View source for Quileute

{{short description|Federally recognized Native American tribe in the northwestern United States}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=January 2024}}
{{other uses}}
{{Multiple issues|
{{more citations needed|date=April 2009}}
{{more footnotes|date=October 2012}}
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{{Infobox ethnic group
| group            = Quileute
| native_name      = {{native name|qui|Kʷoʔlí·yot̓}}
| flag             = 
| image            = La Push aerial.jpg
| image_caption    = Aerial view of [[La Push]], the de facto capital of the Quileute Tribe and reservation
| population       = Enrolled members: 800
| popplace         = United States ([[Washington (state)|Washington]])
| langs            = English, formerly [[Quileute language]]
| religions        = Predominantly [[Christianity]], historically and as a small minority [[Quileute#Religion and cosmology|traditional Quileute religion]]
| related          = [[Chimakum]] (extinct)
}}
The '''Quileute''' ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|k|w|ɪ|l|i:|uː|t}}) are a [[Native Americans in the United States|Native American]] people in western [[Washington (state)|Washington]] state in the [[United States]], with 808 enrolled citizens in 2018. They are a [[federally recognized tribe]]: the ''Quileute Tribe of the Quileute Reservation''.

The Quileute people lost their territory after signing the [[Quinault Treaty]] in 1855, but regained one square mile after President Cleveland signed an executive order creating the [[Quileute Indian Reservation]]. Their reservation is located near the southwest corner of [[Clallam County, Washington]], at the mouth of the [[Quillayute River]] on the [[Pacific coast]]. They are part of the [[Coast Salish]] people (Pacific Northwest Coast) and the [[Quinault people]] (Washington State).

The reservation's main population center is the community of [[La Push, Washington]]. The [[United States Census, 2000|2000 census]] reported an official resident population of 371 people on the reservation, which has a land area of 4.061&nbsp;km² (1.5678 sq mi, or 1,003.4 [[acre]]s).

The [[Quileute language]] belongs to the [[Chimakuan languages|Chimakuan]] family of languages among Northwest Coast indigenous peoples. The Quileute language is an isolate, as the only related indigenous people to the Quileute, the [[Chimakum]], were destroyed by [[Chief Seattle]] and the [[Suquamish people|Suquamish]] people during the 1860s. The Quileute language is one of only six known languages lacking nasal sounds (i.e., ''m'' and ''n'').<ref name="mithun2001">{{cite book | last = Mithun | first = Marianne | title = The Languages of Native North America | publisher = Cambridge University Press | location = Cambridge | year = 2001 | page = 20 | isbn = 978-0-521-29875-9 }}</ref>

Like many Northwest Coast nations, in precontact times the Quileute relied on fishing from local rivers and the [[Pacific Ocean]] for food. They built plank houses ([[Longhouses of the indigenous peoples of North America#Northwest Coast longhouses|longhouses]]) to protect themselves from the harsh, wet winters west of the [[Cascade Range|Cascade Mountains]].

== Government == 
The Quileute tribe is governed by a democratically elected tribal council, who served in staggered, three-year terms. The tribe's current administration is:
* Chairman: Douglas Woodruff Jr.
* Vice-Chairman: Justin "Rio" Jaime
* Secretary: Skyler Foster
* Treasurer: James Salazr
* Member at Large: Charles Woodruff<ref>{{cite web | url=https://quileutenation.org/tribal-council/ | title=Tribal Council &#124; Quileute Tribe }}</ref>

The General Manager is responsible for coordinating with the Tribal Programs, providing guidance and direction to the Business Enterprises, and direct supervision over the Administrative Staff.
* General Manager: Bryan Cramer<ref>{{cite web | url=https://quileutenation.org/administrative-staff/ | title=Administrative Staff &#124; Quileute Tribe }}</ref>

== Artwork and material culture ==

[[Image:These large canoes are hand hewn from single cedar logs by the Quillayute (Quileute) Indians at La Push. This canoe, nearing (4c29bba37af4487e83b8371c3df96873).jpg|thumb|Making of a Quileute canoe in the  [[Olympic National Park]], 1940.]]

Historically the Quileute were talented builders and craftsmen. Like many other tribes in the region, they were boat and canoe makers. They could make canoes for whaling, which could hold tons of cargo and many men. They had cedar canoes ranging in size from small boats that could hold two people to giant vessels up to {{convert|58|m|ft}} long and capable of holding up to 6,000 pounds. The modern [[Clipper|clipper ship]]'s hull uses a design much like the canoes used by the Quileutes. {{fact|date=February 2023}}

The Quileutes used the resources from the land to make tools and other items. In the region, almost everything was made out of wood. Necessities like utensils, clothing, weapons, and paints were made from the available natural resources. In terms of arts and crafts, the Quileute Tribe is best known for their woven baskets and dog-hair blankets. The tribe would raise specially bred, woolly dogs for their hair, which they would spin and weave into blankets. They would also weave incredibly fine baskets that were so tightly woven that they could hold water. They could boil water in some of them. 

