Comcomly

Concomly was described by Washington Irving in the book Astoria as "a shrewd old savage, with but one eye," who also noted his trade and diplomacy skills. Comcomly was characterized by modern historian James Ronda as a talented diplomat and shrewd businessman.{{cite book|last=Ronda|first=James P.|title=Astoria and Empire|date=1990|publisher=University of Nebraska Press|location=Lincoln|isbn=0-8032-8942-1|pages=198–297|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4vrLxMSP0pUC&pg=PA295 }} He was friendly to the British and Euro-American explorers whom he encountered, including Robert Gray and George Vancouver.{{cite book|last=Floris|first=Beryl Marjory Brown|title=Elvamox: Memories of a Pacific Northwest Family|year=1980|publisher=John Balogh Floris|location=Nevada City|pages=7|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=w_1AHAAACAAJ}} Concomly met Lewis and Clark in 1805 who awarded him with peace medals.{{Cite journal |last=Harvey |first=A. G. |date=1939 |title=Chief Concomly's Skull |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/20611183 |journal=Oregon Historical Quarterly |volume=40 |issue=2 |pages=161–167 |jstor=20611183 |issn=0030-4727}} He assisted the Pacific Fur Company, also known as the Astor Expedition in the early 1810s, and offered to help the Americans fight the British during the War of 1812, but Astoria, Oregon was sold to the British instead. Concomly piloted Hudson's Bay Company ships up the Columbia and was entertained at Fort Vancouver by John McLoughlin.

In contemporaneous journals, Concomly was referred to as Chief or, at times, as "'King", a derogatory term.{{cite book|author1=Henry, Alexander |author2=Thompson, David |title=New Light on the Early History of the Greater Northwest: The Manuscript Journals of Alexander Henry and David Thompson, 1799-1814, Volume II|date=1897|publisher=Francis P. Harper|location=New York|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gMQnAQAAIAAJ&pg=PA789 |editor=Elliott Coues|access-date=May 12, 2014|format=Hardback}}{{cite book| last = Cogswell, Jr.| first = Philip| title = Capitol Names: Individuals Woven Into Oregon's History| publisher = Oregon Historical Society| year = 1977| location = Portland, Oregon| page = 103}}Image:Comcomly's tomb.jpg]]

File:Comcomly Family marker.JPG

Concomly was reported to have several wives. His daughter Elvamox (also Marianne), married Duncan McDougall of the Pacific Fur Company, and after he left she remarried to Etienne Alexis Aubichon, also a fur trader.{{cite book |last=Barman |first=Jean |date=2015 |title=French Canadians, Furs, and Indigenous Women in the Making of the Pacific Northwest

|publisher=UBC Press |page=131 }} She was the mother of one son and six daughters.{{cite book|last=Floris|first=Beryl Marjory Brown|title=Elvamox: Memories of a Pacific Northwest Family|year=1980|publisher=John Balogh Floris|location=Nevada City|pages=72|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=w_1AHAAACAAJ}}

Comcomly's daughter Koale'xoa{{Cite web|url=https://oregonencyclopedia.org/articles/macdonald_ranald/#.WnnS8K2ZOV5|title=Ranald MacDonald (1824-1894)|website=oregonencyclopedia.org|language=en|access-date=2018-02-06}} (also Raven or Princess Sunday), married Archibald McDonald a Scottish-born trader. She died giving birth to their son, Ranald MacDonald.

Another of Comcomly's daughters, Ilchee, (also Princess Of Wales), married Alexander McKenzie, a clerk with the Hudson's Bay Company who was killed in 1828 by S'Klallem tribal members.History of American Indians: Exploring Diverse Roots; By Robert R. McCoy, Steven M. Fountain

Descendants of Comcomly include Chinook elder and historian Catherine Troeh{{cite news |first=Lewis|last=Kamb|title= Roommates discover a bond going back to Lewis and Clark| url= http://www.seattlepi.com/local/152198_roommates12.html|work=The Seattle Times| date=2003-12-12 |access-date=2007-07-25}} and United States Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens, who perished in Libya during the 2012 militant attack on the US consulate in Benghazi.{{Cite news

| last = Jenni Monet

| title = Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens' Mother Spells Out Family Legacy

| work = Indian Country Today Media Network

| access-date = 2012-09-29

| date = 2012-09-28

| url = http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2012/09/28/ambassador-j-christopher-stevens-mother-spells-out-family-legacy-136422

