Imagine the Lower Columbia region 250 years ago, from the Cascade Rapids (now covered by Bonneville Dam) to the sea. The timbered landscape would have been dominated by Chinookan longhouses, extended family homes that comprised Native towns of several hundred to thousands of people. Carved and decorated canoes would have rested in clearings along the rocky river banks, canoes that plied the river and its tributaries — the region’s highways…

To continue reading the August 27, 2009 Vancouver Voice article, “Re-Visioning This Place: Chinookan Cultural Persistence on the Lower Columbia” by Donna Sinclair.