Since long before European people first arrived on our shores, there has been a Clatsop-Nehalem people. Most Clatsops dwelled along the northern Oregon coast from the Columbia River to Tillamook Head near Seaside, while most Nehalem-Tillamook dwelled in villages from Tillamook Head to well south of Tillamook Bay. Yet, the lines between these two people were by no means sharp, geographically or soc
ially. When Lewis and Clark visited our territories, in the winter of 1805-06, the Clatsop and Nehalem people were inseparable and often indistinguishable. The journals of Lewis and Clark make frequent reference to the presence of Nehalem-Tillamooks in Clatsop villages and Clatsops in Nehalem-Tillamook villages. In the summer of l851, gathering together near their traditional gathering place at Tansey Point on the mouth of the Columbia River, the Clatsop, Nehalem, participated in treaty negotiations with Oregon Territory Superintendent of Indian Affairs, Anson Dart (l851). On August 5th and 6th of 1851, the Clatsop and the Nehalem Band of Tillamooks negotiated in good faith and signed the Tansey Point Treaty with Superintendent Dart. for ratification. This treaty was blocked by delegates to Congress, including Joseph Lane and Samuel Thurston, and not ratified. Incidentally, the Clatsop and Nehalem-Tillamooks were still included on the Western Oregon Indian Termination Acts of 1954. Today, the Clatsop-Nehalem people consist of families of combined Clatsop and Nehalem-Tillamook ancestry, descendents of the integrated populations encountered by Lewis and Clark, Franz Boas, and all those who followed in their footsteps. The Clatsop-Nehalem people share a strong sense of attachment to their homeland on the northern Oregon coast, a strong interest in maintaining the vitality of their unique culture, and a strong commitment to the well-being of future generations of their people. The tribe is currently seeking federal restoration in order to overturn the Termination Acts, as many other Oregon tribes have done, through the introduction of a bill to congress. Thank you for any and all support.
