[Federal Register Volume 62, Number 163 (Friday, August 22, 1997)]
[Notices]
[Pages 44714-44716]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 97-22298]


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DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

Bureau of Indian Affairs


Proposed Finding Against Federal Acknowledgment of the Chinook 
Indian Tribe

AGENCY: Bureau of Indian Affairs, Interior.

ACTION: Notice of proposed finding.

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SUMMARY: Pursuant to 25 CFR 83.9(f), notice is hereby given that the 
Assistant Secretary--Indian Affairs (Assistant Secretary) proposes to 
decline to acknowledge that the Chinook Indian Tribe, Inc., P.O. Box 
228, Chinook, WA 98614, exists as an Indian tribe within the meaning of 
Federal law. This notice is based on a determination that the group 
does not satisfy three of the seven criteria set forth in 25 CFR 83.7, 
and therefore does not meet the requirements for a government-to-
government relationship with the United States.

DATES: As provided by 25 CFR 83.9(g), any individual or organization 
wishing to comment on this proposed finding may submit arguments and 
evidence to support or rebut the evidence relied upon. This material 
must be submitted on or before December 22, 1997. Interested parties 
who submit arguments and evidence to the Assistant Secretary should 
provide copies of their submissions to the petitioner as well.

ADDRESSES: Comments on the proposed finding and/or requests for a copy 
of the report of evidence should be addressed to the Office of the 
Assistant Secretary, Bureau of Indian Affairs, 1849 C Street NW, 
Washington, DC, 20240, Attention: Branch of Acknowledgment and 
Research, Mailstop 4603-MIB.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Holly Reckord, Chief, Branch of 
Acknowledgment and Research, (202) 208-3592.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: This notice is published in the exercise of 
authority delegated by the Secretary of the Interior to the Assistant 
Secretary by 209 DM 8. The Chinook Indian Tribe's petition was under 
active consideration at the time that the revised regulations became 
effective on March 28, 1994. The petitioner was given the choice under 
25 CFR 83.5(f) of the revised regulations of being evaluated under the 
1994 revised regulations or the regulations that were published on 
September 5, 1978. The Chinook Indian Tribe, by letter dated April 21, 
1994, requested that the BIA continue to evaluate its petition under 
the 1978 regulations. Therefore, all references to 25 CFR part 83 in 
this notice will refer to the 1978 regulations.
    The Chinook Indian Tribe petitioner consists primarily of 
descendants of the historical Lower Band of Chinook Indians. While most 
of the petitioner's members can trace their ancestry back to the Lower 
Band of Chinook, the petitioner has not existed as a tribal entity 
continuously since the time of first sustained contact in 1811 between 
the historical Lower Band of Chinook and non-Indians. The petitioner's 
ancestors were identified as an Indian entity by external sources from 
1792 to at least 1855. The available evidence indicates that the 
petitioner, as a whole, has not formed a distinct social or 
geographical community since 1880. The evidence also demonstrates that 
the petitioner has not exercised political authority over its members 
since 1855.
    Of the seven mandatory criteria for Federal acknowledgment as an 
Indian tribe, the petitioner has met criteria (d), (e), (f), and (g), 
but has failed to meet criteria (a), (b), and (c).
    At the time of first sustained contact with non-Indians, the 
historical Lower Band of Chinook was described as living in villages 
along the north shore of the Columbia River where it empties into the 
Pacific Ocean. There were also Lower Chinook villages along the 
tributaries that fed into the Columbia River and into Shoalwater Bay. 
Three other bands of Chinookan-speaking Indians lived in proximity to 
the Lower Band of Chinook: the Wahkiakum, the Kathlamet, and the 
Clatsop. Federal negotiators signed treaties with each of

[[Page 44715]]

