Joshua L Reid
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- January 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780300209907
- eISBN:
- 9780300213683
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Yale University Press
- DOI:
- 10.12987/yale/9780300209907.001.0001
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Native American Studies
For the Makahs, a tribal nation at the most northwestern point of the contiguous United States, a deep relationship with the sea is the locus of personal and group identity. Unlike most other ...
More
For the Makahs, a tribal nation at the most northwestern point of the contiguous United States, a deep relationship with the sea is the locus of personal and group identity. Unlike most other indigenous tribes whose lives are tied to lands, the Makah people have long placed marine space at the center of their culture, finding in their own waters the physical and spiritual resources to support themselves. This book explores the history and identity of the Makahs from the arrival of maritime fur-traders in the eighteenth century through the intervening centuries and to the present day. This book discovers that the “People of the Cape” were far more involved in shaping the maritime economy of the Pacific Northwest than has been understood. It examines Makah attitudes toward borders and boundaries, their efforts to exercise control over their waters and resources as Europeans and Americans arrived, and their embrace of modern opportunities and technology to maintain autonomy and resist assimilation. The book also addresses current environmental debates relating to the tribe’s customary whaling and fishing rights and illuminates the efforts of the Makahs to regain control over marine space, preserve their marine-oriented identity, and articulate a traditional future.Less
For the Makahs, a tribal nation at the most northwestern point of the contiguous United States, a deep relationship with the sea is the locus of personal and group identity. Unlike most other indigenous tribes whose lives are tied to lands, the Makah people have long placed marine space at the center of their culture, finding in their own waters the physical and spiritual resources to support themselves. This book explores the history and identity of the Makahs from the arrival of maritime fur-traders in the eighteenth century through the intervening centuries and to the present day. This book discovers that the “People of the Cape” were far more involved in shaping the maritime economy of the Pacific Northwest than has been understood. It examines Makah attitudes toward borders and boundaries, their efforts to exercise control over their waters and resources as Europeans and Americans arrived, and their embrace of modern opportunities and technology to maintain autonomy and resist assimilation. The book also addresses current environmental debates relating to the tribe’s customary whaling and fishing rights and illuminates the efforts of the Makahs to regain control over marine space, preserve their marine-oriented identity, and articulate a traditional future.
Joshua L. Reid
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- January 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780300209907
- eISBN:
- 9780300213683
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Yale University Press
- DOI:
- 10.12987/yale/9780300209907.003.0001
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Native American Studies
This chapter opens with the 1788 encounter between Chief Tatoosh, the highest-ranked Makah titleholder at the time, and John Meares, a British maritime fur trader. Focusing on the web of regional ...
More
This chapter opens with the 1788 encounter between Chief Tatoosh, the highest-ranked Makah titleholder at the time, and John Meares, a British maritime fur trader. Focusing on the web of regional trade and kinship ties, it explains that borderlands networks and related diplomatic protocols already existed when Europeans and Euro-Americans arrived in this corner of the Pacific. Indigenous networks and protocols shaped the initial period of Native and non-Native interactions on the Northwest Coast from the late eighteenth century into the 1800s. Makahs used customary marine practices, such as hunting sea otters and fishing, to engage expanding networks of exchange. Providing sea otter pelts and provisioning ships were the first examples of this pattern that recurs throughout Makah history. By exploiting networks of trade and kinship, Native chiefs controlled spaces on their own terms and frustrated imperial processes. Their ability to do so reveals that the broader processes of encounter, resistance, and conquest reshaped the indigenous world.Less
This chapter opens with the 1788 encounter between Chief Tatoosh, the highest-ranked Makah titleholder at the time, and John Meares, a British maritime fur trader. Focusing on the web of regional trade and kinship ties, it explains that borderlands networks and related diplomatic protocols already existed when Europeans and Euro-Americans arrived in this corner of the Pacific. Indigenous networks and protocols shaped the initial period of Native and non-Native interactions on the Northwest Coast from the late eighteenth century into the 1800s. Makahs used customary marine practices, such as hunting sea otters and fishing, to engage expanding networks of exchange. Providing sea otter pelts and provisioning ships were the first examples of this pattern that recurs throughout Makah history. By exploiting networks of trade and kinship, Native chiefs controlled spaces on their own terms and frustrated imperial processes. Their ability to do so reveals that the broader processes of encounter, resistance, and conquest reshaped the indigenous world.
Joshua L. Reid
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- January 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780300209907
- eISBN:
- 9780300213683
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Yale University Press
- DOI:
- 10.12987/yale/9780300209907.003.0002
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Native American Studies
This chapter explores the role of violence and theft within the ča·di· (“cha-dee”) borderland during the era of maritime fur trading. Although these activities marked encounters among Natives and ...
