Quileute Tribe
A nation today
Background
James Island is A-Ka-Lat in the Quileute's own word for it, and the Tribe's history translates that as Top of the Rock. The same page says Quileute territory originally ran from the isle-strewn Pacific beaches along the rain forest rivers to the glaciers of Mt. Olympus, that Quileute country takes 115 inches of rain a year, and that the Tribe's red cedar canoes ran from two-person sport models to 58-foot ocean-going freight canoes able to haul three tons, the hull design of which the page says was copied for an American clipper ship. It records two treaties, the Treaty of Quinault River in 1855 and the Treaty of Olympia a year later, in exchange for over 800,000 acres, and that on February 22, 1889 an executive order from President Benjamin Harrison set up a one-square-mile reservation at La Push with 252 inhabitants, while a separate reservation for the Hoh River band of Quileutes followed four years later. Quileute is spoken by elders at La Push and the basics are taught at the Quileute Tribal School, and the Tribe says it is one of only five languages in the world with no nasal sounds and one of the few not known to be related to any other tongue. The 1936 Constitution and By-Laws and a 1937 corporate charter recognized Quileute sovereignty, and the Tribal Council has five members on staggered three-year terms, seated from a General Council of enrolled members each January.
Where they were, and where they were put
- From
- The Quillayute River basin and the Pacific shore, "from the glaciers of Mt. Olympus to the rivers of the rain forests" in the Tribe's own words, plus the whole territory described in Article 1.
- To
- A reservation at Taholah.
- Year
- 1855
Taholah is Quinault country. The Quileute were to give up more than 800,000 acres, the Tribe's own figure for its own cession, and move roughly forty miles south onto another Nation's reservation, by a treaty the Quileute, Quinault and Hoh all signed together. The obligation is in the Tribe's own published text of the treaty, Article 2: "And the said tribes and bands agree to remove to and settle upon the same within one year after the ratification of this treaty, or sooner if the means are furnished them." The treaty's Article 1 describes the cession but carries no acreage figure; the 800,000 acres is the Tribe's own accounting. In exchange, twenty-five thousand dollars over twenty years on a descending schedule, plus two thousand five hundred dollars to enable them to move and fence land.
Visit and learn
Tribal lands have their own laws. Check the nation's site before you visit.
Parks on its homelands
Olympic National ParkThe Quileute Tribe says its original territory ran along the Pacific shore from the glaciers of Mount Olympus to the rivers of the rain forests, and that the Tribe has lived and hunted around La Push for thousands of years. Source
Programs
Quileute Language
The Tribe's language page quotes the second edition of the Quileute Dictionary on what the work has been: in 2007 the Tribal Council set up a two-year Quileute Revitalization Project to encourage the use of Quileute words and phrases in everyday village life, starting with a basic vocabulary of greetings, questions, numbers, names of things and one-liners, handed out through informal classes, email and computer discs. The site now publishes a hand-drawn alphabet sheet, a downloadable Quileute font, a keyboard layout guide, word lists with pronunciations, and audio lessons in sets of ten words plus notebook recordings by a Quileute elder.
Sources
- https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/FR-2026-01-30/html/2026-01899.htm
- https://quileutetribe.com/history/
- https://quileutetribe.com/government/tribal-council/
Checked September 2026.