Chinook - Definition and Overview

Chinook has several meanings:

• The Chinookan nation of Native Americans of the Pacific Northwest, which inhabited the lower Columbia River valley in what is now Washington, Oregon, and British Columbia. Chinook comprise the Clatsop, Cathlamet, Multnomah, Watlala, Clowwewalla, Clackamas, Chilluckittequa and Wasco tribes

• Coastal Chinook and Upper Chinook are extinct languages spoken by Chinook peoples. The Chinook Jargon is a form of that language, technically known as a pidgin or contact language, which evolved to allow the inhabitants of the Columbia River region to discuss business. This jargon was adopted by various newcomers (e.g., Chinese immigrants), who used it throughout the Pacific Northwest and British Columbia, and contributed a number of words to local Canadian English and American English dialects (e.g. snookum, high muckimuck).

• The Chinook salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha) is Alaska's state fish and is native to the Pacific coasts of North America and Northeast Asia.

• Chinook winds are warm, dry, usually irregularly occurring katabatic winds, similar to Alpine foehn winds, that come down the eastern slopes of the Rocky Mountains into the plains of North America. The air has been stripped of its moisture due to precipitation, releasing heat as it rises and cools, then has been warmed by increasing density as it descends. The wind is named after the Chinook people. See Effects of Chinooks on weather ecology and agriculture in Alberta, Canada. (http://www.mountainnature.com/Climate/Chinook.htm)

• The CH-47 Chinook helicopter is used by a number of military forces, including the United States Army and the Royal Air Force

• Chinook College is a college in Calgary, Alberta.

• Chinook is a computer program that plays checkers (draughts), developed at the University of Alberta. It was declared the Man-Machine World Champion in checkers in 1994.

• Chinook (dog) is a breed of dog, bred to be a sled dog.

• Chinook, Washington is a town of 457 people (according to the 2000 Census) in Pacific County, Washington State. It is home to Fort Columbia, a former Army post created in 1896 as harbor defense for the Columbia River. The base was retired after World War II and is now a Washington state park.