that they: Teach us, and show us the way. We call upon the land which grows our food, the nurturing soil, the fertile fields, the abundant gardens and orchards, and we ask that they: Teach us, and show us the way. We call upon the forests, the great trees reaching strongly to the sky with earth in their roots and the heavens in their branches, the fir and the pine and the cedar, and we ask them to: Teach us, and show us the way. We call upon the creatures of the fields and forests and the seas, our brothers and sisters, the wolves and deer, the eagle and dove, the great whales and the dolphin, the beautiful orca and salmon who share our Northwest home, and we ask them to: Teach us, and show us the way. We call upon all those who have lived on this earth, our ancestors, and our friends, who dreamed the best for future generations and upon whose lives our lives are built, and with thanksgiving, we call upon them to: Teach us, and show us the way. And lastly, we call upon all that we hold most sacred, the presence and power of the Great Spirit of love and truth which flows through all the universe . . . to be with us to: Teach us, and show us the way. |
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