The Makah:
A Case Study of Resilience and Resistence
“Makah Maiden,” Edward S. Curtis, 1916
One visual indicator of how the Makah resiliency and
resistance is seen in this photograph of a Makah man
standing on the beach at Neah Bay in 1897
The image of Young Doctor, the
canoe maker, demonstrates how the
Makah adapted to white culture without giving up their own. While
he is wearing jeans, he also has a
traditional blanket around shoulders
and a traditional kerchief tied headband style.
Today, we will examine five unique
features of the Makah Nation –
features that when coupled with
their resilient commitment to
tradition and their resistance to
Euro-American culture and customs
– have provided them with a great
deal of autonomy.
Unique attributes of the Makah
1. The Makah continue to live on part of their
traditional tribal lands.
2. The Makah Nation’s remote geographical
location has helped them maintain much
cultural, economic, spiritual, and political
autonomy despite various federal assimilation
endeavors.
3. The Makah are the only Native American
people whose right to hunt whales is
guaranteed by treaty with the United States
4. The Makah have been involved in a long legal
struggle for their right to hunt the gray whale
and maintain their cultural self-determination.
#1: The Makah continue to live on part of their
traditional tribal lands.
The land belonging to the Makah is 47 square miles, much of which
is dominated by rocky coastline and small mountains between 5001,000 feet high - with the highest peak at 2,000 feet. It is one of the
most isolated, rugged, and remote Indian Reservations in the
continental United States.
The reservation is located
at the farthest end of the
Northwestern United
States and is bounded on
the west by the Pacific
Ocean, to the north by the
Straits of San Juan de
Fuca, and to the south and
east by Olympia National
Park.
This map provides a clear
picture of the vast amount
of land the Makah lost –
over 300,000 acres of their
traditional homeland.
They were, however, able
to hold onto their territory
at the northwestern portion
of the Peninsula – territory
that included four of their
five traditional homelands.
Ozette remained outside
Reservation boundaries.
On the map:
• #1 is the site of Ozette
Village - an ancient
village no longer
inhabited by the Makah
• #2 is the Makah Cultural
and Resource Center
• #3 is the site of Neah Bay
- the largest village on the
reservation
• #4 is Koitiah Viewpoint
• #5 is Cape Flattery
Viewpoint and Lighthouse
• #6 and #7 are Hobuck
Beach and Campgrounds.)
Retaining and living on part of their traditional land put the Makah
in an excellent position to maintain much of their tribal autonomy.
#2. The Makah Nation’s remote geographical location has
helped them maintain much cultural, economic, spiritual, and
political autonomy despite various federal assimilation
endeavors.
Economic Autonomy
•
•
•
Until 1931, the reservation
was so remote that it was
only accessible by water.
It also included only two
possible agricultural areas
that had only a few acres of
cultivatable soil.
Consequently, the vigorous
federal assimilation
measures that required
Indians to settle on
agricultural land and
become farmers was not
possible for the Makah.
So, as Euro-Americans increasingly arrived in this remote region to
compete for the rich fishing resources surrounding the reservations, the
Makah recognized the opportunity for commercial competition and
economic autonomy.
• In 1868, commercial sealing schooners hired Makah tribal members to
accompany them to the Bering Sea. Some Makah became relatively
wealthy from this relationship and some annual incomes were reportedly
$5,000 a person.
• In 1880, a Makah tribal member invested his sealing earnings in the tribe’s
first small schooner. By 1893, the Makah owned ten schooners and were
competing directly with their white counterparts.
• In 1897, the federal government outlawed commercial hunting of pelagic
seals and the following year, federal officials began seizing Makah-owned
commercial schooners that were still hunting seals. In response, the Makah
turned to the commercial halibut industry.
Halibut Fishing 1903
In 1920, due to the threatened destruction of the gray whale, a ban began
on commercial whaling. The Makah voluntarily stopped their
whaling practices in 1926.