More
This chapter explores the role of violence and theft within the ča·di· (“cha-dee”) borderland during the era of maritime fur trading. Although these activities marked encounters among Natives and non-Natives, they were much more than the simple conflicts and acts of plundering percieved by ship captains and crews. Violence marked encounters because rival chiefs competing with each other to control space, resources, and people in the borderlands. When imperial actors entered the borderlands, they exacerbated older lines of tension, created new opportunities for conflict, and applied their own tools of violence. In the indigenous borderlands where distinct people contested over and shared spaces and resources, violence and theft were neither anomalous nor a result of miscommunication: threats and violence were mechanisms central to both Native and imperial processes of this period. Indigenous leaders such as Tatoosh used these to expand their influence and to frustrate imperial designs for domination of tribal space.Less
This chapter explores the role of violence and theft within the ča·di· (“cha-dee”) borderland during the era of maritime fur trading. Although these activities marked encounters among Natives and non-Natives, they were much more than the simple conflicts and acts of plundering percieved by ship captains and crews. Violence marked encounters because rival chiefs competing with each other to control space, resources, and people in the borderlands. When imperial actors entered the borderlands, they exacerbated older lines of tension, created new opportunities for conflict, and applied their own tools of violence. In the indigenous borderlands where distinct people contested over and shared spaces and resources, violence and theft were neither anomalous nor a result of miscommunication: threats and violence were mechanisms central to both Native and imperial processes of this period. Indigenous leaders such as Tatoosh used these to expand their influence and to frustrate imperial designs for domination of tribal space.
Joshua L. Reid
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- January 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780300209907
- eISBN:
- 9780300213683
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Yale University Press
- DOI:
- 10.12987/yale/9780300209907.003.0003
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Native American Studies
As the maritime fur trade shifted its focus farther north along the Northwest Coast during the early nineteenth century, Makah men used whaling to engage the Hudson’s Bay Company (HBC), a new ...
More
As the maritime fur trade shifted its focus farther north along the Northwest Coast during the early nineteenth century, Makah men used whaling to engage the Hudson’s Bay Company (HBC), a new commercial and colonial force in the region. This chapter opens with Makahs “pillaging” a shipwrecked HBC vessel and concludes with the smallpox epidemic, two critical events in the early 1850s. These incidents resulted from the changing nature of the mid-nineteenth-century ča·di· borderland, specifically the transition from maritime to land-based fur trade, the rising power of the HBC, and the arrival of British and US settlers. The region also underwent a geopolitical change as the United States and Britain maneuvered to define their colonial claims to the Oregon Country, an area of joint occupation in the Far North American West until 1846, when the two nations divided the region along the forty-ninth parallel. In the process, a more traditional borderlands between two colonial empires emerged, yet conditions of the preexisting indigenous borderlands continued long after the two nation states settled the boundary question. Amid these changes, the supposed pillaging of the ship and the smallpox deaths highlight the ways indigenous peoples such as Makahs experienced, interacted with, and responded to settler-colonialism. The actions of Makah chiefs maintained their control and ability to influence others. By engaging new opportunities, the same chiefs also made colonialism possible in this region.Less
As the maritime fur trade shifted its focus farther north along the Northwest Coast during the early nineteenth century, Makah men used whaling to engage the Hudson’s Bay Company (HBC), a new commercial and colonial force in the region. This chapter opens with Makahs “pillaging” a shipwrecked HBC vessel and concludes with the smallpox epidemic, two critical events in the early 1850s. These incidents resulted from the changing nature of the mid-nineteenth-century ča·di· borderland, specifically the transition from maritime to land-based fur trade, the rising power of the HBC, and the arrival of British and US settlers. The region also underwent a geopolitical change as the United States and Britain maneuvered to define their colonial claims to the Oregon Country, an area of joint occupation in the Far North American West until 1846, when the two nations divided the region along the forty-ninth parallel. In the process, a more traditional borderlands between two colonial empires emerged, yet conditions of the preexisting indigenous borderlands continued long after the two nation states settled the boundary question. Amid these changes, the supposed pillaging of the ship and the smallpox deaths highlight the ways indigenous peoples such as Makahs experienced, interacted with, and responded to settler-colonialism. The actions of Makah chiefs maintained their control and ability to influence others. By engaging new opportunities, the same chiefs also made colonialism possible in this region.
Joshua L. Reid
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- January 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780300209907
- eISBN:
- 9780300213683
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Yale University Press
- DOI:
- 10.12987/yale/9780300209907.003.0004
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Native American Studies
The rise of Euro-American power in the region brought new challenges and opportunities to the People of the Cape, and they responded by continuing to exploit and protect tribal marine space. Focusing ...
