The Quinault lived in a three-tiered society consisting of “an upper class of chiefs and their relatives, a lower one of commons, and then the slaves” (Storm 73). The chiefly class was less distinct than in other cultures because chiefs were chosen from the whole of society, rather than one family or lineage. Wealth and skills were considered as well as family lineage when assigning a chief. However, it was more common for one family to maintain the chiefly rank for generations, as wealth can be transmitted from one generation to another. This is the basis of the higher social class.

It was custom for the chief to have many wives, as this was a status symbol of power and wealth. He was also expected to be highly skilled “at hunting, or whaling, or fishing, at war, or dancing, and singing, or canoe building and house construction” (Storm 74). Slaves were abundant in the Quinault culture, most of them coming from the native tribes of the south and east, who were considered more barbarous and inferior to the Northwest Coast tribes. These slaves rarely tried to escape, because they were captured in battles between tribes, where whole villages were often annihilated. This meant they had nowhere to return to if they did try to escape.

Marriage was an affair like trading and warfare for the Quinault. It was difficult to find a spouse within just one tribe, as kin could not be married, and everyone in the tribe was most likely related in some way. Therefore, they sought partners in other tribes. Because of the abrupt language barriers between peoples, this would also provide them with relatives and connections in the foreign tribes “for trading, hospitality, allies and peace negotiators in war, and for refuge when life in one’s own village had become unendurable” (Storm 75). After marriage came children, and the grandparents shared a large portion of the responsibility of raising children. It was a common mentality that the elderly were a necessary part of the family, to guide them and provide wisdom. They were not merely old people who were waiting for their end, they “played their lives and knowledge back into the young, so that life was not wasted” (Storm 76).

Storm, Jacqueline M., et al. Land of the Quinault. Edited by Pauline K. Capoeman, Second ed., Quinault Indian Nation, 1991.

In reference to the book, Native Nations of North America, criminalization is described as a process where people’s actions are turned into crimes. Criminalization of Indians began to occur when White society pressured them with internal colonialism and racial oppression (Talbot 203). The Quinault, a people of the ocean and forests for hundreds of years, were now the center of blame when it came to the depletion of salmon in the rivers, while the White men drained the land of its resources. Native people were the subject of extensive scapegoating throughout the 19th and 20th centuries, fishing tribes especially. The government took advantage of tribes like the Quinault and ignored the treaties made previously in order to trap them into taking the blame.

In 1855, the Treaty with the Quinaielt was established, granting the Quinault people (a band of the Quinaielt tribe) several rights and claims. As detailed in the book, The Land of the Quinault, one article of the treaty in particular stated: “The right of taking fish at all usual and accustomed grounds and stations is secured to said Indians in common with all citizens of the the Territory…” (Storm 282). In this way, the Quinault people were to have full access to the fishing grounds they had previously attended for centuries. They maintained peace for 30 years, until the opening of the trans-continental railroad in 1883. With this development, the demand for salmon skyrocketed, resulting in “an increase of the numbers of non-Indian fishermen and the subsequent increase in the harvest of fish” (Storm 286). As one might imagine, the numbers of fish in the area decreased sharply, causing the government to act against the Indians in order to protect their claim on the fishing grounds. While the Quinault fought for their rights, they were met with a “blanket refusal  by the State of Washington to recognize any kind of treaty right at all” (Storm 286). Their goal now was to completely eliminate Treaty Indian fishing because they blamed the Quinault for causing the salmon numbers to drop so drastically. In this way, the Quinault people were criminalized by the State of Washington, condemned for the act of fishing in their own territory, granted to them by the State of Washington.

Sampson, Lisa. “Official Site of Quinault Indian Nation.” Official Site of Quinault Indian Nation, 2003, http://www.quinaultindiannation.com/.

Storm, Jacqueline M., et al. Land of the Quinault. Edited by Pauline K. Capoeman, Second ed., Quinault Indian Nation, 1991.

Talbot, Steve. Native Nations of North America: An Indigenous Perspective. Pearson Education, 2015.

