Sauvie Island, at the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia Rivers, was the geographical focus of a sizable body of Native art pieces in the Chinookan Art Style, a unique art form characteristic of the Native peoples of the lower Columbia River. Many of the pieces are preserved in the collections of the Portland Art Museum and the Oregon Historical Society, and others are held by museums elsewhere. A sizable number, taken by collectors from abandoned sites in the first century after settlement, remain in private collections out of the public eye.