Chinuk

Chinook Jargon

Etymology

from c'inúk, the Lower Chehalis name for the Chinook tribe, whose homeland was originally on the north bank of the Columbia River near its mouth. The native Chehalis name for the river, sčanúkʷ-qaʔ, literally means "Chinook Waters"

Noun

Chinuk

1. the Chinook people, several groups of Indigenous people of the Pacific Northwest in the United States who speak the Chinookan languages, who resided along the Lower and Middle Columbia River (Wimahl) (″Great River″) from the river's gorge (near the present town of The Dalles) downstream to the river's mouth, and along adjacent portions of the coasts, from Tillamook Head of present-day Oregon in the south, north to Willapa Bay in southwest Washington.