Summary Of The Chinookan Expedition

Soon after Thomas Jefferson bought the Louisiana Territory from Napoleon for fifteen million dollars, he sent Meriwether Lewis, William Clark, myself, Drew Schwering, and a several other men to go and explore the Territory. We were tasked to journal all the findings and make maps. Our expedition started in 1804 and concluded in 1806, two and a half years later. Jefferson wanted our group to explore the territory because no one from the United States, and he wanted to find out all the resources the land had to offer. We traveled from St. Louis, up the MIssouri River, cross the Rocky Mountains, travel the Columbia River to the Pacific Ocean by Keelboat, horses, and canoes in two and a half years. On our journey we encountered several animals

They got around using dugout canoes made from cedar trees. The logs were cut in the summertime and then fine charred the wood to be cut away. After they were partly dugout they were stretched and shaped by steaming water or by using hot stones. The Chinook fed on deer meat, root bread cakes, and fish especially salmon. They made many kinds of catching nets, used by the more experienced, but the most common way they caught their fish was by spearing them. Women preserved the food by smoking a years worth of salmon. They pressed candlefish oil in the fish, and the candlefish oil was also used to dip food in as well. They also used it to trade shellfish, onions, Indian potatoes, berry roots, and seeds. They lived on big hand made homes made of red cedar. Some houses were twenty to sixty feet wide, and fifty to one-hundred fifty feet long with them being one to three feet in the ground. They used no nails, just wooden pegs, they didn’t have windows. They got fresh air from fresh air slots in the ceiling, which also let the smoke out from smoking. They had a lot of beliefs too. They used totem poles which were carved with animals that symbolized their guardian spirit, and the totem poles at the beginning of their houses to symbolized who lived and owned the house. They believed the spiritual mythology based on protective spirits, and animal deities, such as a Blue Jay or Coyote. They also painted these animals on their dugout canoes, and house doors symbolizing divine protection. When trading they learned that there was a problem, because there could be up to six different languages being used at once. Therefore they came up with a language that combined Native Indian and European