1. The Chinook Tribe Food, Transportation, Clothing, Tools, and Shelters

2. The Chinook Tribe   Do you ever wonder about the Chinook Tribe who used to live on a section of the very land we walk on today? The religion and beliefs of the Chinook Tribe was based on a Great Spirit and consisted of a mythology based on protective spirits and animal deities. Chief Tumulth, a very important chief to the Chinook tribe was the one who signed the treaty to create the Grand Ronde Reservation. Read on to learn about the Chinook tribe’s homes, clothes, food, transportation, tools, and more exciting facts!

3. Fashion Trends
By Raven

4. A grass skirt
The Chinook tribe used cedar bark for lots of clothes. Cedar bark shreds from pounding can make aprons, skirts, or raincoats for the men. Hats could also be made out of the shreds. Fur skins could make capes or dresses, and to make the furs softer, they would chew them. Grass skirts were common, and made of, of course, grass.

5. Chinook Native Americans did not wear many clothes
Chinook Native Americans did not wear many clothes. Women would wear grass skirts or an animal skin dress with hides from bear, deer, or elk. The dresses were fancy and were worn on celebrations or special occasions, while the grass skirts were more of an everyday thing.
Chinook dress
Men were more open and often wore nothing at all or a cloth and belt, as shown on the right. The cloth went between the legs with some hanging out the back and front. Men did all the hunting, so they needed more leg room to run and dodge.
Cloth and belt

6. The Chinook people loved jewelry
The Chinook people loved jewelry. They would wear necklace made of shells, bear claws, and beaver teeth. Blue and white beads folded tightly around the wrists and ankles or worn in loose rolls around the neck was another decoration. Earrings were worn by both genders, although only the men really liked nose rings.
A Chinook Tribe girl wearing jewelry
Traditional Native American Earrings

7. Longhouse, Sweet, Longhouse
By Klaira

8. Longhouse, Sweet Longhouse Part1
Longhouses and cedar planks are a very important part of the Chinook tribe. Although the houses that the Chinooks live in might seem weird and different, the houses were very cozy infact, some houses were maybe even warmer than the houses we live in right now. The Chinooks liked their homes and live with other Chinook tribe people.

9. Longhouse, Sweet Longhouse: How the Chinooks’ Houses Were Built Part 2
When the Chinook Tribe first begins to build houses, they gather cedar bark. They especially use red cedar. Then, they gather wooden logs for nails. Now it’s time to build the house! First, The Chinooks build a stable floor using cedar for the house. The longhouses that the Chinooks build are usually feet long and feet wide. The Chinook families occupied a distinct portion of the longhouse they shared with other families.

10. Longhouse, Sweet Longhouse: How the Chinooks’ Houses Were Built Part 3
Usually, about people of the tribe would live inside. The long houses were very long, which is why the Native Americans called the houses long houses. There were a lot of Chinook people in the Chinook tribe and they build a lot of longhouses they were very resourceful, although they had to build a lot of houses and shelters. Totem poles were only owned by the rich Chinook people because the poles symbolize that clan’s symbol or stories. The poles cost a lot too. That’s how the Chinooks build their houses.

11. Longhouse, Sweet longhouse: Life Around the Household Part 4
Children, like us play and help around the house. The toys children play with are like the toys that we play with for example, dolls and games. Big kids and adults play lacrosse. Women cooked the food, cleaned, weaved clothes, basket, and made toys for the kids. Men caught the food and protected their families. Both genders did artwork, storytelling, and sung songs to everybody in their house. They have very similar jobs as we do now.

12. BOOM! CRASH!
By Aarush

13. BOOM! CRASH! Tools of the Chinook tribe
The Chinook tribe are very good at crafting tools. In the next paragraph, I’m going to tell you about some of the Chinook tribe tools.
Some of the Chinook tools are the atatl, or the “spear thrower”. It throws spears farther and faster. They used a bow and arrow for hunting. They also used spears for hunting and fishing.

14. BOOM! CRASH! Tools of the Chinook tribe Part 2
For armor, they used a breastplate called a clamon, which was made from hardened elk hide and cedar bark. It was designed to protect the wearer from arrows.

