The Makah people of the northwest tip of the Olympic Peninsula refer to themselves as Kwih-dich-chuh-ahtx, which translates roughly to "the people who live by the rocks and seagulls." The early Makah were skilled mariners, using several types of canoes which they carved from western red cedar for various purposes - war, whaling, fishing, sealing, carrying cargo, and long voyages. Today, roughly 1400 Makah live in and around their traditional lands near Neah Bay on the Makah Indian Reservation. The carving of their skilled woodworkers can range in size from tiny masks to totems and giant, oceangoing canoes. Whaling and fishing have been central to Makah culture for thousands of years. The Makah are the only tribe to be granted whaling rights by treaty with the US government, in the Treaty of Neah Bay signed in 1855. While the Makah voluntarily suspended whale hunting in the 1920s due to the near extinction of whales from commercial whaling, they exercised their treaty right to hunt whales once in 1999 before court decisions blocked further legal hunting.

This photograph is a rare view of the inside of a traditional Makah longhouse around 1900. The smoke holes in the roof are open to let in light, fish are drying on racks near the ceiling, and rolled-up sails are suspended from ropes. Sealskins full of oil, various pots, baskets, a washboard, and cattail mats can also be seen. Traditional Makah longhouses were constructed of split cedar planks placed horizontally and lashed to upright poles with lengths of twisted cedar rope. Sleeping platforms lined the walls and each family had its own cooking place on the earthen floor.

The photographer, James McCurdy, was born in Port Townsend in 1872. He spent many years of his childhood in Neah Bay on the Makah reservation and returned to Port Townsend in 1894.

Caption information source: Makah Tribe website at https://makah.com
Caption information source: Charles T. Hommel, A Guide to Historical Photograph Collections in Seattle, p. 33