In August of 1851, a white man named Anson Dart set up camp where the Columbia River drains into the Pacific Ocean on what is now the northwestern Oregon coast. At the time, Dart worked as the Superintendent of Indian Affairs for the Oregon Territory and had been instructed to secure a title for the land and prepare the Indigenous people living there for removal to a reservation in the eastern part of the state. The five groups of the Chinook tribe who spent several millennia living along the Columbia, however, resisted the colonial pressure to leave their homelands. 

Instead of agreeing to removal, a negotiation was reached in the form of the Tansey Point Treaty: the Chinook would cede over one hundred miles of valuable coastal land to the United States in exchange for the right to remain in their villages and continue hunting and fishing in traditional ways. It was also agreed upon that certain white settlers be removed and programs be funded by the U.S. government to support the tribe. The treaty was signed, and Dart sent it east to Washington to be ratified.

It never was. The Tansey Point Treaty gathered dust, and the U.S. government failed to provide an explanation as to why. Nearly 200 years later, the absence of a ratified treaty delegitimizes the Chinook politically, removing them from discussions of U.S.-tribal relations and blocking them from participating in federal programs established to aid Indigenous peoples. Today, the Chinook Indian Nation remains one of the hundreds of federally-unrecognized tribes in the United States.

Whether the U.S. government respects a tribe’s sovereignty is determined by the tribe’s recognition status. Federally-recognized tribes are defined as “domestic-dependent nations,” which the U.S. government is constitutionally required to maintain a government-to-government relationship with. There are 574 federally-recognized tribes today who are able to petition for reservation land; provide subsidized housing, healthcare and education to their members upon receiving permission; fund events to preserve tribal culture and history; and legally gather traditional foods. Recognition also determines eligibility for federal financial assistance and certain legal protections unique to tribal members.

However, all of this is in the hands of the U.S. federal government. The criteria for federal recognition are confusing and inconsistent, changing with time and often subject to the interpretation of whomever is tasked with approving or denying applications. Generally, it is expected that a petitioning tribe prove its identity as a unique “indian entity,” establish a community presence from 1900 until the present day and provide evidence of consistent internal governing in order to be considered for federal recognition. Historic recognition was arguably easier to attain, generally granted through treaties, acts of Congress, and executive orders.

In the case of the Chinook, the historically-viable ratified treaty route to recognition is no longer a possibility. The tribe will need to fulfill the other modern requirements for recognition, specifically by providing proof of a substantially consistent tribal presence post-Tansey Point. Opponents to the Chinook’s fight for recognition, including certain U.S. lawmakers and the Quinault Nation, pre-contact enemies of the Chinook, believe evidence of the Chinook Nation’s tribal presence in the century following their neglected treaty is insufficient. They point to a lack of documentation, both tribal and federal, between 1855 and 1951 as evidence of an inconsistent tribal presence. 

It’s worth noting that the Chinook are explicitly mentioned in three acts of Congress during this time period, a fact which disrupts the argument that the tribe’s presence has been insufficient. Additional controversy surrounds whether the lack of a ratified treaty or an inability to prove a “consistent presence” during years in which the U.S. government was actively trying to assimilate Indigenous people should serve as a barrier to recognition.

Chinook tribal members, like Chairman Tony Johnson, say it shouldn’t. “If we’re not Indians, why did our families get forcibly removed from our homes and our villages to Indian boarding schools?” Johnson asked Underscore News last month. “If this country wants moral high ground anywhere in the world, they should fix their mistakes at home. And [the Chinook Indian Nation’s lack of federal recognition] is a pretty easy one to fix.” 

In 2007, the UN General Assembly adopted the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People (UNDRIP). The declaration outlined universal minimum standards for the “survival, dignity, and well-being” of Indigenous peoples worldwide. Notably, the document establishes the right of Indigenous peoples to  the “recognition, observance and enforcement of treaties, agreements and other constructive arrangements” made with states like the U.S. The federal government’s failure to ratify the Tansey Point Treaty, as well as the subsequent withholding of standard inter-governmental dealings, is a breach of this right.

The Chinook are not federally recognized by the United States government, and yet their presence permeates every aspect of life in the Pacific Northwest: elementary school students sell coupons in ‘Chinook Books’, the salmon named for the tribe is sold at upscale grocery stores, and the city of Portland names its bridges and monuments using Chinook words. They are featured in nearly every history textbook and taught about each Indigenous People’s Day. The Chinook were Indigenous when Anson Dart wanted the title to their land, and they were Indigenous when children like Tony Johnson’s relatives were ripped from their families and forced into government-sponsored boarding schools. The Chinook were Indigenous 10,000 years ago, before Wimahl was renamed the “Columbia River” after the man who brought enough weapons and diseases to wipe out 90 percent of the continent’s population. 

The parties opposing Chinook recognition insist that the scope of the tribe’s presence within the declared window of time is insufficient. Still, as descendants of the 10% of the continent’s original population to survive the rampage of colonial diseases, any presence at all is remarkable. The Chinook Nation have shown incredible resilience, working since contact to preserve their culture in spite of all efforts by the U.S. government to assimilate and erase them. The federal recognition of the Chinook Nation would be an important step in rectifying the damage brought by centuries of colonization against Indigenous people in the land now known as North America.

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