• By the 1950s, when
whale, seal, and halibut
hunting had either been
banned or was no
longer profitable, the
Makah had turned to
other sources of
economic
autonomy: salmon
fishing, working in the
canning industry,
selling timber stumpage
to local timber
companies, building
roads for the
• By 1931, the average income of each Makah family was $600 - a
figure bolstered by their low cost of living. They took fish from the
sea, raised their own vegetables, and owned their own houses and
land.
Drying Fish at Neah Bay, 1900
• As a federal agent
noted, “as a whole, the
economic status of
these Indians is
exceptionally good
when one stops to
consider the fact that it
has all been through
their own efforts and
industry.”
Such economic autonomy was noted by several other 20th Century observers
of Makah life.
•According to Elizabeth Colson writing in the 1950s, the Makah possessed
“…adequate resources to allow them to expand their economy and enter
into economic relationships with the whites … The Makah … have never
had their economy so disrupted that they have been forced to turn to
occupations for which they had no previous training … they found
themselves in a position where they could exploit more profitably their
traditional subsistence resources because the presence of the whites in
neighboring areas made available to them new techniques for application
within their usual occupations and also opened to them new markets for
disposing of their surpluses … One agent commented, ‘These Makah
Indians are really much better off as a whole than many settlements of
white people on the Sound or elsewhere.’”
•As a federal agent noted in the 1940s, , “as a whole, the economic status of
these Indians is exceptionally good when one stops to consider the fact that it
has all been through their own efforts and industry.”
Makah resiliency and resistance contributed to such autonomy.
To repeat, the Makah’s resiliency and resistance were supported by
the Nation’s remote geographical location. Because hired help was
always scarce, commercial fishing required the work of all villagers
- including children. This meant that assimilation and educational
efforts on the reservation were disrupted for almost half the year
while the village brought in the commercial take.
Indeed, when a whale or any fishing expedition was finished, the
entire village was needed to bring in the catch.
Such economic autonomy also led to some degree of cultural
autonomy. In 1891, Indian agent John McGlinn reported to the federal
government that every Makah over the age of 50 clung “tenaciously to
their own barbarous habits.” The same types of reports consistently
appeared for the next 60 years.
Neah Bay, 1865
Neah Bay, 21st Century
But any cultural autonomy had been hard fought. Between the late 19th
and early 20th Century, the federal government began a campaign
among the Makah to “kill the Indian and save the man” – a campaign
that consisted of boarding schools and cultural encroachments.
Boarding Schools (Chemewa)
Cultural Encroachments
Boarding Schools
• In 1862 the U.S. government opened the first boarding school on the
Makah Reservation a good distance from the most populated areas of
the Reservation. School age Makah children were required by law to
board at this school which was run by the federal government.
• By the late-1870s, most Makah children were sent further away to
boarding schools in Washington and Oregon, most commonly
Cushman Indian School in Tacoma, Washington and Chemawa Indian
School in Salem, Oregon.
In his article about the Makah Nation
and its effort to exercise cultural selfdetermination, attorney Robert J. Miller
notes that the federal government used
cultural and religious oppression in the
boarding schools designed to:
• “wipe out the Makah language,”
• control and "even eradicate the
Makah's culture,"
• force them to abandon their own
religion and accept Christianity,
• "withdraw the children from
their culture and families and
raise them as 'white children.'"
He additionally notes that Makah parents were arrested if they did
not send their children to boarding school.
Many first hand reports indicate that
federal agents working at or
involved with the boarding schools
worked diligently to make Makah
children into hardworking American
boys and girls.
•In 1875, Indian Agent C.A.
Huntington traveled for three weeks
throughout Washington and Victoria
with a group of Makah children
from the reservation school. As
Erikson, et. al. indicate, the purpose
of the tour, in part, was "intent on
revealing non-Indian lifeways to
these children. Yet the tour also
provided an opportunity to display
the children as exemplary products
of a civilizing project."
•Elizabeth Colson indicated that by
1950, federal agents "were able to
obtain control of almost every child
for a greater or lesser period and
place it in schools run by the
government for the express purpose
of teaching it American ways of life
and preventing it from learning
Makah ways."
