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Coastal Peoples of Oregon:
The Par-Tee Collection
Introduction
The Oregon coast falls within the Northwest
Coast culture area, a region long inhabited
by diverse hunting, gathering, and fishing
peoples. The northern portion of this state’s
coast was home to the Clatsop, speakers
of a Chinookan language, and the Tillamook,
speakers of a Salish language. Despite these
language differences, the Clatsop and Tillamook
regularly traded, intermarried, and otherwise
interacted, and as a result, shared many
customs, traditions, and beliefs.
At the southern margin of the long sandy
beach extending from the mouth of the Columbia
River is the town of Seaside. During the
early 1800s, the Seaside area was the location
of several villages inhabited by a mix of
Tillamook and Clatsop people. Several large
archaeological sites in and around Seaside
testify to thousands of years of occupation
by these peoples. Here we examine recent
research carried out on Smithsonian collections
from one of these ancient villages, known
to archaeologists as the Par-Tee site (35-CT-20).
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