Makah Tribe

A nation today

Moss-draped bigleaf maples and old-growth conifers along the Hall of Mosses loop in the Hoh Rain Forest.
PKThundr7, Wikimedia Commons (2015) · CC BY 4.0

Background

Makah villages in the early 1800s held between two thousand and four thousand people across five permanent settlements, Waatch, Sooes, Deah, now Neah Bay, Ozette and Bahaada, along the shore of the northwestern-most point of the continental United States, and the Tribe's history says each village had longhouses built of cedar planks measuring about 30 feet wide and 70 feet long, with several generations living in each. The Tribe's page greets visitors in baɫu•ɫšiƛ, and describes the Makah as highly skilled mariners who cut canoes of western red cedar for separate purposes, war, whaling, halibut, salmon fishing and sealing, plus large cargo canoes and smaller ones children used for practice, all with sails, all landed stern first so a paddler could get out quickly. It records that on January 31, 1855 42 Makah dignitaries negotiated and signed the Treaty of Neah Bay with Governor Isaac Stevens in the Chinook language with an English interpreter present, that the Makah ceded title to 300,000 acres of tribal land to the United States to keep whaling, sealing, fishing and village land rights, and that Congress ratified the treaty in 1859. A five-member Tribal Council governs the Tribe, and Neah Bay is the central village of the Makah Reservation.

source
source

Visit and learn

Makah Museum

Neah Bay, Washington·museum

A tribal museum inside the Makah Cultural and Research Center, open seven days a week from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and closed on New Year's Day, Thanksgiving and Christmas. Admission is listed at $10 for adults, $8 for students, seniors and military in uniform, and free for children five and under. The phone number is 360-645-2711.

https://makah.com/attractions/museum/

Makah Tribe's own site

Tribal lands have their own laws. Check the nation's site before you visit.

Parks on its homelands

Moss-draped bigleaf maples and old-growth conifers along the Hall of Mosses loop in the Hoh Rain Forest.Olympic National Park

Makah holdings before contact reached inland as far east as the Lyre River and as far south as the lands they shared with the Quileute, and the Tribe's own history calls whaling a source of great pride, with humpback, right, sperm, gray, fin and blue whales among the species traditionally hunted. Source

Programs

  • Makah Museum

    At the Makah Cultural and Research Center, the museum interprets artifacts of Makah history, with whaling and fishing gear, basketry, and full-size replicas of a long house and canoes on display alongside historic pieces, replicas and photographs. The museum opened in 1979 and its own page lists the hours as 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. seven days a week, closed on New Year's Day, Thanksgiving and Christmas, and possibly closed in harsh weather.

    https://makah.com/attractions/museum/·culture

Sources

Checked September 2026.

Found an error? Tell us.