THE MAKAH TRIBE
In the extreme northwestern portion of the United States outside of
Alaska, around and about the base of that sightly headland Cape Flattery,
where it has been said in a spirit of half jest, but worth taking most
seriously, that never a day in the year passes without rain, dwells a
small nation of men and women who will go down in history, in song and
story perhaps, as a happy, contented people; a people doubly fortunate
in the possession of a unique territory abounding with fruits of land
and sea. Back of them are the mountains, their front door yard the
rollicking, boundless expanse of frothy ocean; fish in the one, fowl and
meat in the other. Under their feet are the white sands of the ocean
beach, and over them seems continually to watch a most magnanimous
providence. These people are the Makah Indians, robust, ruddy, big
brothers and big sisters, whose other branch of the family undoubtedly
exists on the further side of the Straits of Juan de Fuca, so much do the
general characteristics of the one with the other seem to run together.
The Makah Indians are many generations advanced in civilization to that
of some of the Sound tribes. Why this is so is—because it is so. They
have enjoyed no greater privileges than other tribes. They are in fact
further removed than most tribes from civilizing influences that have
prevailed in the last generation. Perchance in this very fact lies their
present condition. Association with whites generally brings the worst of
moral results for the Indians whenever the Indian is permitted to be his
own or his brother’s keeper to any great extent. He readily succumbs to
the vices of the white man, but removed from these associations for the
greater part of his time and under the guidance of a conscientious agent,
the Indian should advance morally and mentally. The infusion of a great
deal of white blood into the tribe of the Makah (for some of the earliest
settlers went to the Straits to settle) has had a good effect. At present
the leading men are largely half-breeds who have been to school and look
very intelligent fellows. They are lively and smart in business. They
know how to hunt and they know how to fish as no other Washington tribe
does. In fact, since the issuance of the decree of pelagic sealing the
Indian seal hunters of Neah Bay carry the palm of greatest success in
that line. They own schooners but they are not sailors. Somehow the
proprietorship of several well known sealing vessels has come to them
without any effort on their part; it was something of a parental care
on the part of a thoughtful government, and although the average Indian
found on board does not know a rat line from a marlin spike they go to
sea nevertheless, are blown out and blown in and always bring home seals.
When off on long voyages they are usually accompanied by white men with
more or less knowledge of sealing and navigation and are not so much at
the mercy of their own ignorance of those things. When it comes down to
hunting seal or fishing off the coast within sight of land, the Makah
asks nothing better than his stout, roomy cedar canoe. He will chase a
whale too, as quickly as he will a seal. They are great sea rovers, are
the buccaneers of the northwest, and will start off on a three hundred
mile voyage in light canoes, down the coast or up the Straits and Sound,
with no more serious consideration than if they were going only as far
as the nearest bight or inlet. They are a whole community of fishermen,
industrious but not frugal. Without money they are contented, with money
the reverse. An Indian knows nothing of the value of money beyond the
spending of it. The first thing the Indians do after a successful sealing
voyage or a trip to the hop fields where men, women and children unite in
gathering the hops, is to repair to the cities and larger towns on the
Sound and expend the proceeds in a thousand and one gaudy and useless
articles that please the passing fancy of the native. They have however
been taught to provide themselves with provisions and manufactured goods
for household use, and there are some very comfortable homes upon the
reservation.
Judge James G. Swan, of Port Townsend, who is a recognized authority on
the Cape Indians recently wrote a very interesting chapter on the Makah
Indians which appeared in the _Post-Intelligencer_, of Seattle, and is
partially as follows:
“From Neah Bay to the Pacific coast in a southwest direction is a prairie
through which runs a creek which empties into the Pacific ocean at the
Indian village Wa-atch, four miles distant from Neah Bay. A few miles
south of Wa-atch is another village called Tsoo-ess, and south of this
is another village called Ho-sett or Osette. These three villages with
the village at Neah Bay constitute the winter residences of the Makah
tribe of Indians. During the summer months they move to villages nearer
Cape Flattery, one of which is at Kiddecubbut, a few miles west of Neah
Bay, another is on Tatoosh island, and a third at Archawat, on the coast
near Wa-atch, so as to be near the halibut banks, the whaling grounds
and the fine seal fishing. In 1859, when I first visited Neah Bay,
the Makah tribe numbered 820 persons, 220 of whom were strong men or
‘braves,’ and the remainder women, children and slaves. Their means of
subsistence were almost entirely drawn from the ocean, and at that time
their principal food was dried halibut, dried whale blubber and oil,
salmon, true cod, Gadus morhua, cultus cod, Ophiodon elongatus, black
cod or beshow, Anoplopoma fimbria, with various other kinds of smaller
fish, and shell fish of different kinds, such as mussels, crabs, clams,
cockles, limpets, sea slugs and snales, octopus, squid and barnacles. Of
late years they have accustomed themselves to some of the white man’s
food, such as flour, hard bread, rice, beans and potatoes, and, like
other Indians, are very fond of molasses or syrup, which they eat with
their bread and rice; but all their other food is usually greased with
a plentiful supply of whale oil. I have frequently eaten with them, and
must confess that dried halibut dipped in fresh sweet whale oil is not an
objectionable repast to a hungry man.
