Lewis and Clark Expedition The Chinooks The Chinook Indians were divided into many tribes made up of close relatives. The men were all skilled hunters, boatmen, and fishers. The women took care of the children, cooked, and cleaned. The Chinook tribes were usually separated into three groups. The chiefs and their families lived in a wealthier group, the regular residents, then slaves (thought more of as property than people.) Their daily diet was; rabbit, deer, and fish. The different types of fish they ate were, King or Chinook Salmon,Eulachon, Herring, Starry Flounder, and Sturgeon. The types of canoes they used to catch these fish were a very light wood canoe called a Utility canoe. This canoe was so light that a child could drag it across bare ground with ease. Another canoe they used was an Image canoe, it is easy to see why as it has strange carved images on the bow and the stern. The Chinooks lived opposite the Clatsop tribes,while the Clatsops lived on the south side of the Columbia River, the Chinooks lived on the north. The Chinooks spoke a simple language called Chinnok jargon that was known to traders from Alaska to California. When the Chinooks met the Corps of Discovery, they numbered around 16,000. The Chinooks religious beliefs included many animal gods such as beaver, eagle, raven, whale, and bear. They also believed in a god of creation called Neakanie. The Chinooks thought that life was a circle, that there was no end.