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| Year | Stories |
|---|---|
| 1861 | 3 |
| 1876 | 3 |
| 1882 | 2 |
| 1885 | 2 |
| 1893 | 1 |
| 1894 | 3 |
| 1895 | 2 |
16 stories matching makah
- The Makah Nation’s First Harvest of Grass
In an era defined by displacement, a small group of Makah Indians surprised Port Townsend residents by arriving with scythes to offer their labor in the local hay fields.
- Makah Sealers Face Forfeiture
Federal authorities move to seize two schooners owned by Makah sealers for violating international sealing regulations off Cape Flattery.
- A War Party Among the Makah
James G. Swan recounts the violent return of a Makah war party to Neah Bay after a retaliatory expedition against the Elwha people near Dungeness.
- The Makah Nation’s Fleet Challenges the Seal Hunters
With firearms banned, the Makah sealers of Neah Bay turn to traditional hunting methods, outmaneuvering white commercial competitors.
- The Murder of Chief Swell
A faithful ally to white settlers is murdered in a cold-blooded territorial dispute, exposing the impotence of the Indian Agency.
- The Makah Mariners Who Returned from the Spirit Land
Two sailors picked up 600 miles out at sea by the bark Buena Vista were thought dead, only to reappear at Neah Bay to a hero's welcome.
- The Makah Sealers’ Schooner Controversy
A bureaucratic fight over whether tribal sealers can legally use schooners as refuge during dangerous Bering Sea storms.
- The Search for a Proper Resting Place
When Seattle officials sought a name for a new city cemetery in 1885, they turned to Makah traditions to find a title befitting the 'land of the hereafter.'
- The Neah Bay Standoff: A Battle over Tribal Land Sovereignty
When the government sent an Indian agent to clear traders off the Makah Reservation, a local legal battle exposed the deep friction between federal authority and corporate interests.
- The First Scythes: Makah Men Arrive in Port Townsend Looking for Work
Five men from Neah Bay came to town in 1876 to hire themselves out as mowers. A local editor praised their tools—and exposed the era's patronizing ideas about 'civilizing' Native people.
- The Great Stink of 1882
When Makah schoolgirls in Neah Bay proved to their matron that rotting whale blubber smelled better than imported Limburger cheese.
- Life on the Edge of the World: A Dispatch from Tatoosh Island
A rare 1861 account of the desolate, storm-battered lives of lighthouse keepers and their interactions with the Makah people at the entrance to the Strait of Juan de Fuca.
- The Neah Bay Sealing Fleet Returns
Local Makah hunters report a windfall catch during the seal migration, demonstrating the significance of traditional maritime economies.
- The Quillayute and Makah Had Been Trading Across the Strait for Years. Then the Customs Inspector Arrived.
Inspector Fisher of Port Angeles seized $1,500 in blankets, sugar, rope and tinware bought in Victoria, and arrested two Quillayute men who freely admitted the practice — and pleaded it was the custom of years.
- A Settler's Bullet at Ozette: A Killing Over Four Sealskins
A German homesteader shoots a Makah man near Neah Bay, and the tribes of the Olympic Peninsula begin to talk about taking revenge.
- A Potlatch at Neah Bay: Blankets, Money, and a Makah Celebration
A newspaper correspondent visits a Makah potlatch and finds hundreds gathered, a wealthy widow, and gifts of cash and blankets distributed to friends and relations.