INTERMARRIAGE AND AGENCY - A CHINOOKAN CASE-STUDY

Recent studies argue that contact and colonization undermined Native A merican women's power and that the women, more so than their male coun terparts, reacted conservatively to Euro-Americans. The life of Celias t Smith, a Chinookan woman born at the Columbia River's mouth early in the nineteenth century, suggests that Native women could use the powe rful newcomers to their own ends, particularly through intermarriage. These acts of agency cannot be understood simply or even primarily as assimilationism, for Smith's nuanced response to the growing Euro-Amer ican presence owed much to the Chinookan culture that she appeared to be discarding.