Cathlamet Indians. A Chinookan tribe formerly residing on the south bank of Columbia River near its mouth, in Oregon. They adjoined the Clatsop and claimed the territory from Tongue point to the neighborhood of Puget Island. In 1806 Lewis and Clark estimated their number at 300. In 1849 Lane reported 58 still living, but they are now extinct. They seem to have had but one village, also known as Cathlamet. As a dialect, Cathlamet was spoken by a number of Chinookan tribes on both sides of the Columbia, extending up the river as far as Rainier. It is regarded as belonging to the upper Chinook division of the family.
For Further Study
The following articles and manuscripts will shed additional light on the Cathlamet as both an ethnological study, and as a people.
- Boas, Kathlamet Texts, Bull. 26, B. A. E., 1901.
- Strong, Thomas Nelson, Cathlamet on the Columbia, Portland, Oregon : The Holly Press, 1906.
Recollections of the Indian people and short stories of early pioneer days in the valley of the Lower Columbia River