The Indians of Cape Flattery, at the entrance to the Strait of Fuca, Washington Territory / by James G. Swan.

Date:
[1870]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The Indians of Cape Flattery, at the entrance to the Strait of Fuca, Washington Territory / by James G. Swan. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

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    THE INDIANS OF CAPE FLATTERY, AT THE ENTRANCE TO THE STRAIT OF FUCA, WASHINGTON TERRITORY. The tribe of Indians who inhabit the region about Cape Flattery is known among the whites and the Indians who reside further eastward, on the Straits of Fuca, as the Makah, or more properly speaking, Mak-kah, the word being strongly accented on both syllables. They are also called by the tribes on the western coast of Vancouver Island, “ Klas-set,” and by those tribes residing be- tween the Columbia river and Cape Flattery, “Kwe-net-sat’h.” The tribal name among themselves is “Kwe-net-che-chat.” All these ditferent names have the same meaning, and signify “ the people who live on a point of land projecting into the sea,” or, as we term it, the “ Cape People.” There are other tribes who reside on promontories, but the Makahs appear to be the only one who are particularly called “ Cape Indians.” Geographical Position.—At the time of making the treaty between the United States and the Makah Indians in 1855, known as the treaty of Neeah Bay, which was effected by Governor Isaac I. Stevens, of Washington Territory, who was also Superintendent of Indian Affairs, the tribe claimed as their land, all that portion of the extreme northwest part of Washington Territory lying between Flattery Bocks on the Pacific coast, fifteen miles south from Cape Flattery, and the Hoko river, about the same distance eastward from the cape on the Strait of Fuca. They also claimed Tatooche Island, which lies at the southern side of the entrance to the Strait, and separated from the main land of the cape by a channel half a mile wide. This tract of country was ceded to the United States, except a portion of the extreme point of the cape, from Neeah Bay to the Waatch creek on the Pacific, both points being nearly equally distant from Tatooche Island, say six miles each way. The reserved portion, as can be readily seen, by reference to the maps of the United States Coast Survey, is separated from the main body of the peninsula by a tract of swamp and meadow land, partially covered with a dense forest, and partially open marsh, extending from Neeah Bay to the Pacific, a distance of about four miles. The general appearance of this low land, and the abrupt and almost precipitous hills which border it on both sides through its entire length,