Chief Comcomly

Comcomly's tomb; engraving after Alfred Thomas Agate

Chief Comcomly or Concomly (1754? - 1830) was a Native American chief of the Chinookan people. He was the principal chief of the Chinook Confederacy, which extended along the Columbia River from the Cascade Range to the Pacific Ocean.^[1] Washington Irving described him in his book Astoria as "a shrewd old savage with but one eye".^[1] He was friendly to the White explorers whom he encountered, and received medals from Lewis and Clark.^[1] He also assisted the Astor Expedition and offered to help the Americans fight the British during the War of 1812, but Astoria was sold to the British instead.^[1] Comcomly was friendly with the British as well.^[1] He was entertained at Fort Vancouver by John McLoughlin and he piloted Hudson's Bay Company ships up the Columbia.^[1]

Comcomly's daughter Raven, also known as Princess Sunday, married Duncan McDougall of the Astor Expedition, and after he left she married Archibald McDonald.^[1] She was the mother of Ranald MacDonald.^[1]

Comcomly died in 1830 when a fever epidemic struck his tribe.^[1] His remains were interred in a canoe, per Chinook custom, in the family burial ground.^[2] In 1834, Comcomly's skull was stolen from his grave by a Hudson's Bay Company physician and sent to England for display in a museum.^[1] Although damaged in The Blitz, the skull was sent to the Smithsonian Institution in 1946.^{[citation needed]} In 1972 it was finally repatriated to Chinook tribal members for reburial.^{[citation needed]}

There was a station of the Oregon Electric Railway in Marion County named "Concomly" for the chief.^[3]

Chinook elder and historian Catherine Troeh was a descendant of Comcomly.^[4]

References

1. ^ ^{a b c d e f g h i j} Cogswell, Philip Jr. (1977). Capitol Names: Individuals Woven Into Oregon's History. Portland, Oregon: Oregon Historical Society. pp. 103. 
2. ^ Mussulman, Joseph. “Chief Comcomly's Tomb”, ‘’Discovering Lewis and Clark’’. Retrieved on 2008-07-13.
3. ^ McArthur, Lewis A.; McArthur, Lewis L. (2003) [First published 1928]. Oregon Geographic Names (7th ed.). Portland, Oregon: Oregon Historical Society Press. ISBN 9780875952772. OCLC 53075956. 
4. ^ Kamb, Lewis (2003-12-12). "Roommates discover a bond going back to Lewis and Clark". The Seattle Times. http://www.seattlepi.com/local/152198_roommates12.html. Retrieved 2007-07-25. 

External links

• Leadership from trailtribes.org includes The Succession of Concomly
• Drawing of Comcomly's tomb from lewis-clark.org

Persondata
Name	Comcomly, Chief
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Date of birth
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Date of death	1830
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