THE INDIANS OF CAPE FLATTERY, 



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 different 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 particvilarly 

 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 

 Eocks 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, 



1 January, 1869. ( 1 ) 



