Overview
The Chinook, part of the Indians of North America series, presents a fascinating portrayal of the history and culture of these native people. The Chinook lived for hundreds of years in the Pacific Northwest, a region so bountiful that the tribe built up surpluses of food and goods to trade with neighboring tribes. By the mid-1700s, the Chinook controlled all trade in the region, but their power was steadily eroded as increasing numbers of non-Indian settlers arrived in their homeland, bringing deadly diseases with them. Eventually, in the 1850s, government officials compelled the diminished Chinook population to cede over 3 million acres of land. Some Chinook moved to two nearby reservations, but many refused to move and were never given legal title to their ancestral home.
