Chinookan Art  | Table of Contents

“You can find similarities between all the Northwest Coast art forms if you really want to look for it, but that doesn’t mean they’re all related. Most of the differences are tied to the old stories, and because the old stories are different, the art is different … Knowing the stories is what leads you to the rules of the art form.”

— Greg Robinson, contemporary Chinookan artist

Tsagiglalal “She Who Watches,” the petroglyph face of a woman, painted on a rock along the Columbia River near The Dalles, attributed to the Wishram/Tlakluit Indians of the Chinook nation. Image courtesy of the Edward S. Curtis Collection (Library of Congress)