More
The rise of Euro-American power in the region brought new challenges and opportunities to the People of the Cape, and they responded by continuing to exploit and protect tribal marine space. Focusing on Makah engagement with Euro-American officials, settlers, and traders, this chapter begins by examining the 1855 Treaty of Neah Bay. Despite the emerging imbalance of power between Natives and newcomers, Makahs used the treaty to protect their rights to customary marine space. By calling the sea his country during the treaty negotiations, a Makah chief articulated a Makah perspective on marine space, namely that local waters were sovereign tribal space. Post-treaty data drawn from a portion of the diaries of James Swan, the first Euro-American teacher at Neah Bay, illustrate that this seascape remained a space of Native connections, despite the 1846 creation of a US-British borderline along the Strait of Juan de Fuca. Statements made by Makah chiefs during the treaty negotiations and actions of Native borderlanders demonstrate that the People of the Cape were trying to find a place for themselves in the settler-colonial world. The chapter also reveals that the Makah perspective on marine space challenged the emerging Euro-American view on coastal waters as both a resource commons and an appropriate boundary line dividing colonial spaces.Less
The rise of Euro-American power in the region brought new challenges and opportunities to the People of the Cape, and they responded by continuing to exploit and protect tribal marine space. Focusing on Makah engagement with Euro-American officials, settlers, and traders, this chapter begins by examining the 1855 Treaty of Neah Bay. Despite the emerging imbalance of power between Natives and newcomers, Makahs used the treaty to protect their rights to customary marine space. By calling the sea his country during the treaty negotiations, a Makah chief articulated a Makah perspective on marine space, namely that local waters were sovereign tribal space. Post-treaty data drawn from a portion of the diaries of James Swan, the first Euro-American teacher at Neah Bay, illustrate that this seascape remained a space of Native connections, despite the 1846 creation of a US-British borderline along the Strait of Juan de Fuca. Statements made by Makah chiefs during the treaty negotiations and actions of Native borderlanders demonstrate that the People of the Cape were trying to find a place for themselves in the settler-colonial world. The chapter also reveals that the Makah perspective on marine space challenged the emerging Euro-American view on coastal waters as both a resource commons and an appropriate boundary line dividing colonial spaces.
Joshua L. Reid
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- January 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780300209907
- eISBN:
- 9780300213683
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Yale University Press
- DOI:
- 10.12987/yale/9780300209907.003.0005
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Native American Studies
With their access and rights protected in the Treaty of Neah Bay, Makah whalers and sealers continued to bring wealth to their people during the second half of the nineteenth century. This chapter ...
More
With their access and rights protected in the Treaty of Neah Bay, Makah whalers and sealers continued to bring wealth to their people during the second half of the nineteenth century. This chapter focuses on these industries, demonstrating that Makahs pursued a “moditional economy” (a combination of modern and traditional) by combining customary marine practices and indigenous borderlands networks with modern technology and opportunities to succeed at a time when many American Indian communities had fallen into poverty. Their successes and capital investments in North Pacific extractive industries allowed Makahs to mitigate some of the worst assimilation efforts while expanding access to marine space. Wealthy Makah sealers bought schooners, began hunting seals as far abroad as northern California and the Bering Sea, and made large profits, which, in turn, they invested in regional industries and used to finance cultural practices that federal officials were trying to prohibit.Less
With their access and rights protected in the Treaty of Neah Bay, Makah whalers and sealers continued to bring wealth to their people during the second half of the nineteenth century. This chapter focuses on these industries, demonstrating that Makahs pursued a “moditional economy” (a combination of modern and traditional) by combining customary marine practices and indigenous borderlands networks with modern technology and opportunities to succeed at a time when many American Indian communities had fallen into poverty. Their successes and capital investments in North Pacific extractive industries allowed Makahs to mitigate some of the worst assimilation efforts while expanding access to marine space. Wealthy Makah sealers bought schooners, began hunting seals as far abroad as northern California and the Bering Sea, and made large profits, which, in turn, they invested in regional industries and used to finance cultural practices that federal officials were trying to prohibit.
Joshua L. Reid
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- January 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780300209907
- eISBN:
- 9780300213683
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Yale University Press
- DOI:
- 10.12987/yale/9780300209907.003.0006
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Native American Studies
This chapter examines the Makah fisheries of the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries, explaining that overfishing by better capitalized non-Native fishers and local, state, and international ...