these Chinookan bands in 1851, but the treaties were never ratified. In 
1855, the Federal Government attempted to negotiate another treaty with 
the Lower Chinook, but the Chinook refused to sign that treaty. In 
1951, some Chinook descendants formed an organization to pursue a 
compensation claim for aboriginal Chinook lands. Although its secretary 
claimed that the group had previously formed an organization in 1925, 
there is no contemporary evidence which demonstrates that there was a 
Chinook organization between 1925 and 1951. The organization split in 
1953 into two Chinook councils, the Chinook Nation and the Chinook 
Tribes, Inc. The available evidence indicates that the Chinook Tribes, 
Inc., ceased to function about 1958. In 1970, a new Chinook 
organization, the Chinook Indian Tribe, Inc., was formed by some 
Chinook descendants at Ilwaco. This is the organization that is 
petitioning for Federal acknowledgment.
    The petitioner has satisfied criterion (e) because the available 
evidence demonstrates that approximately 85 percent of its 1995 members 
descend from either the Lower Chinook, Wahkiakum, Kathlamet, or Clatsop 
Indian tribes, with almost all of these individuals having descent from 
the Lower Band of Chinook. Approximately another 15 percent of the 
petitioner's members descend from Rose LaFramboise. Some evidence 
indicates that she descended from a Lower Band of Chinook family, and 
other evidence suggests she was the daughter of a Hudson's Bay Company 
employee and a Cayuse/Sioux metis woman. Whatever her specific 
ancestry, the evidence indicates that Rose LaFramboise and her 
descendants who lived in Cathlamet and Skamokawa were associated with 
Chinook descendants since the 1870's, and that her family was an 
accepted part of previous Chinook organizations.
    The petitioner has met criterion (d) by providing a copy of the 
constitution of the Chinook Indian Tribe, Inc., which was adopted on 
June 16, 1984. This constitution, which is currently in effect, 
describes the petitioner's membership criteria. There is no evidence 
that a significant percentage of the petitioner's members belong to any 
federally-recognized tribe, and therefore it meets criterion (f). About 
three percent of the petitioner's members descend exclusively from the 
Clatsop Tribe, over which Federal supervision was terminated by the 
Western Oregon Termination Act of 1954 (68 Stat. 724). Under this act, 
these members would not be eligible for services from the Bureau of 
Indian Affairs. Neither this act nor any other legislation, however, 
terminated the Chinook of Washington State, so the petitioner as an 
entity meets criterion (g).
    The Chinookan Indians lived in isolated, homogeneous Indian 
villages until about 1855, which is sufficient to meet the requirements 
of criterion (b) until that year. The available evidence demonstrates 
that Chinook descendants continued to form a distinct social community 
until 1880, based on the fact that they were fishing together at 
Chinookville, a village inhabited almost exclusively by Chinook 
descendants, and because of the primary kinship relations between them.
    Chinookville ceased to exist sometime before the 1900 Federal 
census was taken, and probably soon after the 1880 census was recorded. 
By 1900, the Chinook descendants who remained in the Chinook aboriginal 
territory were primarily concentrated in three locations: Bay Center, 
Dahlia, and Ilwaco. Bay Center had the largest number of Chinookan 
descendants, and about half of them lived in a segregated part of the 
town known as Goose Point. The Chinookan descendants at Bay Center 
lived with other Indians from western Washington in a distinct Indian 
community until about 1920. There is evidence that the Chinookan 
Indians living at Goose Point continued to speak the Chehalis language 
at least as late as 1900, supported a Shaker Church until about 1920, 
and were part of the Shoalwater Bay Indian Reservation community as 
late as 1920. There is insufficient evidence to conclude that the 
Chinook residents at Dahlia formed a separate geographical community at 
any point in time. There is some very limited evidence, based on 
primary kinship relations, that the residents of Dahlia may have been a 
separate social community until 1932, but this conclusion cannot be 
reached based on the limited data provided. Also, there is no evidence 
that the Chinook residents of Ilwaco formed a community. There is very 
little evidence that suggests the Chinook descendants in Bay Center and 
Dahlia were ever a single social community. Because there is no 
evidence that the petitioner's ancestors, or their members, as a whole, 
have ever formed a single social community at any time since 1880, the 
petitioner does not meet criterion (b) since that date.
    Because the petitioner's Lower Band of Chinook ancestors had 
headmen who negotiated treaties with the Federal Government in 1851 and 
1855, the petitioner meets the requirements of criterion (c) until 
1855. Some evidence suggests that Shoalwater Bay Indians (the Indians 
living on Shoalwater Bay Indian Reservation and those in Bay Center) 
acted as a group or had leadership from the 1870's to the 1920's, but 
not that they acted together with Chinook descendants in Ilwaco or 
Dahlia. The available evidence does not reveal that an existing group 
decision-making process was utilized to decide to bring claims suits in 
1899 and 1925. The Court of Claims concluded in 1906 that the Lower 
Band of Chinook had ``long ceased to exist,'' and a Federal district 
court in 1928 concluded that the Chinook had lost their tribal 
organization. Although the petitioner contends that the Chinook formed 
a formal organization and a tribal council in 1925, no contemporaneous 
evidence supports this claim. There is some evidence of leadership by 
one individual between 1927 and 1932 to gather witnesses for a claims 
case and data to obtain allotments of land for Chinook descendants, but 
the available evidence does not reveal that she exercised political 
influence over the Chinook descendants between 1925 and 1951. In 1951, 
a formal Chinook organization was formed soon after a petition was 
submitted to the Indian Claims Commission. Although it claimed 
continuity with an earlier council, the Indian agency superintendent 
concluded that any earlier organization had disappeared. In 1953, two 
Chinook councils were formed; one was active until 1958, and the other 
until 1967. The modern petitioner's organization was formed in 1970. 
Its minutes demonstrate that participation by members was very low 
during the 1970's. The petitioner's evidence of correspondence between 
the council chairman and external government and Indian representatives 
does not provide evidence of an internal political process among its 
members. The available evidence does not demonstrate that there were 
leaders who exercised political authority or influence over the group 
as a whole from 1856 to the present. Therefore, the petitioner meets 
criterion (c) to 1855, but does not meet criterion (c) from 1856 to the 
present.
    A historical Chinook tribe or band at the mouth of the Columbia 
River was identified by explorers, traders, missionaries, and 
Government agents from the 1790's into the 1850's. The Federal 
Government clearly identified the Lower Chinook Indians as an Indian 
entity by negotiating treaties with them in 1851 and 1855. The 
Government expressed some responsibility for Chinook Indians until the 
Quinault Reservation was expanded in 1873, but from the 1850's into the 
1870's its Indian agents also distinguished the

[[Page 44716]]

Indians of Shoalwater Bay from the Chinook Indian descendants along the 
Columbia River. During the early-20th century, some non-Indians 
identified an Indian village at Bay Center, but concentrations of 
Chinook descendants at Ilwaco and Dahlia were not identified as Indian 
entities, or as parts of a single Indian entity in conjunction with the 
Bay Center Indian community. From the 1930's to the 1950's, 
anthropologists recognized that some Chinook descendants were still 
living, but agreed that they had lost their traditional culture and 
tribal organization. Since 1951, the Bureau of Indian Affairs, local 
governments, and local newspapers have noted the existence of three 
different organizations of Chinook descendants, but have not credited 
them with continuity with each other. Because external sources have not 
continuously identified the petitioner from 1855 to the present on a 
substantially continuous basis, the petitioner does not meet criterion 
(a).

    Dated: August 11, 1997.
Ada E. Deer,
Assistant Secretary--Indian Affairs.
[FR Doc. 97-22298 Filed 8-21-97; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4310-02-P