Being a coastal people, the Quinault have always been proficient canoeists. The rivers were their primary way of transportation because of the dense forests and vegetation of their land. They developed a variety of unique dugout canoes, each made for a specific purpose. “For example, a double bow dugout canoe, or the shovel nose canoe, was used on rivers because of its ability to maneuver the currents and slide over logjams” (James 101). They used these to fish for Chinook, Chum, Coho, and other salmon as well. When traveling in the ocean, larger canoes were required to carry larger loads and cut through ocean waves. Many of the canoes made by the Quinault could carry fifty to sixty people, and they were often sold to other tribes in need of such vessels. Traditional dugout canoes are still carved and used today, although there have been several additions to their assortment of vehicles, such as “skiffs [which are] larger ocean vessels, and modified canoes with outboard motors” (James 102).

In addition to traveling, these canoes have been used for racing since the early 1900s. Special logjam races and war canoe races have been an integral part of Quinault culture. Events today include “the skiff race, the powder-puff race, the two-person capsize, and paddling” (James 102). Races may be held at special occasions and ceremonies, including the largest event of the year, “Chief Taholah Days Celebration on July Fourth weekend” (James 103). 

James, Justine E, and Leilani A Chubby. Native Peoples of the Olympic Peninsula: Who We Are. Edited by Jacilee Wray, University of Oklahoma Press, 2002.

“Kayaking with Canoes: The Tribal Canoe Journey.” The Dash Point Pirate, 2013, dashpointpirate.typepad.com/the_dash_point_pirate_woo/2013/07/kayaking-with-canoes-the-tribal-canoe-journey.html.

For thousands of years the Quinault people have spoken their language fluently and confidently. But once European settlers arrived, they began imposing the English language on the Natives. Over the next few centuries, speaking English became a necessity, whereas the Quinault language gradually diminished in prominence. The Euro-Americans didn’t like having other cultures in ‘their’ country and came up with ways of eliminating the Native culture, such as forcing Native children to attend American boarding schools. Since the 1860’s, teachers in these boarding schools attempted to eradicate the language, punishing and beating any students who spoke it. Grazyna J. Rowicka, a linguist at Leiden University, writes that the efforts of eradicating the language “were reinforced by the formation of a tribally mixed reservation and the influx of non-Quinault Native Americans from the area, in particular after the Allotment Act of 1887” (Rowicka). Over the years, English replaced the Quinault language in most people’s everyday life. Only a small group of elders still spoke the language in the 1960’s, and by the year 2000, there was no one left alive who spoke fluent Quinault.

As Kathrine Long reports in her Seattle Times article, the people of the Quinault are not willing to lose their language. She says, “a handful of people in the Olympic Peninsula tribe are slowly and painstakingly piecing it back together — and teaching it to a new generation” (Long). They use old recordings from the last speakers in the 60’s, as well as some documents. Rowicka specifies that much of the documentation “consists of about 15 hours of reel-to-reel tape recordings” (Rowicka). Relearning the language is very important to the Quinault people, because it isn’t just about the words. The language is very much an important part of their culture and history. Kathrine Long involved several people in her article, including Chris Teuton, Chair of American Indian Studies at the University of Washington. He said, “By revitalizing languages, that’s part of the healing process… [Native American culture] is really grounded in our language — the grounding of stories, our storytelling traditions, our words for the natural world, words that describe our social relations” (Long). It is our hope that they continue to learn and decipher the language to pass along its vital cultural connections for generations to come.

Long, Katherine. “Making History by Saving It: UW Groups Keep Indigenous Languages Alive.” The Seattle Times, The Seattle Times Company, 13 Jan. 2018, http://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/education/making-history-by-saving-it-uw-groups-keep-indigenous-languages-alive/.