Using cedar bark, they made waterproof skirts and hats to shield their bodies against the heavy rainfall in the region.{{fact|date=February 2023}}

== Ethnobotany ==
The Quileute have extensive knowledge of the medicinal qualities of their homelands' flora. They use [[velvetleaf huckleberries]], ''Vaccinium myrtilloides'', by eating the uncooked berries, stewing the berries to make a sauce, and canning the berries and using them as food.<ref>Reagan, Albert B., 1936, Plants Used by the Hoh and Quileute Indians, Kansas Academy of Science 37:55-70, page 67</ref>

== Religion and cosmology ==
The Quileute's belief system holds that every person had an individual guardian. They would pray to the guardian, along with the sun and Tsikáti (the universe). Much of their original religion was lost after the disruption of European encounter, diseases, losses and colonization.<ref>{{cite web|title=Genuine Quileute history and culture|last1=Schmidt|first1=Rob|url=http://newspaperrock.bluecorncomics.com/2009/04/genuine-quileute-history-and-culture.html|website=bluecorncomics.com|access-date=January 6, 2016}}</ref> [[James Island (Washington)|James Island]], an island visible from First Beach, has played a role in all aspects of Quileute beliefs and culture. Originally called ''A-Ka-Lat'' ("Top of the Rock"), it was used as a fortress to keep opposing tribes out and served as a burial ground for chiefs.

As told much in their folklore, the Quileute descended from wolves. Quileute myths proclaim that the two-sided mythical character known as ''Dokibatt'' and ''K’wa’iti'' was responsible for creating the first human of the Quileute tribe by transforming a wolf. In the beginning there were five tribal societies that represented the elk hunter, the whale hunter, the fisherman, the weather predictor, and the [[medicine man]]. The medicine man honored the creator with the wolf dance. Quileute folklore is still very much alive in the area of the Quileute Nation near La Push.<ref>Ruby, Robert H.; Brown Arthur (1986). [https://books.google.com/books?id=-7zBc-pqnGsC&pg=PA171&lpg=PA171 ''A Guide to the Indian Tribes of the Pacific Northwest'']. [[Google Books]]. p. 171</ref>

==Language==
{{Main|Quileute language}}
The Quileute tribe speaks a language called [[Quileute language|Quileute]] or Quillayute, which is part of the [[Chimakuan languages|Chimakuan]] family of languages. The [[Chimakum]], who also spoke a Chimakuan language (called Chemakum, Chimakum, or Chimacum,) were the only other group of people to speak a language from this [[language family]].

In 1999, the last native speaker of the Quileute language died, meaning the language is considered extinct, although three or four users in their 50s retain some knowledge of vocabulary.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.ethnologue.com/18/language/qui/|title=Quileute|website=Ethnologue|date=November 19, 2019}}</ref> Up until then, it was spoken only by tribal elders at [[La Push]], and some of the [[Makah people|Makah]].{{Citation needed|date=February 2013}}

Quileute is one of the 13 known languages that are recorded to have no [[nasal consonant]]s.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://wals.info/chapter/18|title=Absence of Common Consonants|website=World Atlas of Language Structure (WALS) Online}}</ref> The tribe is now trying to prevent the loss of the language by teaching it in the Quileute Tribal School, using books written for the students by the tribal elders.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://quileutenation.org/language/|title=The Quileute Language|website=Quileute Nation|access-date=July 22, 2019|archive-date=August 4, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200804145300/https://quileutenation.org/language/|url-status=dead}}</ref>

The Quileute Nation Culture and Language Committee released a language and culture app in 2021 in an effort to preserve the language and culture of their people.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Quileute |url=https://quileute.herokuapp.com/#/credit |access-date=May 29, 2022 |website=quileute.herokuapp.com |archive-date=October 28, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211028112144/https://quileute.herokuapp.com/#/credit |url-status=dead }}</ref> Efforts to introduce Quileute phrases into everyday life was started in 2007 through the Quileute Revitalization Project, by providing tribe members with accessible information on basic vocabulary words and phrases.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Powell |first=J. V. |title=Quileute : an introduction to the Indians of La Push |date=1976 |publisher=University of Washington Press |others=Vickie Jensen |isbn=0-295-95492-2 |location=Seattle |oclc=2224773}}</ref> The Quileute Nation has continued this project through downloadable alphabet sheets and providing audiobooks read in Quileute.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Language {{!}} Quileute Tribe |url=https://quileutenation.org/language/ |access-date=May 29, 2022 |language=en-US |archive-date=August 4, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200804145300/https://quileutenation.org/language/ |url-status=dead }}</ref>

