The Chinook Indian Nation announced in April that the tribe will seek a new legislative champion for federal recognition after working with U.S. Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez, D-Skamania, for two years on draft legislation.
The tribe was federally recognized in 2001 under the Clinton Administration but the recognition was short-lived as the Bush administration rescinded that decision 18 months later in 2002.
In the intervening years, the Chinook committed to pursuing every pathway to restore their status, including through congressional legislation, a news release by the Chinook Indian Nation stated.
“The Chinook Indian Nation Tribal Council worked alongside the Congresswoman during her first term to develop the Chinook Indian Nation Restoration Act of 2024 that was socialized with, and supported by, the Chinook’s closest neighboring tribes, including the Cowlitz Indian Tribe, the Confederated Tribes of the Chehalis Reservation, the Shoalwater Bay Indian Tribe and the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde,” the release stated. “Throughout the collaborative process, the Chinook Indian Nation agreed to several changes in the draft legislation to accommodate the concerns of others, including updating their Constitution and meeting with Tribes from across the Pacific Northwest.”
An April 18 social media post by the Chinook Indian Nation stated that they have made the decision to step away from Gluesenkamp Perez’s bill after she proposed removing all of their rights to access natural resources “that have sustained us for generations.”
“I absolutely support tribal recognition for the Chinook people, and the only way to address the historic injustices they’ve faced is to not simply introduce a bill, but to introduce a bill that can become law and get it over the finish line,” Gluesenkamp Perez said in a statement to The Reflector. “Our legislative process has a lot of moving parts, with recognition requiring 218 votes in the House, 51 votes in the Senate, and the President’s signature. Simply put, we need the broadest level of support from stakeholders across Southwest Washington for lasting recognition to be codified.”
In a response to The Reflector by email, Chinook Tribal Chairman Tony Johnson stated that federal recognition for the Chinook Indian Nation would benefit all Washingtonians and Oregonians.
“And no one would lose a thing if they supported us,” Johnson stated. “In no way are we asking for more rights compared to any other federally recognized tribe. We are simply asking Congress to restore our status as a federally recognized tribe without taking more from us.”
In June 2024, on the eve of introduction of the Chinook Indian Nation Restoration Act of 2024, the congresswoman informed Johnson that she wanted to amend the agreed-upon bill language to strip all resource access rights from the tribe, including hunting, fishing, shellfish aquaculture, trapping, gathering and water rights, the release stated.
“Chairman Johnson took her proposed amendments to the Nation’s General Assembly for discussion and consideration,” the release stated. “The Nation’s citizens voted unanimously to reject her proposed changes.”
The news release added that Gluesenkamp Perez decided to insert language to take away any possibility of water and resource rights and the tribe’s subsequent general assembly vote. In response, according to the release, the Chinook Nation’s leadership worked tirelessly with the congresswoman and her staff to ask that she instead use standard language used in nearly all recent congressional tribal recognition bills. That language states: “Nothing in this Act expands, reduces, or affects in any manner any hunting, fishing, trapping, gathering, or water rights of the Tribe and members of the Tribe.”
Gluesenkamp Perez’s statement said that unanimity is not needed everywhere, but, “we do need to stay at the table, continue talking, and have the home team pulling together to get this done. I’ve been working to respect the sovereignty of all Tribes by hearing from other Nations in the region, as well as to get clarity to family fishermen and shellfish growers about what draft legislative text will mean for them. I worked in good faith with the Chinook and local stakeholders to develop a bill that had the consensus of our community. While I expressed to Chinook that I had heard concerns in Southwest Washington about natural resource rights and I needed to provide clarity for my community in bill text, I stood ready to work with them on the specifics of this language. I also expressed the necessity of repairing and upholding multinational relations with others in Indian Country in order to proceed with the bill.”
Gluesenkamp Perez stated that she reiterated all of the above to Johnson as recently as April 8 and received no reply as of Wednesday, April 30.
Historically, the Chinooks and the Quinault Indian Nation have had feuds, even including when the Chinook Indian Nation received recognition at the federal level.
According to an article on the Chinook Indian Nation website in 2021, the Quinault Nation appealed Chinook sovereignty with days left before the recognition’s comment deadline.
According to a 2002 news article from The Daily News, the government reversed its decision because of a political dispute between the Chinooks and the Quinault Nation, who the Chinooks said maintain control over natural resources in Grays Harbor and Jefferson counties.
According to a Prism article in 2023 by Luna Reyna, in 1856, the federal government negotiated the Quinault, Quileute, Queets and Hoh tribes into the Quinalt Reservation, while the Chehalis, Chinook and Cowlitz nations were negotiated into an expansion of the Quinault Reservation in 1873. Later, in 1905, the government divided the Quinault Reservation into 80-acre allotments assigned to individual people from the seven nations, resulting in individual Chinook citizens becoming majority landholders on the Quinault Reservation, “further fueling a rivalry between the two nations that goes back 10,000 years, according to Chinook leaders.”
But Johnson believes this is an example of politicians forcing a tribal feud.
“We have deep respect for all sovereign nations, including the Quinault community,” Johnson stated. “While we have a complex history, the deeper issue is how elected officials on both sides of the aisle too often pit tribes against each other. Our proposed Restoration Bill rejects that approach, working to ensure that our recognition would not take any rights from our neighboring nations.”
Gluesenkamp Perez stated that she remains a strong supporter of recognition and is committed to remaining at the table to build consensus.
“As I remind everyone, that can be a long process, but it’s the critical work we need to do if this bill is to be signed into law,” she stated. “Federal recognition codified into law is enduring, and in Chinook’s case, long overdue.”
The news release by the tribe stated that a federally recognized Chinook Indian Nation would have provided a much-needed economic boost not just to the Chinook but also to their surrounding neighbors through an influx of federal funding for educational, cultural, environmental, health care and housing programs, among others.
Johnson stated that federal recognition is a chance to provide the community much-needed health, environmental, educational, cultural and housing resources that ultimately benefit the entire region surrounding their current office in Bay Center in Pacific County.
The bill’s language would have followed the standard process for reservation identification: the Bureau of Indian Affairs, the Department of the Interior and the Chinook Indian Nation would work with state and local governments, organizations and businesses to identify a suitable parcel of land for a tribal reservation following the Nation’s restoration, the release added.
“Tribal nations ceded millions of acres of land that made the United States what it is today and, in return, received the guarantee of ongoing self-governance,” stated Johnson. “Restoring our status as a federally recognized tribe would be a step toward fulfilling that guarantee and righting this historic injustice. Importantly, it would allow us to finally move forward like our neighboring nations.”
