Henry Zenk

Henry B. Zenk (born 1944) He has served as a linguistic consultant for the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde since 1998. According to The Oregon Encyclopedia, he earned a Ph.D. in anthropology at the University of Oregon in 1984, drawing on field documentation of Chinuk Wawa with elder speakers in the Grand Ronde community.

Zenk has also written for public-facing venues on the history and use of Chinuk Wawa in Oregon. For example, he authored an overview entry on Chinuk Wawa for The Oregon Encyclopedia. In 2022, Oregon Public Broadcasting described him as a “foremost authority on Oregon Indigenous languages,” in the context of Kalapuya documentation and revitalization efforts.

Selected works Zenk, Henry B. Contributions to Tualatin Ethnography: Subsistence and Ethnobiology. M.A. thesis, Portland State University, 1976. Zenk, Henry B.; Johnson, Tony A. “Uncovering the Chinookan roots of Chinuk Wawa: a new look at the linguistic and historical record.” (conference paper / working paper, 2004). Chinuk Wawa: kakwa nsayka ulman-tilixam laska munk-kemteks nsayka / As Our Elders Teach Us to Speak It. Grand Ronde, Oregon: Confederated Tribes of the Grand Ronde Community of Oregon; distributed by University of Washington Press, 2012. .