Roy I. Rochon Wilson: Tribal Leaders – Part Three: Chief How How

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How-How

Chief How-How gave assistance to a party of Iroquois hunters and trappers from Fort George (Astoria, Oregon) but later he became outraged because of their killing of thirteen Cowlitz men, women and children.  As a result he successfully closed the Cowlitz River to traders and eastern Indians in 1818 and withheld them from the Cowlitz country for many years.  He lived near the mouth of the Cowlitz River, and his primary area of influence was among the villages of the present day Kelso-Longview area.

These people resorted to every stratagem to get Chief How-How to visit Fort George in order to work out a way whereby they might once again be allowed into the Cowlitz country.  Chief How-How had to pass through Chinook country, who were his enemies, but he finally went to Fort George.  After the visit he left the fort unguarded.  He hadn’t passed more than three hundred yards from the fort’s gate when a group of Chinooks fired upon him and his party.  None of the Cowlitz were injured by the Chinooks, but the fort guards began firing upon the Cowlitz and two of How-How’s men were injured.

There were no records of How-How’s death, but his apparent successor was Chief Scanewa.



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Next time: Chief Scanewa.

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Roy I. Rochon Wilson was an elected leader of the Cowlitz Tribe for three decades and is the author of more than 30 books, including several histories of the Cowlitz Tribe. He is a retired ordained Methodist minister and current spiritual leader of the tribe. Wilson lives near Winlock.