Clatsop

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. An indigenous group of the Pacific Northwest who historically lived near the mouth of the Columbia River ; a county on the northwestern coast of Oregon in the United States
2. A Chinookan-speaking tribal people native to the lower Columbia region of Oregon ; a coastal administrative area in northwest Oregon that borders the Pacific Ocean
3. The Native American nation whose traditional homeland lay in northern Oregon near the Columbia estuary ; the Oregon county on the Pacific coast that takes its name from that people

Etymology: Most English speakers meet this name through Lewis and Clark. In the winter of 1805 to 1806 the expedition built a log fort on the Oregon coast and named it Fort Clatsop after the people whose land they were occupying. The county named after the fort in 1844 keeps the name on the map today. The Clatsop people spoke a Chinookan language and lived near the mouth of the Columbia River and along the nearby coast. The name is an outsider's rendering of the group's own term, and its meaning is not reliably established, so where it came from remains uncertain. The name was applied from outside rather than chosen by the people, as was true of many Pacific Northwest tribal names.