The Chinook Nation gained Federal Recognition on January 3, 2001[2] from the Department of Interior under President Bill Clinton.

[3] After President George W. Bush was elected, his political appointees reviewed the case and, in a highly unusual action, revoked the recognition.

[8] The Chinookan peoples were relatively settled and occupied traditional tribal geographic areas, where they hunted and fished; salmon was a mainstay of their diet.

[10] The elite of some tribes had the practice of head binding, flattening their children's forehead and top of the skull as a mark of social status.

[12] This custom was a means of marking social hierarchy; flat-headed community members had a rank above those with round heads.

Those with flattened skulls refused to enslave other persons who were similarly marked, thereby reinforcing the association of a round head with servility.

Owing partly to their settled living patterns, the Chinook and other coastal tribes had relatively little conflict over land, as they did not migrate through each other's territories and they had rich resources in the natural environment.

Gibbs was assisted by Robert Shortess and Soloman H. Smith of Oregon and A. C. Anderson of Victoria, Vancouver Island.

These lower Columbia Chinook tribes and bands re-organized in the 20th century, setting up an elected form of government and reviving tribal culture.

They first sought recognition as a federally recognized sovereign tribe in the late 20th century, as this would provide certain treaty-promised benefits for education and welfare.

[16] Since the late 20th century, the Chinook Indian Nation has engaged in a continuing effort to secure formal recognition, conducting research and developing documentation to demonstrate its history.

They are referred to in government and historic accounts, but treaties signed at Tansy Point in 1851 were not acted upon by Congress through a formal ratification process.

[18] Since the 1930s, individual Chinook people have had Allotments on the timber-rich Quinault Reservation in Grays Harbor County, Washington.

[19][20][additional citation(s) needed] Efforts by Brian Baird, D-Wash. from Washington's 3rd congressional district, to gain passage of legislation in 2011 to achieve recognition of the tribe were not successful.

[20][1] In his decision on a lawsuit filed in late 2017, U.S. District Court Judge Ronald B. Leighton ruled recognition could only be granted from Congress and other branches of government, but largely sided with the tribe; Leighton denied seven of eight claims by the Interior Department to dismiss the case, including a challenge to a 2015 rule that bars tribes from seeking recognition again.