For thousands of years the Clatsop people lived in villages just south of where the Columbia River enters the Pacific oceans. When the American Corps of Discovery under the leadership of Meriweather Lewis and William Clark reached the Pacific Ocean in 1805, they were welcomed by the Clatsops.
With regard to the Clatsops and the Americans, historian Stephen Ambrose, in his book Undaunted Courage: Meriwether Lewis, Thomas Jefferson, and the Opening of the American West, writes:
“It was only thanks to the natives’ skills as fishermen and root collectors that the Americans were able to survive.”
In an article in North Dakota History, Gregory Camp puts it this way:
“The Indians’ remarkable willingness to share with the newcomers is one of the most under-told aspects of the entire trip, though it was not lost on the captains.”
The Heritage Museum in Astoria, Oregon has an exhibit, The Cedar People, which provides insights into Clatsop culture.
According to the Museum:
“The local native tribes used cedar to make everything from housing materials and cooking utensils to clothing. The native people gathered cedar driftwood from the beaches or cut down cedar trees to meet all the needs of the village.”
According to the Museum:
“In this part of the Pacific Northwest, the upper class members of the tribe flattened their foreheads as a symbol of their social standing. Parents would flatten their baby’s head by placing him or her in a cradleboard. The cradle consisted of a board that came down over the child’s forehead and was tied firmly in place. The child remained in a cradleboard from several months to more than a year.”
These boxes are waterproof and some are used for cooking. The watertight boxes can be filled with water and when hot stones are dropped into the box the water can be brought to a boil. In their book Peoples of the Northwest Coast: Their Archaeology and Prehistory, archaeologists Kenneth Ames and Herbert Maschner note:
“The boxes had important advantages over pottery: they stacked more easily, were more transportable and fell less likely to break if dropped.”
According to the Museum:
“All fish and other game was cooked, smoked, or dried over the fire pit in the center of the longhouse. Salmonberries, horsetail shoots, wappato, and parsley were consumed uncooked. Other berries (like salal berries) were dried and then pressed by steam cooking them in an earthen oven lined with hot stones or stone boiled in baskets or bowls.”
According to the Museum:
“The local tribes lived in villages of 5 to 20 permanent longhouses. The longhouses were made of cedar planks and cedar logs and ranged in size from 20 to 60 feet long and from 14 to 20 feet wide. The structures had pitched gabled roofs and long overhanging eves that allowed the rain to run off and away from the house. The houses were built over a 4 or 5 foot deep pit roughly the same width and length as the dwelling.”
According to the Museum:
“Several families lived in one longhouse. Inside the houses, families cooked their food over a large fire pit located in the center of the house. Many dwellings had more than one fire pit. Cedar planked bunks along the outside walls served as shelving and storage areas as well as sleeping quarters for the 20 to 50 residents. The floors were covered with cattail mats.”
More museum exhibits
Indians 101: Northwest Coast Killer Whale crests (museum exhibit)
Indians 101: Coastal canoes (museum exhibit)
Indians 101: Killer Whale Potlatch Feast Bowl (museum exhibit)
Indians 101: A Cowlitz canoe (museum tour)
Indians 101: The Northwest Coast plank longhouse (museum diary)
Indians 101: Northwest Coast House Panels (Photo Diary)
Indians 101: The Tulalip Longhouse (Photo Diary)
Indians 101: The Siletz Room (Photo Diary)