The Quileute are an Indigenous people whose historic lands are on the west side of the Olympic Peninsula, in the valleys of the Quillayute and Hoh Rivers. The Quileute are not related to either the Makah to the north or the Coast Salish peoples of western Washington and the Quileute language is unrelated to any other in the world. Quileute land is directly exposed to the Pacific Ocean and receives about 9.5 feet of average yearly rainfall. To protect themselves, the Quileute made rainproof hats and clothing using the inner layer of cedar bark. The Quileute signed the Treaty of Olympia in 1856, in which they ceded their land and agreed to move to a reservation. In the treaty, the Quileute reserved rights for hunting, fishing, and gathering at all usual and accustomed places. However, because their land was so remote, reservations were not established until 1889 and 1893. Today, most Quileutes live on either the Quileute or the Hoh reservations.
From the late 1860s to the early 1890s, hop farming was an important activity in the valleys of the Puget Sound region, including Puyallup, White River, and Snoqualmie. Indigenous workers came from throughout the Pacific Northwest, Canada, and Alaska as a seasonal labor force to harvest crops in late summer and early autumn. Some Quileute people traveled all the way from the west coast of Washington's Olympic Peninsula to Puget Sound to pick hops. They relied on wages from seasonal labor to purchase goods in the currency-based economy of settlers. In 1889, a settler burned down the Quileute village of La Push while the inhabitants were away picking hops. The fire destroyed many of the last remaining masks, baskets, hunting equipment, and sacred items from before contact with the settlers.
This image shows a group of Quileute people posing for a photo in a hop field. Woven baskets to carry the hops can be seen in the foreground. This image is a stereograph – two nearly identical images printed together to produce a 3D effect when seen through a special viewer.
Caption on image: "Quillayute Indians in the hop fields, Puget Sound, Wash." ; "Copyright 1904, by B.W. Kilburn." No. 16055 in untitled series of views published by James M. Davis, New York City, and St. Louis, Mo.
Caption information source: "History", Quileute Nation, retrieved from https://quileutenation.org/history/#.
