It consists of the five westernmost Chinookan tribes: the Cathlamet, Clatsop, Lower Chinook, Wahkiakum [hr; sh], and Willapa.

The tribes that would become the Chinook Nation signed the Tansy Point Treaty (1851), which would grant them land, but it was not ratified by Congress.

The tribe's federal recognition was signed by Kevin Gover in January 2001, near the end of Bill Clinton's presidency.

It was revoked in July 2002 by Neal A. McCaleb, after George W. Bush had taken office, saying that the tribe did not sufficiently document its uninterrupted existence.

A 2023 court ruling overrode a ban on re-applications for recognition and granted the tribe land claim settlement money promised in 1970.

[7] In October of the same year, the Cathlapotle Chinookans met and traded with explorer William Broughton, who worked for George Vancouver.

[8] The Lewis and Clark expedition entered Chinookan land in November 1804 and visited Cathlapotle for two hours on March 29, 1806.

The Oregon Superintendent of Indian Affairs, Anson Dart, began negotiations with Middle Chinookans with the goal of evicting them, but failed.

It was not signed due to opposition from Oregon delegates Joseph Lane and Samuel Thurston, so Chinookans lost land to settlers without legal recourse.

[21] The Chinook and the Cowlitz refused to sign it as Stevens's proposal would require them to relocate and live with the unfamiliar Quinault people.

After the tribes refused to move to the east of the Cascade Mountains, Palmer planned a reservation at Grand Ronde in Western Oregon.

However, legislation of the era only addressed a small segment of Chinook people or required them to move farther than they wanted.

[29] Many of the tribe's children were sent to the American Indian boarding schools of Chemawa and Puyallup, where they were forced to assimilate to White culture.

[31] The nation continued to advocate for recognition by holding monthly council meetings and by maintaining enrollment lists, which began in 1926.

Grant Elliott, wrote to oppose the construction of the Pelton Dam on the Warm Springs Indian Reservation as he believed it would hinder access to fish for Chinook fishers.

[29] The Chinook's petition passed and was signed on January 3, 2001, one of the final days of the presidency of Bill Clinton, by the Assistant Secretary of the Interior for Indian Affairs, Kevin Gover.

[26] Eighty-nine days later, the Quinault filed a claim to the Interior Board of Indian Appeals that the Chinook did not meet the requirements of the FAP.

On July 5, 2002, he revoked the recognition on the grounds that the tribe failed three of the seven FAP criteria:[37] The petitioner failed to meet criteria (a), (b), and (c) of the acknowledgment regulations—failing to demonstrate that it has maintained political influence over its members from historical times to the present [criterion (c)], that a predominant portion of its members comprise a distinct social community at present, or since 1950 [criterion (b)], or that it has been identified historically as an Indian entity by outside observers on a substantially continuous basis [criterion (a)].The decision said that the tribe lacked documentation between the 1850s and 1920s.

He said, "The government worked against Chinook all of these years and how can you expect us to have this perfect—and I guess I would use the term 'white man's government'—with paper trails over all this period of time.

The Chinook Nation was hesitant about participating in the bicentennial as it focused on outsiders, and they were unhappy about the inclusion of the Clatsop-Nehalem Confederated Tribes.

[49] The Chinook Nation decided to seek recognition through an act of Congress, which would be less costly and risky than suing the federal government.

The bill mentioned the Chinook's role in the Lewis and Clark expedition, the Tansy Point and Chehalis treaties, and the inclusion of four of the constituent tribes in the Western Oregon Termination Act.

Baird, along with tribal councilor Phil Hawks, testified to the committee on July 15, but the bill failed again amid debates about the federal recognition process.

[23] According to Tony Johnson,[a] the tribal chair since 2013,[33] the Chinook Nation's unrecognized status hindered "economic development, the establishment of a land base, the preservation of our culture, the reinstatement of fishing and hunting rights, the ability to repatriate our ancestors’ bones and sacred items from museum collections, and the ability to better care for our community’s health and well-being.

"[54] The tribe's lack of funding led to the closure of its food bank in November 2011, and it could barely cover the cost of its tribal office as of 2017[update].

Their goals were for Obama to recognize the nation via an executive order, to enact the Tansy Point Treaty, and to negotiate land for the Chinook.

The remaining claims included a challenge to the rule against re-petitioning and an argument that the department must give the tribe compensation for Docket 234.

[58][25] The ruling of Chinook Indian Nation v. Bernhardt sided with the former claim, arguing that the BIA's ban on reapplications was unreasonable and beyond the power of the bureau.

It has committees on communications, culture, enrollment, fisheries, fund development, health and social services, lands, and scholarship.

[36] Most citizens live near the tribes' historical homeland in the counties of Pacific and Wahkiakum in Washington and Clatsop and Columbia in Oregon.