Chief Multnomah  Chief Multnomah was an 18th-century Willamette leader in the Columbia River Valley. Though once thought to be a fictional or mythic character, more recent study of Native American oral tradition suggests he was a real individual who held significant power in his prime. He is depicted in Hermon Atkins MacNeil's 1904 sculpture, "Coming of the White Man", located in Washington Park in Portland, Oregon.