•Further, Colson found that virtually
every Makah over the age of 55 had
spent some time in government
boarding school. Additionally,
almost all those younger had attended
boarding schools away from their
village which were not as rigid but
nonetheless had served the goal of
"separation from their own people."
Colson concluded that "the formative years of almost every Makah
were spent partially under the control of people who were American
in culture. All were taught English and forced to use this language
in their contacts with
each other and
Chemawa 1905
employees of the
agency....They were
taught also, through
bitter experience,
that the way to adjust
to the presence of the
whites was to hide
any nonconformities
in their own behavior
under a mask of
white culture."
Cultural Encroachments
In addition to forcing Makah
parents to send their children to
boarding school, federal agents on
the reservation spent a great deal of
time forcing Makah adults to dress
like while men and women,
abandon their cultural traditions especially dances which were
considered "heathenish and
barbarous" - and give up their tribal
secret religious and curing societies.
As seen in this turn-of-the-century
photograph, these tribal members
are “intelligent, worthy Makahs,”
presumably because they are
dressed in Euro-American clothing.
Further, federal agents segregated
elder tribal members ages 55 and
up so that the younger Makah
would not be influenced by these
elders and would thus be more
susceptible to learning “civilized”
American ways.
As Miller found, the federal
government supported these
cultural encroachments not only
to force Makah assimilation into
white society, but also to end
traditional, cultural practices that
might influence Makah children
as they grew up. To Miller, these
"attacks" were nothing less than
efforts on behalf of the federal
government to "exterminate the
Makah's identity.”
Makah Family 1900
The federal government even discouraged the Makah from building
their traditional cedar bark longhouses and instead, suggested they
build more typical American homes.
“To any but the people born and raised in them
these villages are dirty.”
Longhouse 1900
Despite boarding schools and many federal efforts to destroy
Makah tradition, the Makah responded in a way that allowed them
to straddle two worlds. Indeed…
•
•
By the turn of the 20th century, the Makah spoke both their tribal language and
English, wore both traditional and white man’s clothing, used both ancient and
modern tools, and labored in both the local and the market economies.
For instance, In the photographs below, we see a Makah dance celebration in
1941 downtown Seattle in which both traditional Indian and non-Indian clothing
are worn, as well as a photograph of cultural leader Charlie Swan performing
traditional dance in traditional ceremonial clothing at the 1945 Makah Days
celebration held annually in August. Swan wears a button blanket and wooden
mask, and he holds a painted drum.
Thus, throughout most of the 20th Century, the Makah quietly yet openly
resisted the white man’s influence and resiliently held fast to many of their
customs. And as we have previously noted, the Makah’s remote
geographical location also supported such resistance. But toward the end of
the century, the Makah demonstrated renewed resilience and resistance in
their efforts to reestablish whaling as the center of their economic, cultural,
spiritual, and political universe.
#3: The Makah are the only Native American people
whose right to hunt whales is guaranteed by federal
treaty.
• The relationship between Makah and
whales is very old; archaeological
deposits of humpback and gray whale
at date back 2,000 years.
• Whales provided economic
sustenance - oil, meat, bone, sinew
and gut for storage containers - and
provided the basis for cultural rituals.
• The ability to continue that
relationship was reinforced by the
federal government when it
negotiated the Treaty of Neah Bay in
1855.
Edward Curtis, 1915
Traditionally, the hunt
required time-honored
ritual. Preparations for the
hunt began in the winter.
Whalers went off by
themselves to pray, fast,
and bathe ceremoniously.
Each man had his own
place, followed his own
rituals, and sought his own
power. Months went into
the special preparation and
whalers devoted their
whole lives to spiritual
preparedness.
In addition to the whalers preparing for the hunt, skilled craftsmen
carved cedar canoes ranging from 32 to 40 feet to be used in the hunt.
This photograph was taken in 1914 of a man sitting on an upended
half-carved canoe, taking off wood chips with a D-adze. Once the
training and the canoe was completed, the hunt began in early Spring.
• Paddling silently, whalers studied the breathing pattern of their quarry. As the
whale finished spouting and returned underwater, the leader of the hunt directed
the crew to where it would next surface. There the men waited.