“The whale blubber is cut in strips, then boiled to extract the oil
which is carefully skimmed off, and after being boiled again to expel
the moisture, is put into receptacles for use as food. The blubber after
being boiled is hung up in the smoke and dried and looks like bacon.
“The halibut is cut into thin flakes, which are dried in the sun without
salt, and when well cured is nice, either eaten dry, dipped in whale oil
or simply boiled or toasted before the fire.
“The Makahs are particularly dextrous in handling their canoes, and
proceed in them fearlessly many miles from land in pursuit of whales or
seals, or for fishing on the halibut banks fifteen miles northwest from
the Cape. Their canoes are beautifully modeled, resembling our finest
clipper ships. They are formed from a single log of cedar, carved out
with skill and elegance. The best canoes are made by the Clayoquot and
Nittinat tribes on Vancouver island, B. C., who sell them to the Makahs,
but few being made by the latter tribe, owing to the scarcity of cedar in
their vicinity.
“In attacking a whale their canoes are invariably manned with eight
men—six to paddle, one to steer and one in the bow to throw the harpoon.
The harpoons are either made of hoop iron, old sheathing metal or a flat
mussel shell sharpened to a point, having barbs of elk horn fastened on
each side of the flat surface of the point, securely bound with wild
cherry bark and neatly fastened to a stout lanyard varying in length
from one to four fathoms. The whole of the spearhead is smeared over
with pitch made of spruce gum, to give it smoothness and uniformity of
surface. The pole or staff is from fifteen to twenty feet long, tapering
at each end, and made of yew, which gives it strength and solidity. When
used the lanyard is made fast to a buoy of sealskin taken off whole from
the animal and dried with the hair side inward. This is first blown up
like a bladder, then the end of the pole is inserted between the barbs
and darted into the whale, leaving the pole which is taken back into the
canoe. The short lanyard is used when striking the whale in the head, and
has only one buoy attached. The long one is used in striking the body
and has three buoys to it. When a number of these buoys are fastened to a
whale, he is obliged to remain at or near the surface of the water and is
easily killed with spears and long lances. Seals and porpoises are killed
with similarly formed harpoons, but much smaller.
“Their fishing lines are made of the stem of the gigantic kelp,
Nercocystis, which is common along the northwest coast. This kelp,
commencing at its root in a slender stem about the size of a pipe stem,
or codline, rises to within a few fathoms of the surface of the water
with but little increase of size, and then gradually enlarges till it
terminates in a hollow knob or bulb, which always floats on the surface
of the water, and from this bulb issue long streamer-like leaves fifteen
or twenty feet long. The Indians cut off the long slender portion of the
stem, then soak it in fresh running water three or four days, or until
it turns white, and then stretch it and rub it to a uniform size, then
knot the pieces together, coil them up and the fish line is made. When
dry it is brittle and readily broken, but an immersion in water a few
minutes makes it pliable, when it becomes tough and exceedingly strong.
The bulb of this kelp and upper part of the stem being hollow, are used
for various purposes. Fish-bait is kept in them, and the larger ones are
frequently used as water bottles.
“The fishhooks of the Makahs are made of the knots or butt parts of
hemlock limbs first split into splinters of the required length and
whittled to the required shape, then placed in a kelp stem and roasted in
hot ashes till pliable, then bent into a form like an ox bow. The line
is fastened to the upper arm, and on the inside of the lower arm a barb
of bone is firmly attached, and with this rude and simple instrument
they readily secure the halibut and cod. For smaller fish they use steel
fishhooks purchased of the white men.