15. Go, Go, Go, Chinook Tribe!
By Rishitha

16. Go, Go, Go, Chinook Tribe! Kinds of Transportation Methods
The Chinook tribe’s main way of transportation was the canoe. They had many, many types of canoes. Some types of canoes that they had was the big seagoing canoe, the shovelnose canoe, and the Chinook Canoe. The Chinooks used canoes while hunting, fishing, times of war, and trading. Learn about the Chinook tribe’s way of transportation in these articles!

17. How the Transportation was made
Go, Go, Go, Chinook Tribe!
How the Transportation was made
The Chinook Tribe people used dugout logs from Cedar trees. First, the logs for the canoes were cut in summer. Next, the logs were charred by fire for the wood to be partly cut away inside. Finally, it was stretched and/or shaped by being steamed in hot water with scalding hot stones. The thick, card-board like material of cedar bark was useful for canoe making because it was very water-resistant. To find out what some of the Chinook tribe’s canoes looked like, keep on going!

18. What The Transportation Looked Like (Part 1)
Go, Go, Go, Chinook Tribe!
What The Transportation Looked Like (Part 1)
The Chinook tribe people were very creative and the canoes that they made were great for travel among fast-running rivers. A type of canoe that the Chinook tribe used was the Shovelnose canoe, a medium sized river craft with a rounded prow and stern, and rounded bottoms to more expertly maneuver swift river currents and such. Another type of canoe that the Chinook used was the Chinook Canoe, which had a raised prow that was often elaborately decorated with carved figures.

19. Go, Go, Go, Chinook Tribe! What The Transportation Looked Like (Part 2)
The Chinook tribe people were also skilled at building big seagoing canoes. The decorated sterns were then intricately carved and added separately. All of these canoes were very well-crafted and ranged from fifteen to fifty feet in length and were used in both fresh water and saltwater. That is how three of the most commonly used canoes in the Chinook tribe looked like.

20. The Food of The Chinook Tribe
By David

21. The Food of The Chinook Tribe
What does a Chinook tribe person eat? The Chinook tribe people are fishermen. The fish that they consume most is the salmon. The Chinook Tribe also eats wapatos, also known as the potato. They ate other animals such as mountain goats, sheep, raccoon, deer, moose, bear, duck, geese, elk, seals, sea otters, whales, and other fish. The women gathered berries, roots, bulbs, seaweed, clams, and shellfish. The Chinook Tribe’s diet contains a wide variety of animals.

22. The Food of The Chinook Tribe
How did the Chinook Tribe cook their food? First, they stick the salmon on a split cedar stick. Then, they would put the wooden stick into a sand pit near a fire to roast it. Finally, the salmon was served. The Chinook Tribe cooked shellfish by putting them in a wooden container or a covered basket over a fire.
Generally, to cook food, they would drop rocks into a basket of boiling water, covered it, then put food on top of the basket. Where did the Chinook Tribe find their food? The Chinook Tribe used wooden spears with pointed, sharpened stones and woven nets to catch salmon and other fish. They got their salmon mostly by fishing in the Columbia River and other rivers.

23. Now you know all about the Chinook tribe
Now you know all about the Chinook tribe. They are a very talented tribe, and used their resources wisely. Their people always had faith in their ancestors from years before. I hope you know enough about this great tribe to continue to keep the tribe’s culture alive for years to come.

24. Internet Sources Chinook Indian Fact Sheet. 1998-2015,
Chinook Food. September 2015,
Chinook History. Thursday, December 31, 2015
Chinook Tribe. March 2015,
Chinook Indian Facts.
O’ Neil, Shannon. Weapons, Beliefs & Traditions of the Chinook Indian ,   
 The Oregon History Project. 2003,

25. American Indians-Northwest Band. 2016,
Chinook: Fact, History & Religion
Longhouses of the indigenous peoples of North America. January 4,2016,
Village Life.
Chinook Clothes,
The Chinook Heritage.

26. Pictures
Pacific Fishing. 2016,
AAA Appaloosas Foundation Appaloosas. June 31, 2013,
U.S. History Images. Karen J. Hatzigeorgiou, April 6, 2012,
Chinook Tribes.
Grass Skirt
Chinook Nation Art. March 2015,

27. Lewis and Clark Today. October 23, 1805
Chinook P ,
Lewis and Clark Today. October 23, 1805
Arrowhead-Duck Potato-Wapato. 2016,