Rowicka, Grażyna J. “Pronominal Markers in Quinault (Salish).” International Journal of American Linguistics, vol. 72, no. 4, Oct. 2006, pp. 451–476. EBSCOhost, ezproxy.spscc.edu/login?url=https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=23953759&site=ehost-live

 

 

 

 

The Quinault were a religious people, like most Native American tribes. They had many customs unique to their culture, and when European settlers began visiting their land, complications arose. The new Americans had their own religion, culture, and ideology. Just like many tribes before them, the Quinault were subjected to criticism from the Whites, who wanted them to embrace their Christian culture. In the fourth chapter of Land of the Quinault, Jacqueline Storm writes about the relationship between the Quinault people and the U.S. government in the 1870’s. She says, “The United States government believed that the most effective way of securing Indian adaptation to the white culture was through religious conversion” (104). The U.S didn’t appreciate there being communities in ‘their’ country that did not agree with their way of thinking, and so they set out to change them. One way they did this to the Quinault was with schools. In their culture, Quinault children were given ample education that provided intellectual stimulation as well as knowledge of survival skills, natural history, spiritualism, medicine, and other practical subjects. However, when the Whites decided to supervise their education, “children were forced into… boarding school[s]… their language left at the door, their culture disparaged, their hair cut, shoes forced on their bare feet, western garments substituted for tribal clothing, and contact with older tribal members discouraged, most often banned” (Storm 127). The white folk maintained a strict education system, teaching the Indian children that their culture was both barbaric and evil, and must therefore be destroyed. As a method of spiritual genocide, this certainly worked; young Quinault grew up with Christian ideologies and shunned their old culture. In later years, treaties between Indian tribes and the U.S. were prohibited and communication was challenging. Much of the Quinault culture began to be torn away as the Americans closed in and took over the land.

Today, many of the traditional religious ceremonies and rituals are practiced on the Quinault reservation. After 1922, the Quinault Nation became a “sovereign nation with the inherent right to govern itself…” (Sampson). They are now free to practice their own religion and culture. Religious freedom is very important to the Quinault nation.

 

Daniels, Gene. “Quinault Indian Nation.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 5 Feb. 2018, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quinault_Indian_Nation.

“Quinault Indian Nation Cape Elizabeth.” Quinault Division of Natural Resources, qlandandwater.org/culture/consultations/quinault-indian-nation-cape-elizabeth/.

Sampson, Lisa. “People of the Quinault.” Quinault Indian Nation, 2003, http://www.quinaultindiannation.com/index.htm.

Storm, Jacqueline M., et al. Land of the Quinault. Edited by Pauline K. Capoeman, Second ed., Quinault Indian Nation, 1991.

Since the first European contact in 1775, the Quinault tribe lived peacefully for a little less than a century. For the most part, ethnic cleansing and diaspora did not majorly impact them the way they impacted the Iroquois or Cherokee Nations. However, like any tribe of people subjected to a new culture for many decades, the Quinault experienced several changes in their own culture and way of living.

In 1855, “representatives for territorial governor Isaac Stevens met at the mouth of the Quinault River with the Hoh, Queets, Quileute, and Quinault tribal leaders to negotiate the Quinault River Treaty” (James 109). This treaty, also known as the Treaty of Olympia, ceded nearly 1.2 million acres of land of the Olympic Peninsula to the United States. In exchange for this land, the tribe received a tract of land for their reservation, which was guaranteed to be left alone. However, despite the guarantees of the treaty, “subsequent acts of Congress resulted in the loss of Quinault Reservation land” (James 109). The most significant of these acts was the Dawes, or General Allotment act of 1887. The Dawes act was meant to divide up the tribally owned land of the reservation into individual allotments, mostly for farming and grazing purposes. All the potential agricultural land along the Quinault River was allotted by 1912, when the allotment process ended. Twelve years later, however, 1,650 new allotments were established after a federal court decided those people without allotments had a right to them. In 1907, the government “permitted allotments to Queets and Quileute Indians, along with the Quinaults, on the Quinault Reservation” (Quinault 251), after seeing the small and barren reservations of the other tribes. Afterward, other tribes such as the Chinook and Cowlitz were given allotments on the reservation as well. “By 1933 the last of the 2,340 allotments on the reservation had been made, leaving no tribally owned land remaining there” (Quinault 251). For decades, a large portion of the reservation has been alienated by the government, sold to sawmilling companies, and allotted to other tribes. This caused a multitude of changes to the Quinault lifestyle.

