This story originally appeared on Underscore Native News.
From left, cultural coordinator Mary Johnson, Chinook Chairman Tony Johnson and Councilman Gary Johnson listen to Sen. Jeff Wilson March 9, 2026, at the Capitol in Olympia, Wash. The Chinook were at the Capitol to be recognized by the state of Washington with a resolution in the Senate.
Courtesy of Amiran White
The United States Supreme Court issued a decision to deny review of a case seeking judicial restoration of federal recognition for the Chinook Indian Nation under the 1994 List Act on Monday.
The news is just the latest in the nation’s over a centurylong fight for federal recognition, and certainly won’t stop the continued fight.
“I think no one is surprised by the denial,” said Chinook Chairman Tony “Naschio” Johnson. “We often find we don’t fit into this system of justice. Maybe I’m using quotes around justice, but [I] feel strongly that the courts have and should be available as a remedy for folks like Chinook.”
In September 2025, the Chinook Indian Nation petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court to review a decision from the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in June 2025, dismissing their case for federal recognition under the 1994 List Act.
The act mandates the secretary of the interior to maintain and annually publish a list of all federally recognized Native nations.
The Supreme Court declined to take on the petition.
For the Chinook Indian Nation, that means continuing to pursue other avenues for federal recognition, namely getting legislation through Congress.
In December 2025, the Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina achieved federal recognition through Congress as part of the passage of a national defense bill.
“The courts were never going to be a fast answer,” Chairman Johnson said. “We just have to go down every road that we possibly can. Congress remains the most viable answer to a short-term solution for recognition.”
‘Justice that our ancestors deserved’
The Chinook Indian Nation consists of five different bands: the Clatsop, Wahkiakum, Kathlamet, Willapa and Lower Chinook, all of whom signed treaties in the 1850s that Congress never ratified.
Chinook Indian Nation first hired attorneys to address the taking of land and begin the fight for federal recognition in the 1890s.
In the early 20th century, Congress granted the nation partial compensation for the taking of ancestral lands. Then in 1970, the Indian Claims Commission found that they were entitled to additional compensation, held in trust by the Bureau of Indian Affairs.
In 2001, the Chinook Indian Nation was federally recognized by the Bureau of Indian Affairs following a decadeslong campaign. In 2022, just 18 months later, that recognition was rescinded after the Quinault Indian Nation appealed to the Department of Interior’s Board of Indian Appeals. The decision was justified by the Department of Interior, which claimed that the Chinook Indian Nation had failed to “establish a substantially continuous tribal existence from treaty times until the present.”
Since then, the nation has renewed its fight for federal recognition.
“It is just unbearable to live on your land, to inherit your teachings and a world view of this place that far predates the United States, and to have that reality denied by a government, and I’ll just say by a government that only has cared about our place for its use or abuse,” Chairman Johnson said. “I mean the ways in which they could profit or otherwise benefit from it. And always, it seems, at the expense of the Chinook people.”
In 2022, Washington Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez, Democrat, worked with Chinook Indian Nation to write the Chinook Indian Nation Restoration Act. But in April 2025, the nation announced that they would no longer be working with Rep. Glusenkamp Perez after she proposed an amendment in 2024 that included language that would strip resource access rights from the nation.
On March 9, 2026, the Washington state Senate passed a resolution that formally recognizes the Chinook Indian Nation’s contributions along the Lower Columbia River.
Though not the same as state recognition, as Washington state does not have such a process, it is still seen as a win and a step toward federal recognition for Johnson and other Chinook leadership.
After the Chinook Indian Nation submitted the petition to the court in September 2025, in October, the Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians submitted an amicus curiae in opposition to the Chinook Indian Nation’s petition claiming that the List Act was not intended to provide a pathway for federal recognition.
This is not the first time that Chinook Indian Nation has faced opposition from other nations in their fight for federal recognition.
The nation has often been told by legislators that they cannot push forward the Chinook Indian Nation Restoration Act until every tribe agrees, according to Chairman Johnson.
“Well, the Republican delegation in North Carolina just proved that that is not true,” Chairman Johnson said. “The Lumbee has had a tremendous amount of opposition to their recognition or the clarification of the strange status they were living in. And despite that opposition from some of the largest and most powerful tribes in the country, despite that, they have now been recognized by Congress.”
For Chairman Johnson, federal recognition means many things — from access to Indian Health Services and expanded legal protections to the return of ancestors through the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act.
“There are big picture things that come with recognition, but for me, it is just the justice that our ancestors deserved and that our future generations have to have,” Chairman Johnson said.
This story is co-published by Underscore Native News and ICT, a news partnership that covers Indigenous communities in the Pacific Northwest.
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