“The houses or lodges of the Makahs are built of cedar boards and planks
and are usually of large size, eighteen to twenty feet high and forty
to sixty feet square, with slightly elevated shed-like roofs. These
boards are split from cedar logs with little wedges of yew and require
skill and patience to make them. These houses are comfortable dwellings,
excepting the smoke, and as they have several families in each lodge,
each family having a separate fire the smoke of which serves to dry the
fish and blubber, the usual fumes cause an intense smarting in the eyes
of visitors who are not accustomed to so much carbon in the atmosphere.
During the past ten years some of the better class of Indians at Neah
village have built houses in white men’s style, but all the older
villages retain the ancient form of building.
“Their manufactures consist of such implements as are used in fishing
and hunting—harpoons, spears, bows and arrows and fishhooks. Bows and
arrows are now rarely used except by the boys for shooting birds, the
Hudsons Bay company musket taking its place, and of late years rifles
and double-barreled shotguns; the women braid mats very neatly from
cedar bark and weave blankets from dogs’ hair. Baskets and conical-shaped
Chinese-looking hats for keeping off rain, are made from spruce roots,
cedar twigs and bleached bear grass. They also make of these materials,
table mats which are very handsome and durable. The northern Indians and
particularly those of Queen Charlotte island, B. C., are very expert
carvers of wood and stone, and manufacture bracelets, finger rings and
ear ornaments of silver and gold, decorated with carvings of various
devices. The tribe south of Queen Charlotte group have little skill in
these particulars, and only carve rude faces of men or animals of their
mythology on their masks and other articles.
“The Makahs are fond of music, and many of their songs and chants, when
sung in chorus, are melodious and musical. They readily pick up tunes
from others and can sing the popular songs of the day, and some of the
scholars at the agency school learned to play the piano and organ; in
fact they can learn anything that white children are taught.
“The primitive dress of the Makahs at the time of establishing the
reservation in 1862 was simple and picturesque. During warm weather a
blanket was the usual covering of both sexes, the women simply adding a
cotton skirt or petticoat, or a cincture of cedar bark spun into a coarse
fringe, reaching from the waist to the knee. Some of the men tied their
hair into a club knot behind, around which they wore a wreath of hemlock
or spruce twigs or fresh plucked sea weed, giving them a picturesque
appearance. During rains or cold weather the men wore bearskin cloaks,
with the head part cut off so that the forepaws can be brought on each
side of the neck and fastened; the paws, with the great nails attached,
hang down upon the breast. On their heads they place the conical-shaped
hat painted with various designs, and in this costume, with the addition
of a gun or spear, they make a formidable appearance. Both sexes have
the cartilage of the nose pierced, and into this is tied a pendant piece
of abalone shell by way of ornament. Shell ear ornaments were also worn,
but now are but seldom seen. The females ornament themselves when in full
dress for dancing or ceremonial purposes, with a coronet made of the
dentalium, or tooth shell, called ‘haiqua.’ This is fastened around the
head in parallel rows, and its pearly whiteness contrasted with their
black hair is very ornamental. Into their ears are fastened strings of
haiqua, intermingled with brass buttons, thimbles, beads of various
colors and pieces of the green shells of the abalone. Rings of brass wire
encircle the wrists, bunches of beads of various colors are tied around
the neck, and strings of beads wound around the ankles; the line of the
parting of the hair on the top of the head is marked with vermillion, the
eyebrows blackened with charcoal, the face is greased with deer’s fat and
then rubbed over with vermillion, and this was the ornamental appearance
of a Makah belle when on dress parade.
“When about their usual work among fish and blubber, or when they are off
on a trading voyage with a load of oil and dried halibut, their dress is
very simple and very dirty. I have seen many of the men with a coating
of grease and soot covering their entire bodies, and the dresses of the
women completely saturated with oil and dirt; but as soon as they get
through their work or return from a cruise up Fuca straits there is a
general washing. This washing scene is the usual morning ceremony. They
are very fond of bathing in the surf, and do not omit their bath even in
the coldest weather.