• When the whale rose, the paddlers held the canoe just to its left, their speed
matched to the animal's. As the back broke the surface, the harpooner struck and
the crew instantly paddled backward, putting all possible distance between the
canoe and the wounded prey.
• A float at the end of the line acted as a marker so the whalers could follow their
prey. If need be, they set additional harpoons and stayed out over night.
Eventually the time came for the final kill which was done using a special lance.
Asahel Curtis, 1910
The next step was to tow the whale home - a distance of only a few miles
if its spirit had heeded prayers to swim for the beach, perhaps 10 miles or
more if not. Songs eased the paddling, welcomed the whale to the
village, and praised the power that made it all possible.
Asahel Curtis took this photo in 1910 of Makah men cutting up a whale
after the hunt while other men and boys stand around and watch.
Although the Makah voluntarily stopped hunting whales in the late
1920s after the threatened extinction of the gray whale, they yearned for
a return to whaling - a return that they believed could stimulate a
cultural rebirth.
Again using both their resistance and resiliency, in 1995 the Makah
petitioned the International Whaling Commission to resume whaling.
This act is directly related to the fourth unique characteristic of the
Makah people - their long legal struggle to resume the whale hunt.
#4: The Makah have been involved in a long legal
struggle for their right to hunt the gray whale.
H.W. Elliot, “Makah Whale Hunt,” 1883
The battle begins…
• In 1995, the Makah Nation asked the United States to represent
them before the International Whaling Commission (IWC) in their
request to resume hunting.
• On October 23, 1997, the IWC approved a renewed Makah whale
hunt after a lapse in hunting of more than 70 years. The
Commission allowed the Makah to kill up to 5 whales a year
through 2002. Some members of the Makah nation began to
immediately make preparations for the first hunt  which was to
guided by strict tradition.
In May, 1999, the men from traditional whaling families who
had trained for almost a year paddled their 32-foot cedar canoe
out to hunt a whale for the first time in over 70 years.
On May 17th, they captured and killed a female gray whale.
As the news of the successful hunt spread, the village of Neah Bay
welcomed the whale to the community as their ancestors had over
the centuries. Canoes from many surrounding villages came to
help the Makah bring the whale to the people.
After the whale came to shore, prayers were offered to thank the whale
for giving its life to sustain that of the Makah and to free its spirit for
passage to the other side. After proper respect was paid, the whalers
began carving and distributing the meat and blubber to the people to taste
for the first time what had been a staple for their ancestors for thousands
of years.
The whale was butchered through the night and the meat and blubber
was either frozen, smoked or stewed.
Later that week, Neah Bay was host to the largest celebration in its
history. American Indians from all over the U.S. and Canada and
indigenous people from all over the world came to celebrate the Makah's
return to whaling.
But the celebration was marred by the reaction from some members
of the environmental community - they not tried to stop the whale
hunt from occurring, they filed suit to permanently prohibit the
Makah from whaling.
Thus, as the 21st Century unfolded, the Makah entered another
period of resilience and resistance by continuing their struggle to
reunite their culture with their whaling tradition.
In conclusion, while it is clear that several
generations of Makah children and adults
were subjected to continual efforts to strip
them of their religious, economic, cultural,
and political traditions, it is also clear, as
Elizabeth Colson notes, that through
resilience and resistance, they have
maintained many of their tribal attributes:
• The Makah and whites have "...
developed an interacting society" in
which they "live together at the
same village, work together on the
same jobs, trade together at the same
establishments, and visit together in
each others' homes" - yet still the
"Makah remain a distinct group.
• There are principles or theories
controlling Makah behavior where it
affects other Makah … and which
do not govern the Makah in their
relations with whites.
•
There is a body of traditional
associations or meanings
common to the Makah, but
not shared with the whites.
•
Finally, the Makah exist in a
political structure which is
not shared with the whites
and they continue to think of
themselves as a distinctive
people in contrast to the
whites. All these indicate that
the two groups have not
merged into one body with a
common culture."
But are these traditions enough to retain tribal
sovereignty, or does sovereignty depend, as many elders
claim, on resuming traditional whaling practices???