= Chimakum, Gibbs in Pac. R. R. Rep., I, 431, 1855 (family doubtful).
= Chemakum, Eells in Am. Antiquarian, 52, Oct., 1880 (considers
language different from any of its neighbors).
< Puget Sound Group, Keane, App. Stanford’s Comp. (Cent. and So. Am.),
474, 1878 (Chinakum included in this group).
< Nootka, Bancroft, Native Races, III, 564, 1882 (contains Chimakum).
Derivation unknown.
Concerning this language Gibbs, as above cited, states as follows:
The language of the Chimakum “differs materially from either that of the
Clallams or the Nisqually, and is not understood by any of their
neighbors. In fact, they seem to have maintained it a State secret. To
what family it will ultimately be referred, cannot now be decided.”
Eells also asserts the distinctness of this language from any of its
neighbors. Neither of the above authors assigned the language family
rank, and accordingly Mr. Gatschet, who has made a comparison of
vocabularies and finds the language to be quite distinct from any other,
gives it the above name.
The Chimakum are said to have been formerly one of the largest and most
powerful tribes of Puget Sound. Their warlike habits early tended to
diminish their numbers, and when visited by Gibbs in 1854 they counted
only about seventy individuals. This small remnant occupied some fifteen
small lodges on Port Townsend Bay. According to Gibbs “their territory
seems to have embraced the shore from Port Townsend to Port Ludlow.”[31]
In 1884 there were, according to Mr. Myron Eells, about twenty
individuals left, most of whom are living near Port Townsend,
Washington. Three or four live upon the Skokomish Reservation at the
southern end of Hood’s Canal.
[Footnote 31: Dr. Boas was informed in 1889, by a surviving Chimakum
woman and several Clallam, that the tribe was confined to the
peninsula between Hood’s Canal and Port Townsend.]
The Quile-ute, of whom in 1889 there were 252 living on the Pacific
south of Cape Flattery, belong to the family. The Hoh, a sub-tribe of
the latter, number 71 and are under the Puyallup Agency.