Chinookan tribes along the Colombian river

I felt this quote perfectly sets up the frame of mind I hope to convey throughout this essay as it follows along the idea that our traditions in life, specifically cooking, are built from people and family in our past. As the quote states, before the states of Washington and Oregon were populated and settled by European Colonists, the Chinookans occupied the land for centuries. They settled along the Columbia river which splits Washington state and Oregon state. Before first contact with European settlers the Chinookan people had many tribes across the northwest. They mainly fished salmon from the Columbian River and Pacific Ocean, but were also hunters of elk and deer. After first contact with European settlers the history of the Chinookan people followed suit as so many other aboriginals during this time. Johnson describes the Chinookan experience as the following:

with the growing numbers of overland settlers and continuing disease, we became more like observers of our own history, as we lost control over much that was important to us. We were removed from our village sites, the graves of our people, and our fishing and hunting sites, many of which had been occupied by our people from the beginning of human existence in the Pacific Northwest.

The Colombian river in 2001

This timeline leads us to the mid and late 20^th century where the Chinook tribe continues to fight for rights around the traditions they hold. In the late 20^th century Johnson describes the Chinook Tribe’s goals as “the establishment of a land base, the preservation of our culture, the reinstatement of fishing and hunting rights, the ability to repatriate our ancestors’ bones and sacred items from museum collections, and the ability to better care for our community’s health and well-being.”

Now that I have established a timeline and history around my cookbook, we can analyze the historical context at the time the cookbook was published. My main question is whether the cookbook was made in a positive or negative appropriation of aboriginal culture. The following quote from James Young’s and Conrad Brunk’s book on cultural appropriation perfectly describes the question I am asking; “Cultural appropriation is often most controversial when something is taken from Indigenous people and yet the voices of Indigenous people are often least likely to be heard.” After applying this idea to this cookbook and understanding what the ideals were of the Chinookan people at the time of publishing, we can come to an underlying conclusion they were not involved in the production. I came to this conclusion as I felt the information provided did not appear genuine or historically accurate. After only a few hours of researching I was able to pinpoint the history behind plank roasting and the Chinookan aboriginals. The Chinookan history is never mentioned in the intro of the book, and more specifically the Chinookans are not mentioned either.

My argument is not without its counterpoints. The lack of information from the publishing company doesn’t allow me to paint a full picture that the Chinookan’s and other aboriginal people were consulted in the production of the cookbook. With that consideration, I still strongly believe the cookbook has a negative appropriation towards aboriginal styles of cooking, particularly the planking style.

Overall, Plank Roasting Cookbook allows us a tiny peek into the long and detailed culinary history of the Chinookans. When published, this cookbook was placed along a long timeline of historical knowledge about the Chinookan aboriginals.