More
This chapter examines the Makah fisheries of the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries, explaining that overfishing by better capitalized non-Native fishers and local, state, and international conservation regulations and agreements undercut the initial success experienced by Native fishers. These factors also separated Makahs from marine foods, as tribal fishers needed to sell their dwindling catches to buyers for cash and to satisfy bureaucratic regulations. When the tribal nation’s economic and political economy eroded in the early twentieth century, it became more susceptible to the increased assimilation efforts of government officials then bent on controlling Native peoples. However, this narrative should not be seen as one of decline, a simplistic framing that often characterizes histories of American Indians. The story of the Makahs and the relationship to their marine space does not end there. Beginning in the 1930s, Makahs—through a newly formed tribal council—fought back with various legal and political strategies to reclaim access to marine space.Less
This chapter examines the Makah fisheries of the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries, explaining that overfishing by better capitalized non-Native fishers and local, state, and international conservation regulations and agreements undercut the initial success experienced by Native fishers. These factors also separated Makahs from marine foods, as tribal fishers needed to sell their dwindling catches to buyers for cash and to satisfy bureaucratic regulations. When the tribal nation’s economic and political economy eroded in the early twentieth century, it became more susceptible to the increased assimilation efforts of government officials then bent on controlling Native peoples. However, this narrative should not be seen as one of decline, a simplistic framing that often characterizes histories of American Indians. The story of the Makahs and the relationship to their marine space does not end there. Beginning in the 1930s, Makahs—through a newly formed tribal council—fought back with various legal and political strategies to reclaim access to marine space.
Joshua L. Reid
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- January 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780300209907
- eISBN:
- 9780300213683
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Yale University Press
- DOI:
- 10.12987/yale/9780300209907.003.0007
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Native American Studies
Returning to the current controversy over Makah whaling, this concluding chapter revisits the themes of indigenous borderlands and ways that the People of the Cape have combined customary marine ...
More
Returning to the current controversy over Makah whaling, this concluding chapter revisits the themes of indigenous borderlands and ways that the People of the Cape have combined customary marine practices with new opportunities and technology. Opponents of Makah whaling denigrate the tribal nation for being motivated by a naive and antimodern desire to live in the past. Makah history, however, reveals that this tribal nation has continuously exploited marine space and borderlands networks to chart a traditional future. Modern Makah whaling illustrates that this tribal nation is living in the present and moving into the future while retaining what is best about its traditions. The current whaling efforts exemplify how Makahs are using customary practices to reclaim their marine space while protecting their sovereignty and charting a course for a particular identity in the modern world.Less
Returning to the current controversy over Makah whaling, this concluding chapter revisits the themes of indigenous borderlands and ways that the People of the Cape have combined customary marine practices with new opportunities and technology. Opponents of Makah whaling denigrate the tribal nation for being motivated by a naive and antimodern desire to live in the past. Makah history, however, reveals that this tribal nation has continuously exploited marine space and borderlands networks to chart a traditional future. Modern Makah whaling illustrates that this tribal nation is living in the present and moving into the future while retaining what is best about its traditions. The current whaling efforts exemplify how Makahs are using customary practices to reclaim their marine space while protecting their sovereignty and charting a course for a particular identity in the modern world.
Joshua L. Reid
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- January 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780300209907
- eISBN:
- 9780300213683
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Yale University Press
- DOI:
- 10.12987/yale/9780300209907.003.0008
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Native American Studies
This introductory chapter begins by discussing the Makahs’ (also referred to as “the People of the Cape”) deep connection to the ocean as well as the controversy generated by their traditional ...
More
This introductory chapter begins by discussing the Makahs’ (also referred to as “the People of the Cape”) deep connection to the ocean as well as the controversy generated by their traditional whaling practices. It then sets out the book’s purpose, namely to explain the historical meaning of the statement, “tsuhkah-wihtl”, uttered by a Makah chief during the negotiations for the 1855 Treaty of Neah Bay. The treaty, signed by the tribal nation with the United States, reserved the Makahs’ right to whaling. The book explores the critical role of marine-oriented indigenous peoples—specifically Makahs—in the settler-colonial processes shaping the North American West from the eighteenth century through to the twentieth century. It also presents an alternative borderlands history. The actions of Makahs and other indigenous peoples challenge the problematic formulation that only European imperialism produces borderlands.Less
This introductory chapter begins by discussing the Makahs’ (also referred to as “the People of the Cape”) deep connection to the ocean as well as the controversy generated by their traditional whaling practices. It then sets out the book’s purpose, namely to explain the historical meaning of the statement, “tsuhkah-wihtl”, uttered by a Makah chief during the negotiations for the 1855 Treaty of Neah Bay. The treaty, signed by the tribal nation with the United States, reserved the Makahs’ right to whaling. The book explores the critical role of marine-oriented indigenous peoples—specifically Makahs—in the settler-colonial processes shaping the North American West from the eighteenth century through to the twentieth century. It also presents an alternative borderlands history. The actions of Makahs and other indigenous peoples challenge the problematic formulation that only European imperialism produces borderlands.
