Learn to Talk Chinookan!

Re-Visioning This Place: Chinookan Communities on the Lower Columbia River. Saturday, September 19th – 10:30 am – 3:30 pm. Special day rate: $2 off each admission

You are invited to a very special day of crafts, demonstrations, presentations and delicious food with leaders of the Chinookan Nation. The Center for Columbia River History and the Oregon Council for the Humanities are teaming up with the Columbia River Maritime Museum to celebrate Chinook history and culture.

Make a button blanket, string beads or watch carving demonstrations on the Museum plaza. Enjoy a discussion on early trade materials by Dr. Ken Ames, from Portland State University. Learn the Chinookan jargon (Chinuk wawa) with Evan Gardner. Jim Sayce, Washington State Historical Society, and Charlie Funk, Chinook Nation, will examine the importance of Middle Village.

This one day event is designed for adults and children and will feature arts and crafts of a time when the Chinookan communities dominated the landscape. Imagine a time when canoes plied the Columbia River and its tributaries and controlled all trade into the interior. Learn all about the Chinook culture from Ray Gardner and Sam Robinson, Chair and Vice-Chair of the Chinook Nation.

Those of you familiar with the CHINUK ili’I (pronounced chin-ook-e-lee-e) food tent at Sunday Market will be happy to know that Don and Jody Abing will be selling their delicious Chinookan Fry Bread in various forms at this historic event. Look for their tent on the Museum plaza. The specifics of the day’s scheduled programs are listed on THE COLUMBIA RIVER MARITIME MUSEUM’s web-site at CLICK HERE FOR MORE INFORMATION!