“Breakfast immediately follows the bath, and as all their meals are
served alike, a description of one at which I partook in 1859 will give
an idea of the style then prevalent. On entering the lodge I was invited
to sit down near the chief or head man of the family. His portion of
the lodge was separated from the rest of the building by a screen of
mats to keep off the cold. Before me, circled round the fire, were the
children and slaves, for slavery existed among them at that time, and
on the raised platform sat the principal members of the family. At my
left, suspended from a pole stuck in the ground, hung the cradle of an
infant who was firmly lashed in an oblong basket, and its head compressed
by bark and moss bound tightly across its forehead. The mother, sitting
near, lulled the child to sleep by gently pulling a string tied to the
top of the pole, producing a motion not unlike a modern baby jumper.
Around the sides of the lodge were boxes and chests of the occupants,
and on shelves over these were piled baskets of potatoes and dried fish
and skins of oil; overhead hung blubber and fish to dry in the smoke for
future food. The meal consisted of roasted potatoes, boiled ducks, boiled
fish, dried halibut and whale oil. Hard bread and molasses were offered
me, but I declined, thinking that whale oil was more of a rarity to my
palate. The viands were served up in wooden trenchers, and all helped
themselves without any aid from knife or fork. When we had finished, we
wiped our greasy hands and faces on some cedar bark, beat into a soft,
fibrous mass, called ‘tupsoc,’ and rinsed our mouths with a drink of cold
water. They usually take three meals a day, excepting when they have a
feasting time when they go from house to house eating at every one. On
one occasion when I was taking the census of the tribe, I was invited to
partake of food in each lodge I visited. As that was impossible I asked
my interpreter what I should do, as to refuse hospitality is to give
offense. ‘Oh,’ said he, ‘all you have to do is to put your finger down
your throat as we do, and thus relieve you stomach.’ And that really is
the only alternative, and with Indians it is very effective, as I have
seen an Indian apparently eat with relish seven or eight breakfasts, but
somehow I never could acquire the practice, and I was excused, as I was a
white man.
“Among the old Indians and those who have not been educated, these old
customs prevail, but with the younger generation who have attended
school, the habits of civilization are followed in a degree. The Makah
Indian agency was established in June, 1862, with Henry A. Webster United
States Indian agent. I was appointed teacher and superintendent of the
government building, and remained until August, 1866. My first pupil was
a bright little boy about nine years old named James Claplanhoo, the
hereditary chief of the tribe. Jimmie remained with me all the time I
was on the reservation, and then went to live with the Indian agent as
cook until he was old enough to marry, and then he married one of the
schoolgirls, Mary Ann Charliquoa, and has a family of boys and girls. His
eldest son, Jorji James, is captain of the sealing schooner Deeahks, and
his eldest daughter, Minnie, is married to Chistoqua Peterson, one of the
smartest young men in the tribe, a graduate of the Indian school, who
owns the sealing schooner Columbia and is a regular trader.
“The Makahs are a self-supporting and thrifty tribe. When I went among
them to reside officially, the largest vessels they had were canoes dug
out of cedar logs, and they were the most expert surfmen I have seen. I
advised them to get larger vessels and the government encouraged them,
and in 1888 the United States marshal sold to Chistoqua Peterson, Peter
Brown and John Tainsub, all Makahs, the seized schooner Anna Beck, of
sixty tons gross measurement, which they named the James G. Swan. In 1880
Peter bought the old schooner Letitia and sold her to some Vancouver
island Indians and bought the fine schooner Champion, which was lost on
Vancouver island. James Claplanhoo bought the pilot boat Lottie, but
she was wrecked. He now owns the schooners Deeahks and Emmet Felitz.
Lighthouse Jim owns the C. C. Perkins. Yokum, the storekeeper owns the
Matilda. The Puritan and August and several smaller sloops and boats
are owned by others. During all the ‘hard times’ this thrifty tribe has
made a comfortable living by sealing, whaling and fishing for halibut,
cod and other varieties. Several of these Indians, such as Capt. James
Claplanhoo, Chistoqua Peterson, Peter Brown, Shobid Hunter and others,
have comfortable homes like white people, and Kobal runs the only hotel
at Neah, which now looks like a little watering village, but the old
Indians and those who live in villages on the coast prefer their large
wooden lodges, and it will take another generation or more before they
will abandon their old customs and adopt the white man’s style of living.
But they show a degree of industrious thrift which could be profitably
emulated by croakers and idlers in all our towns.”