Tillamook

The Tillamook are the southernmost of the Coast Salish peoples, living on the Oregon coast from Tillamook Head south to Cape Foulweather and the crest of the Coast Range, in independent village groups. Their name is a Chinook word for the people of the village of Nehalem. Salmon was dried and ground into meal for year-round use, and they were skilled basket-makers living in large plank houses.

Franz Boas noted that their customs, including guardian-spirit quests and arranged marriages, showed strong influence from northern California. Their Thunderbird and Whale myth preserves the memory of the great Cascadia earthquake of 1700.

Robert Gray's mate Robert Haswell made the first recorded contact in 1788, and the Lewis and Clark Expedition wintered nearby in 1805 and counted roughly 2,200 Tillamook. Smallpox epidemics in 1824 and 1829 devastated the villages, after which their numbers fell steeply.