}}

A malaria epidemic that occurred in 1830–33 in the Willamette Valley resulted in a tremendous loss of Native American lives.{{Cite web |last=Findlay |first=John M. |title=Center for the Study of the Pacific Northwest: Lines on the Land |url=https://www.washington.edu/uwired/outreach/cspn/Website/Classroom%20Materials/Pacific%20Northwest%20History/Lessons/Lesson%2010/10.html |access-date=2022-04-18 |website=University of Washington}} Malaria was one of several diseases brought by colonizers that killed an estimated 150,000 Native peoples near the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia Rivers in Oregon and Washington state between 1829 and 1833.{{Cite web |title=Northwest tribes tell of malaria outbreak - Timeline - Native Voices |url=https://www.nlm.nih.gov/nativevoices/timeline/275.html |access-date=2022-04-18 |website=www.nlm.nih.gov}} Comcomly died in 1830 after an "intermittent fever" epidemic, also called "cold sick" and presumed to be malaria, struck his tribe.{{Cite web |last=Mussulman |first=Joseph A. |date=2021-08-18 |title=Concomly: Prominent Chinook Leader |url=https://lewis-clark.org/people/concomly/ |access-date=2022-04-18 |website=Discover Lewis & Clark |language=en-US}}

His remains were interred in a canoe, per Chinook custom, in the family burial ground.Mussulman, Joseph. [http://www.lewis-clark.org/content/content-article.asp?ArticleID=1013 “Chief Comcomly's Tomb”], Discovering Lewis and Clark. Retrieved on 2008-07-13. In 1835, Comcomly's elongated skull was stolen from his grave by Hudson Bay Company physician Dr. Meredith Gairdner and sent to Scotland for scientific study. It was displayed in England at the Royal Naval Hospital Haslar Museum. Although damaged in The Blitz during World War II, the skull was eventually sent to the Clatsop County Historical Society in Astoria in 1953, and then to the Smithsonian Institution in 1956.{{cite book|last=Stewart|first=Thomas Dale|title=The Chinook Sign of Freedom: A Study of the Skull of the Famous Chief Comcomly|year=1960|publisher=Smithsonian Institution|location=Washington|pages=20|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pQANHAAACAAJ}} In 1972, Conconmly's skull was finally repatriated to Chinook tribal members for reburial.{{cite book|last=Schodt|first=Frederik L.|title=Native American in the Land of the Shogun: Ranald MacDonald and the Opening of Japan|date=2003|publisher=Stone Bridge Press|location=Berkeley|isbn=1880656787|url=https://archive.org/details/nativeamericanin0000scho |url-access=registration|page=[https://archive.org/details/nativeamericanin0000scho/page/24 24]}}

There was a station of the Oregon Electric Railway in Marion County named "Concomly".{{cite ogn|7th}}

His name also appears on Concomly Road in the Salem, Oregon area. Chief Concomly Park in Scappoose, Oregon opened in 2019 and is named for him.{{Cite web |last=Del Savio |first=Anna |date=July 26, 2019 |title=Chief Concomly Park opens Friday |url=https://pamplinmedia.com/scs/83-news/434505-344508-chief-concomly-park-opens-friday |access-date=2022-04-18 |website=Columbia County Spotlight |language=en-us}}

{{Reflist}}

• Johnson, Tony A. (2017) [https://books.google.com/books?id=0ZNkswEACAAJ Chinook Resilience: Heritage and Cultural Revitalization on the Lower Columbia River], University of Washington Press, ISBN 9780295742267.

• [http://www.historylink.org/index.cfm?DisplayPage=output.cfm&file_id=10042 Comcomly (1760s?-1830)] at HistoryLink
• [http://www.trailtribes.org/fortclatsop/leadership.htm Leadership] from trailtribes.org includes The Succession of Comcomly
• [http://www.lewis-clark.org/content/content-article.asp?ArticleID=1013 Drawing of Comcomly's tomb] from lewis-clark.org

{{Oregon Early History}}

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Category:Native American leaders

Category:Native American history of Oregon

Category:Native American history of Washington (state)

Category:1760s births

Category:1830 deaths

Category:18th-century Native American people