Please note that the content of this book primarily consists of articles
available from Wikipedia or other free sources online. The Clatsop are a
small tribe of Chinookan-speaking Native Americans in the Pacific
Northwest of the United States. In the early 19th century they inhabited
an area of the northwestern coast of present-day Oregon from the mouth
of the Columbia River south to Tillamook.Clatsop' in the original
language is La t cap, which means "placed of dried salmon". Apparently
"Clatsop" was originally the name of a single settlement.The Clatsop
dialect used by the tribe is a nearly-extinct dialect of the Lower
Chinookan language, a language in the Oregon Penutian family. Most
Clatsops spoke Chinook Jargon and some spoke a dialect of Nehalem, by
the time Lewis and Clark's Corps of Discovery made contact with
them.Chinook Jargon is a trade language, and was once used throughout
much of the Pacific Northwest. Many place names in the area come from
the Chinook Jargon, for example, Neakahnie Mountain - "The Mountain",
and Ecola Creek and Park - "whale".
