Chief Comcomly
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Chief Comcomly or Concomly (1754? - 1830) was a Native American chief of the Chinookan people. He was the principal chief of the Chinook Confederacy, which extended along the Columbia River from the Cascade Range to the Pacific Ocean. Washington Irving described him in his book Astoria as "a shrewd old savage with but one eye". He was friendly to the European American explorers whom he encountered, and received medals from Lewis and Clark. He also assisted the Astor Expedition and offered to help the Americans fight the British during the War of 1812, but Astoria was sold to the British instead. Comcomly was friendly with the British as well. He was entertained at Fort Vancouver by John McLoughlin and he piloted Hudson's Bay Company ships up the Columbia.
One of Comcomly's daughters married Duncan McDougall of the Astor Expedition, and after he left she married Archibald MacDonald. She was the mother of Ranald MacDonald.
Comcomly died in 1830 when a fever epidemic struck his tribe. In 1834, Comcomly's skull was stolen from his grave by a Hudson's Bay Company physician and sent to England for display in a museum.
There was a station of the Oregon Electric Railway in Marion County named "Concomly" for the chief.[1]
[edit] References
- Cogswell, Philip Jr. (1977). Capitol Names: Individuals Woven Into Oregon's History. Portland, Oregon: Oregon Historical Society, 103.
- ^ McArthur, Lewis A.; Lewis L. McArthur [1928] (2003). Oregon Geographic Names, Seventh Edition, Portland, Oregon: Oregon Historical Society Press. ISBN 0-87595-277-1.
[edit] External links
- Leadership from trailtribes.org includes The Succession of Concomly
- Drawing of Comcomly's tomb from lewis-clark.org
