Who were they in 1775? Those who massacred the 1st explorers to step on Washington soil at the mouth of the Quinault River and left the Spaniards and Mexicans lying among the ferns? Were they the Quileute, the Hoh, or the Quinault people who lived close together on the Coast yet spoke different languages? Each was found deserving of their own separate reservations in Clallam, Jefferson, and Grays Harbor Counties respectively. The former once speaking a Chimakuan language and the latter Salishan, with populations today of
102, 371, and 2,535 respectively. Those very few who live on the Hoh and Quileute Reservations reside on land areas of a few homesteads, ~450 and 1,000 acres respectively. Leaving the Quinault for another lesson (they spoke Salish), we wonder what these peoples’ populations were in ancient times? (Historians tend to believe the Hoh once were Quinault who adopted the Quileute language.) A fierce people, accustomed to foraging along the rivers and coast, one wonders what their populations might have been at pre-pandemic levels. We wonder if a solution of the 1800s, i.e., “reservations” would be the solution in 2022 … building an economic fence around peoples so that they do not meld into the mainstream of the modern world? This writer has lived both on the PNW coast within walking distance of the ocean and in Barrow, Alaska where it is dark almost 24 hours a day in December. Yet, there might be more sunshine in northern Alaska than in these foggy, moist, and short river basins with headwaters in the Olympics. The west coast of the Olympic Peninsula is a tough place to live. Seven permanent ancient village sites have been found along the Hoh, with the other 2 tribal nations/rivers having many, many more village sites. How many were there? We wonder what composed their diet besides salmon and pit roasted sword fern roots. The Spaniards lived by the sword, and in this case, to repeat a legend, fell among the sword ferns; among those fighting for their land – whose descendants may soon have to move to higher ground.
https://quileutenation.org/history/
https://www.historylink.org/File/5690
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chimakum
https://hohtribe-nsn.org/culture/natural-resources/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hoh_Indian_Tribe_of_the_Hoh_Indian_Reservation
https://www.elitereaders.com/sentinelese-stone-age-tribe-isolated-north-sentinel-island/
https://kilmer.house.gov/news/in-the-news/coastal-tribes-may-soon-have-more-money-to-move-to-higher-ground-in-washington-state
The Quileute’s like their cousins 100 miles away as the crow flies (but north up the coast, east down the Strait of Juan de Fuca, and then south to Port Townsend) spoke a unique language with many clicking sounds called:
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