The Grand Ronde Reservation held a confederation of more than 27 tribes and bands of Indigenous peoples of the Northwest Plateau who had been forcibly moved there by the US government.

The tribes from western Oregon, southern Washington state, and northern California were relocated to free up land for incoming white settlers.

[3] In 1928, Howard was approached by Melville Jacobs, a professor of anthropology at the University of Washington state, keen to document the endangered indigenous languages and oral literature of the area.

[2] Despite the enforced break in the cultural transmission of her people, together with the distress of forced migration, disease, political treachery, and intertribal strife, a record of Howard's creative and artistic expression remains in her songs, poetry, and performances.

[6][8][9] A new dictionary too, distributed by the University of Washington Press, draws for its contents on the legacy of many Chinook speakers and story tellers including Howard.