CHINOOK TEXTS 



Told by 



Charles Cultee 



Eecorded and translated by 



Franz Boas 



INTRODUCTION. 



HISTORICAL ACCOUNT. 



The following texts were collected in the summers of 1890 and 1891. 

 While studying- the Salishan languages of Washington and Oregon I 

 learned that the dialects of the lower Chinook were on the verge of 

 disappearing, and that only a few individuals survived who remembered 

 the languages of the once powerful tribes of the Clatsop and Chinook. 

 This fact determined me to make an eflbrt to collect what little remained 

 of these languages. 



I first went to Clatsop, where a small band of Indians are located 

 near Seaside, Clatsop county, Oregon. Although a number of them 

 belonged to the Clatsop tribe, they had all adopted the JSTehelim lan- 

 guage, a dialect of the Salishan Tillam ok. This change of language 

 was brought about by frequent intermarriages with the Nehelim. I 

 found one middle-aged man and two old women who still remembered 

 the Clatsop language, but it was impossible to obtain more than a 

 vocabulary and a^ few sentences. Tlie man had forgotten a great part 

 of tlie language, while the women were not able to grasp what I 

 wanted; they claimed to have forgotten their myths and traditions, 

 and could not or would not giv^e me any connected texts. One old 

 Clatsop woman, who had been married to a Mr. Smith, was too sick to 

 be seen, and died soon after my visit. The few remaining Clatsop had 

 totally forgotteu the history of their tribe, and even m lintained that no 

 allied dialect was spokeu north of Columbia river and on Shoalwater 

 bay. They assured me that the whole country was occupied by the 

 Chehalis, another Salishan tribe. They told me, however, that a few of 

 their relatives, who still continued to speak Clatsop, lived on Shoal- 

 water bay among the Chehalis. 



5 



