The Makah homeland is on the Olympic Peninsula in Washington state. Archaeological evidence suggests that they began to occupy the Olympic Peninsula about 1,000 years ago. At the time of their arrival, this was the homeland of Chimakuan peoples.
The name “Makah,” given to this Olympic Peninsula tribe by the neighboring S’Klallam, refers to the generosity of their feasts. In their chapter on the Makah in Listening to Our Ancestors: The Art of Native Life Along the North Pacific Coast, Janine Bowechop, Merdith Parker, Maria Pascua, and Rebekah Monette write:
“We are rich by measure of how much we give, not by what we gain.”
According to Patricia Erickson, in her book Voices of a Thousand People: The Makah Cultural & Research Center, the Makah name for themselves means “People Who Live by the Rocks and Seagulls.”
Language
Linguists classify the Makah language as belonging to the Nootkan sub-family of the Wakashan language family. Patricia Erickson notes:
“The Makah people are related by language, culture, and kinship to the Native peoples on the southern side of Vancouver Island in British Columbia.”
One of the interesting features of Makah is its use of evidentials: word endings that show how something is known. For example, wikicaxaw would translate into English as “it’s bad weather” or literally “it bad-weathers.” Now look at the meaning of this word with three different evidential endings:
- Wikicaxak-pid: “It’s bad weather—from what it looks like”
- Wikicaxak-qad’i: “It’s bad weather—from what I hear”
- Wikicaxak-wad: “It’s bad weather—from what they tell me”
Fishing
As with other Northwest Coast tribes, fishing was important. The Makah were among the most extensive harvesters of halibut and some villages would send their canoes 25 miles out into the open sea to fish the offshore banks. Halibut were caught primarily in the spring and summer from offshore banks.
Among the Makah, the rights to fish in certain areas were held by families and these fishing rights were reaffirmed during the potlatch ceremonies.
Whales
The Indian nations of the Northwest Coast hunted a variety of sea mammals, including harbor seal, fur seal, sea lion, sea otter, porpoise, and whale. Whales provided a significant range of important resources, including meat, bone, baleen, sinew, and gut. In an article in American Antiquity, Robert Losey and Dongya Yang report:
“Large whales can provide an abundance of food and tool-making materials and as such could have been important subsistence and technological resources.”
With regard to the economic importance of whaling to the Makah, Janine Bowechop, in her chapter in Coming to Shore: Northwest Coast Ethnography, Traditions, and Visions, reports:
“Prior to contact with non-Indians Makahs were wealthy, in part due to the trade of whale oil. Neighboring tribes traded canoes, roots, and other goods for the whale oil and blubber that the Makah people provided.”
According to Gregory Monks, in his chapter in Emerging from the Mist: Studies in Northwest Coast Culture History:
“Whales present significant challenges to those who capture them and use their resources.”
The most commonly hunted whales were the California gray whale and the humpback whale.
Among the Makah, the right to hunt whales was inherited and it also had to be earned. Young men would apprentice themselves to experienced whale hunters in order to learn both the technology of the hunt and the spiritual power needed. Noting that whale hunting among the Makah required more than just courage, Janine Bowechop, Merdith Parker, Maria Pascua, and Rebekah Monette write:
“It demanded strength and remarkable technical knowledge: the use of line and floats, the use of different woods for canoes and harpoon shafts, the behavior of whales, how to read the tides by the sea grass, kelp, and other indicators.”
In order to prepare for a whale hunt, the Makah whalers would separate from the community to fast, to bathe ceremonially, and to pray. Janine Bowechop, Merdith Parker, Maria Pascua, and Rebekah Monette report:
“Each man prepared in his own solitary place, followed his own ritual, and sought his own power.”
While the hunters prepared for the hunt with fasting and spiritual purification, their wives also prepared for the hunt with purification and ceremonies. According to anthropologist Madonna Moss, in an article in Indian Country Today:
“The Makah have a special relationship with the gray whale, and whaling is an essential part of Makah social identity.”
An exhibit in the Makah Cultural and Research Center says:
“More than anything else, the whale hunt represented the ultimate in both physical and spiritual preparedness and the wealth of the Makah Indian culture.”
Among the Makah, whaling was done by a crew of eight men, each of whom had a specific task to do during the hunt. Once the whale was killed, one man would dive into the water to sew the whale’s mouth shut to prevent the whale from sinking. The whale was then towed ashore and was divided among the people in the village.
The whaling crews carried fire with them in their canoes. A small fire was built in a box which was partially filled with sand. Coals to start the fire were carried inside a shell.
Among the Makah, the whaling canoe is about forty feet in length with the prow of the boat carved separately and attached to the bow. According to writer Robert Sullivan, in his book A Whale Hunt:
“The canoe’s wide interior is a deep red; its exterior is black and painted with a solution of burnt alder and fish oil or sometimes with a special mud from a swamp.”
There are some reports that the Makah used woven mats as canoe sails.
Housing
One example of the Makah house can be seen at the Makah Museum in Neah Bay, Washington where a house based on the archaeological excavations at the ancient village site of Ozette has been reconstructed. In this 30 by 70-foot house, the cedar planks which were originally used in the walls were up to 2 1/2 feet wide. The wall planks were smoothed with an adze and some were incised with whales, thunderbird, and wolf motifs.
James Swan spent time with the Makah in 1859 and remarks of their houses:
“They are very comfortable dwellings, and contain several families each. Every family has its separate fire, the smoke of which serves not only to dry the fish and blubber suspended over it, but causes an intense smarting to the eyes of the visitors who are unaccustomed to its acrid fumes.”
Writing about the Makah in 1859, Thomas Swan describes the house crests as Tomanawos boards which are up to 25 feet long and 6 feet high. He reports:
“The chief or head of each family has painted on his Tomanawos board his particular Hieroglyphics, which are at once the rubric, or coast-of-arms, or private mark, by which property is designated. These paintings represent the various objects of their mythology.”
Among most of the Northwest Coast tribes, a house was more than a structure: it was a living entity. Thus, the ridgepole for the house was considered the backbone and the rafters were the ribs and the boards covering the outside were the skin.
Baskets
Woven baskets were important to the Northwest Coast nations. Among the Makah, for example, dried foods were always stored in woven baskets. These baskets would be hung high in the house where the air and the smoke could continue to circulate through them. Storing dried food in a closed container, such as a wooden box, encouraged mold.
The Makah at the village of Ozette worked iron and used hot hammering to create a serviceable edge.
Among the Nuu-chah-nulth and the Makah, social class was indicated by clothing. According to Joanna Ostapkowicz, in an article in American Indian Art:
“During the late eighteenth century, commoners wore truncated cone-shaped hats of cedar bark, chiefs and high-ranking women wore more elaborate hats woven of a combination of cedar bark and split spruce root, painted and decorated with additional materials; only whalers were entitled to wear knob-top hats with woven designs of whales and whaling canoes.”
Shown below are some Makah baskets which are on display in the Washington State Historical Museum in Tacoma.
Masks
According to the display:
“This alder mask with movable eyes was once brightly colored and would have had hair attached along the top rim.”
Indians 101
Twice each week Indians 101 explores various American Indian topics. More tribal profiles from this series:
Indians 101: A Very Brief Overview of California's Achumawi Indians
Indians 101: A Short Overview of the Western Apache
Indians 101: A Very Short Overview of the Caddo Indians
Indians 101: A short overview of the Coeur d'Alene Indians
Indians 201: A short overview of the Duwamish Indians
Indians 101: A very short overview of the Havasupai Indians
Indians 101: A very short overview of the Hualapai Indians
Indians 101: A Very Short Overview of the Mohave Indians