Cowlitz Tribe aims to regain trade power lost after European settlement
Long before the birth of the nation in 1776 and the creation of Washington state in 1889, the Cowlitz Indian Tribe dominated Southwest Washington trade.
Quality journalism doesn't happen without your help
Support local news coverage and the people who report it by subscribing to The Daily News.
Cowlitz Chairman Bill Iyall said the group aims to regain such power by buying land lost through years of European settlement and adding investments in port and trade zones in Longview-Kelso.
The tribe's focus is on the area once known as the Cowlitz Trail, the tribe's long-established trading route between the Columbia River and Puget Sound, which is now Interstate 5.
"We've always been here and plan to stay," said Iyall. "But we (are) trying to get back to that all-powerful influence and capacity the Cowlitz people once had."
Jacqueline Hill
Jacqueline Hill, a descendant of the Wannassay clan of the Cowlitz Indian Tribe, checks the progress of smelt being smoked in the traditional method in this 1957 photo. Impaled on sticks carved by her grandfather, the fish were expected to keep for a year or more when curing was completed.
Trade roots
Iyall said the tribe's dominance in trade was magnified when the Hudson's Bay Company, a trading post and fur-trading business, moved to Fort Vancouver in 1825.
Cowlitz Chief Scanewa helped establish Fort Langley, a Hudson's Bay Company fur-trading post on the banks of the Fraser River in British Columbia, Canada, about two years later.
Some employees married the daughters of Chief Scanewa, a leader who "heavily influenced" the fur trade from Canada to Vancouver, Iyall added.
"We look at those opportunities that once existed for us in that trade capacity, and now, (ask) 'Where can we fit in the modern society?'" Iyall said.
Mary Pete
Mary Pete, of the Cowlitz Indian Tribe, created beautiful baskets, displayed at the Cowlitz County Historical Museum, when this photo was printed in 1964. She and her son, Billy, lived near the Cowlitz River in the late 1880s on a ranch.
The success of the tribe's ilani Casino has set them up to acquire more land and diversify investment, he added.
They plan to develop along I-5.
"Basically, you can think of I-5 as one of our primary trade routes in ancient times," Iyall said. "And of course, now in modern times, it's equally important to the greater society as it was to the Cowlitz people."
America 250
Regaining power
The tribe is moving toward more self-reliance.
It announced in 2023 its plans to self-manage the casino after the Mohegan Tribe oversaw operations for seven years.
Earlier this year, the tribe also announced the closure of the casino's Michael Jordan's Steak House to open its own, tribe-managed steakhouse, aptly named Sovereign.
The casino is located on the Cowlitz Tribe reservation and has a Ridgefield address.
In 2015, the federal government established the 152-acre reservation, and ilani opened two years later.
The tribe was awarded federal recognition in 2000 - 77 years after their first official attempt in 1923.
"Modern-day sovereignty is economic sovereignty, it's cultural sovereignty," Iyall said. "There (are) many aspects of it, but I think it's more important that every individual Cowlitz recognizes their identity as a sovereign independent nation."
Longview-Kelso Drum and Bugle Corps
Members of the Longview-Kelso Drum and Bugle Corps pose on the Kelso depot platform before boarding a train to Washington, D.C. in 1965 to be part of the Inaugural Parade for President Lyndon B. Johnson. In the center is Clifford Wilson, chief of the Cowlitz Indian Tribe, who was also making the trip.
Losing land
The tribe originally spanned far beyond its current federal reservation.
Different factions covered from the Upper Cowlitz at the river's headwaters on Mount Rainier to as far west as Raymond and Willapa, according to the tribe's website.
These groups, such as the Upper Cowlitz Taidnapaum and the Kwalhiokwa Mountain Cowlitz, intermarried and socialized with one another, creating a large population speaking several languages.
Museum
Printed on June 29, 1973.
But that changed once European settlers descended.
The first governor of the Washington Territory, Isaac Stevens, aimed to make room for the new settlers by establishing treaties with tribes in 1854 and 1855 to relocate the First Peoples, according to the History Link article on Stevens.
The Cowlitz leaders refused to sign, according to a History Link article on the tribe, as they were asked to move in with those who had traditionally been their enemies on the Quinault Reservation.
Despite not agreeing to give up their land, U.S. President Abraham Lincoln signed the Homestead Act in 1862, which, in effect, took it away. The act helped Americans, or intended citizens, more easily acquire western land, but forced the Cowlitz people off the remainder of theirs.
With the continual arrival of settlers also came fatal illnesses. Settler ships brought diseases the Cowlitz people had never encountered before, killing 98% of the Cowlitz population from an 1830s pandemic, the tribe reports.
From the archives: Cowlitz Indian burial ground once sat on Columbia River
Read about the history of Mount Coffin in past TDN stories.
From burial site to industry
In addition to the people themselves, the tribe's cultural landmarks were also destroyed.
In Longview, specifically, remnants of the tribe's burial site on a roughly 250-foot rock along the Columbia River have long been replaced by industry.
Mount Coffin was a native burial ground where the Cowlitz people honored the loss of loved ones by placing their bodies in canoes on the Columbia River at the base of the rock.
Mount Coffin
Mount Coffin seen in 1928.
When explorers Meriwether Lewis and William Clark attempted to land at the rock in 1805, a tribe member guarding the site pelted them with rocks, according to the History Link article on Cowlitz County.
One account from a U.S. Navy captain reported seeing up to 3,000 bodies at the site, according to The Daily News archives.
A fire broke out on the rock during a 1841 visit by the captain, destroying parts of the memorial, which some suspected was purposeful.
For years afterward, people regularly hiked the rock and took remnants from the burials, such as arrowheads and beads.
Mount Coffin
Mount Coffin is seen in the early 1930s near the Weyerhaeuser mill in Longview.
By 1908, the land was sold and turned into a rock quarry.
Weyerhaeuser purchased the site in 1929 and continued to level the mound.
A 1939 article in The Daily News states the Star Sand and Gravel company had whittled away the rock and barged it for construction projects along the Lower Columbia. Some was used to create Portland's first streets, as well as dikes in Longview-Kelso, articles state.
But it would take a few more years to completely use the entire rock.
As the burial site was destroyed, a piece of the tribe's history and way of life was also lost. Rebuilding continues today.
"There was the parallel destruction of our culture and tradition," Iyall said about losing the memorial. "We're now rebuilding all of that from the inside out and reclaiming our traditions and culture, and now the larger goal of reclaiming much of our lands that were taken. And largely that means we have to buy it back."
PHOTOS: Cowlitz Indian Tribe members through the years
Check out photos from The Daily News archives.
Copyright 2026 Tribune Content Agency. All Rights Reserved.