Chinook Highway

Chinookan people knew how to navigate the high waves of the brackish waters near Cape Disappointment. Pictured here in 2019.

Jackie Gonzales

The Lower Columbia River was a highway, and Chinookan people controlled it.

Chinookan people are expert canoe builders and have navigated their river highway in these boats for thousands of years.

In 1805, they heard of a wet and seemingly ill-prepared group near the mouth of the river.

Chinook leader Concomly canoed to their camp with his family. He and other Chinookan people traded fish, dogs, wapato, and otter skins for metal fishhooks and other oddities.

Chinookan people had no problem navigating the waves of the Lower Columbia. Clark called them the “best canoe navigators I ever Saw.”

After watching five Chinookan people easily cross in high winds and waves, members of the Lewis and Clark Expedition tried to emulate them. Clark reported,

Three men Gibson Bratten & Willard attempted to decend in a Canoe built in the Indian fashion and abt. the Size of the one the Indians visited us in yesterday, they Could not proceed, as the waves tossed them about at will, they returned after proceeding about 1 mile.

Aware of their shortcomings, the expedition began hiring Chinookan people as guides to steer them safely through the dangerous waters at the mouth of the Columbia River.