Before the Quinault people met the white men, their diet consisted of mostly marine life such as ducks, razor clams, geese, crabs, and most importantly, salmon. They weren’t too involved in agriculture or horticulture. They were a coastal tribe, which implied that most of their lives revolved around the ocean and what it had to offer. Even though they still maintain some of their fishing practices to this day, most of their habits have changed ever since the white man arrived, for better and worse. A Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) in the 1860s believed that making Indians civilized – or, more accurately, Americanized – “would be hastened through instruction in Western religion and the English language and a livelihood based on agriculture” (James 111). The Natives did adapt agriculture into their livelihood. They have always had a great knowledge of plants and their uses; these practices have helped sustain their people (Sampson 2003). However, their culture had completely revolved around the rivers and oceans, not just because of the food they provided, but because of the spiritual connection they had with the water and salmon. They included salmon in their religious ceremonies. When part of that was taken away from them by the white man, it caused more damage than just changing their traditional diet.

 

Daniels, Gene. “Center of the Quinault Indian Reservation on the Quinault River” Wikimedia Commons, 1972, commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:CENTER_OF_THE_QUINAULT_INDIAN_RESERVATION_ON_THE_QUINAULT_RIVER_-_NARA_-_545121.jpg.

James, Justine E, and Leilani A Chubby. Native Peoples of the Olympic Peninsula: Who We Are. Edited by Jacilee Wray, University of Oklahoma Press, 2002.

“Quinault.” A Guide to the Indian Tribes of the Pacific Northwest, by Robert H. Ruby et al., Third ed., vol. 173, University of Oklahoma Press, 2010, pp. 250–255. The Civilization of the American Indian.

Sampson, Lisa. “People of the Quinault.” Quinault Indian Nation, 2003, http://www.quinaultindiannation.com/index.htm.

The Quinault Indian Nation is a fairly small group located along the coast of Washington State, just southwest of the Olympic Mountains. Today, the reservation is a total of 189,921 acres and sustains a population of over 2,800 people, although the numbers have fluctuated drastically over the centuries (Quinault 250). Among them are the descendants of several distinct groups, the largest being the Quinault and Queets, and the smaller being the Quileute, Hoh, Cowlitz, Chehalis, and Chinook. In the past, their main source of sustenance were the salmon they caught in the Columbia and Quinault Rivers. They also hunted marine life, such as whales in the ocean, and small game in the forest. In the Quinault Indian Nation website, the writer talks about how “superb salmon runs, abundant sea mammals, wildlife, and forests provided substantial material and spiritual wealth to our ancestors” (Sampson 2003).

Like most Native American cultures, the Quinault have several legends and stories that describe the beginning of the earth, sea, and sky. One such story tells that creation occurred in three phases. In the first stage, the Great Life Giver, Wha-neh wha-neh, designed all the aspects of nature in the form of people. These included such things as clouds, mountains, rivers, oceans, and sky. Created in the next phase were the animals and birds who coexisted as equals. In the final phase, another spiritual being, Misp’ the Transformer, changed the animals, birds, and land features, and that is how they remain today. In the time before humans, supernatural creatures existed on the earth. The Great Spirit told them he wanted to bring human beings to the earth and called them “Quinault,” meaning “the People” (James 99).

In the Queets tribe of the Quinaults, another story is told. They say, “the Great Spirit waded across the river. Upon reaching the other side he stopped to rub his legs to restore circulation. He then threw the rolls of dirt, which came from his legs and they landed in the River. Out came a man and a woman to form the Qu-itz-qu tribe. The tribal name translates to ‘out of the dirt of the skin’” (James 100).

Below is a drawing that depicts the Queets’ creation story, drawn by Keith Hoofnagle (James 101)

James, Justine E, and Leilani A Chubby. Native Peoples of the Olympic Peninsula: Who We Are. Edited by Jacilee Wray, University of Oklahoma Press, 2002.

“Quinault.” A Guide to the Indian Tribes of the Pacific Northwest, by Robert H. Ruby et al., Third ed., vol. 173, University of Oklahoma Press, 2010, pp. 250–255. The Civilization of the American Indian.

Sampson, Lisa. “People of the Quinault.” Quinault Indian Nation, 2003, http://www.quinaultindiannation.com/index.htm.

Hello, my name is Ayelen Maddox. I will be studying the Quinault Tribe, one of the many Indian tribes in the Olympic Peninsula. In this blog I’ll be giving as much information I can find about this local tribe’s language, heritage, culture,  and more.

 

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