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.
Port Townsend, June 25 — Special. The Quillayute Indians of Clallam county have temporarily suspended sealing operations and gone into the smuggling business. They were not very secretive about the matter, and it was not long before the attention of the United States customs authorities was directed to the alleged violation of the revenue laws. Inspector Fisher, of Port Angeles, was detailed to investigate the charges. At the end of a week he had ascertained that the Makah tribe of Indians had and had been for years annually importing many thousands of dollars' worth of goods from British Columbia without first having paid the duty thereon. In fact it is difficult to estimate the loss sustained by the government, as the Indians themselves acknowledge that the practice has been in vogue for a long time. Inspector Fisher had no trouble in ascertaining the true situation. He seized about $1,500 worth of general merchandise which had been purchased in Victoria, consisting of blankets, axes, sugar, rope, tinware and sundry other articles. He took into custody two Indians who freely admitted that they were the purchasers, but pleaded that it was the general custom, and had been for years. The white people in the same locality substantiated the assertion. The inspector took the Indians and the smuggled goods into his charge and came to Port Townsend. The collector seized the goods, and in due time they will be sold at auction. The Indians will be charged and prosecuted for smuggling, though the Interior Department may interfere, inasmuch as the prisoners are government charges. The importance of these arrests and the discovery of a new avenue for smuggling in this manner will attract general attention on the lower Sound. For the merchants of Clallam county have lost a large volume of trade that has been diverted to Victoria. The Indians purchased their supplies and avoided the payment of the tariff by going to Victoria, in some instances it is reported, the Indians traded the goods to tourists and settlers in Clallam for money and furs.
“He took into custody two Indians who freely admitted that they were the purchasers, but pleaded that it was the general custom, and had been for years.”
Coast Salish communities had traded across the Strait of Juan de Fuca for generations before a customs line was drawn through their waters. The 1895 case is a small, telling chapter in how federal revenue law redefined an ancient trade route as 'smuggling' — and how the accused simply pointed out it had always been the custom.
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