10 Facts About Comcomly

Comcomly was a Native American leader of the Lower Chinook, a group of Chinookan peoples indigenous to the Pacific Northwest, who inhabited the area near Ilwaco, Washington.

Comcomly was characterized by modern historian James Ronda as a talented diplomat and shrewd businessman.

Comcomly was friendly to the British and Euro-American explorers whom he encountered, including Robert Gray and George Vancouver.

Comcomly assisted the Pacific Fur Company, known as the Astor Expedition in the early 1810s, and offered to help the Americans fight the British during the War of 1812, but Astoria, Oregon was sold to the British instead.

Comcomly was the mother of one son and six daughters.

Comcomly's daughter Koale'xoa, married Archibald McDonald a Scottish-born trader.

Descendants of Comcomly include Chinook elder and historian Catherine Troeh and United States Ambassador J Christopher Stevens, who perished in Libya during the 2012 militant attack on the US consulate in Benghazi.

Comcomly died in 1830 after an "intermittent fever" epidemic, called "cold sick" and presumed to be malaria, struck his tribe.

Comcomly's remains were interred in a canoe, per Chinook custom, in the family burial ground.

Comcomly's name appears on Concomly Road in the Salem, Oregon area.