== Colonization ==
The Quileute relationship with [[Europe]]ans and [[Euro-American]]s began with encounters between the Quileute and the crews of European ships. Quileute tradition suggests that the earliest encounter was with Spanish sailors who shipwrecked somewhere north of La Push.<ref>{{cite journal |url=https://journals.lib.washington.edu/index.php/WHQ/article/view/8740 |title=Quillayute Indian Tradition |last=Hobucket |first=Harry |journal=Washington Historical Quarterly |volume=25 |issue=1 |date=January 1934|pages=49–59 }}</ref> Another potential early encounter was with the crew of the Spanish [[schooner]] ''Sonora'', captained by [[Juan Francisco de la Bodega y Quadra]] in 1775. The ''Sonora'' encountered several Indians in the waters near the mouth of the [[Quinault River]]. After some trading, the encounter culminated in bloodshed with several Indians killed, and six Spaniards killed or enslaved.<ref>{{cite book |last=Tovell |first=Freeman M. |title=At the Far Reaches of Empire: The Life of Juan Francisco De La Bodega Y Quadra |publisher=University of British Columbia Press |year=2008 |isbn=978-0-7748-1367-9 |pages=25–29 |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=E8_LXicsIlEC&pg=PP1 }}</ref> While the encounter is generally considered to have been between the [[Quinault people]] and the Spanish, some authors believe the encounter may have involved the Quileute.<ref name="Pettit">{{cite journal |oclc=647598107 |last=Pettit |first=George |title=The Quileute of La Push, 1775-1945. |journal=Anthropological Records |volume=14 |issue=1 |year=1950 |publisher=University of California Press}}</ref> In 1787, a small boat crew from the ''[[Imperial_Eagle_(ship)#Destruction_Island|Imperial Eagle]]'' was killed by Indians near [[Destruction Island]]. The ''[[Columbia Rediviva|Columbia]]'' traded for furs with the village of La Push in 1792.<ref name="Pettit"/> The Russian schooner ''[[Russian schooner Nikolai|Nikolai]]'' ran aground on a beach north of the [[Quillayute River]] in 1808. The crew was killed or enslaved. <ref>{{cite book |oclc=994716538 |title=The wreck of the Sv. Nikolai |last1=Donnely |first1=Alton S. |year=1985 |publisher=The Press of the Oregon Historical Society}}</ref>

Quileute tradition has many accounts of un-dated shipwrecks. One is of a French side-wheeled [[paddle steamer]]. The shipwrecked crew lived at La Push for many years, and called the mouth of the river "La Bouche." Possibly, this is the source of the village's current name: La Push.<ref name="Pettit" />

The first official negotiations with the United States government occurred in 1855 when [[Isaac Stevens]] and the Quileute signed the [[Treaty of Olympia]]. They ceded great amounts of land and agreed to resettle on the Quinault Reservation.<ref>{{cite act |type=Treaty |index= |date=July 1, 1855 |article= |article-type= |legislature= |title=Treaty Between the United States and the Quinaielt [Quinault] and Quileute Indians Signed at Olympia and on the Quinaielt [Quinault] River, Washington Territory |trans-title= |page= |url=https://catalog.archives.gov/id/187805034 |language=English}}</ref>

<blockquote>ARTICLE 1. The said tribes and bands hereby cede, relinquish, and convey to the United States all their right, title, and interest in and to the lands and country occupied by them…</blockquote>

Article 11 of the Treaty of Olympia was a single sentence:

<blockquote>ARTICLE 11. The said tribes and bands agree to free all slaves now held by them, and not to purchase or acquire others hereafter.</blockquote>

This article took away an integral part of the culture of the Northwest Coastal tribes, the rights to possess slaves. Their culture had been focused on possessions and they had always owned slaves. Later, in 1882, A.W. Smith came to La Push to teach the native children. He made a school and started to change the names of the people from tribal names to ones from the Bible. In 1889, after years of this not being enforced, President Cleveland gave the Quileute tribe the La Push reservation. 252 residents moved there and in 1894, 71 people from the [[Hoh River]] got their own reservation. In 1889, a non-native individual who wanted the land at La Push started a fire that burned down all the houses on the reservation, along with many artifacts from the days before the Europeans came.<ref>{{Cite web |title=History {{!}} Quileute Tribe |url=https://quileutenation.org/history/ |access-date=October 10, 2022 |language=en-US}}</ref>

== Quileute Tribal School ==
{{Main|Quileute Tribal School}}
The Quileute Tribal School serves K-12 tribal and non-tribal students from La Push, Forks, and the Hoh Reservation. The school has an elected five member school board and a hired superintendent. In 2020-2021 131 students from 14 different tribal heritages were enrolled. <ref>{{Cite web |title=Quileute Tribal School {{!}} Future Generations |url=https://quileutetribalschool.org/ |access-date=May 29, 2022 |language=en-US}}</ref> The school is currently the focus of the organization 'Move to Higher Ground' which hopes to relocate the school outside of the current tsunami zone. <ref>{{Cite web |title=About {{!}} Quileute Move to Higher Ground |url=https://mthg.org/about/ |access-date=May 29, 2022 |language=en-US}}</ref> Ground was broken on July 1, 2020, for a new campus. Classes began in the new campus in fall of 2022. <ref>{{Cite web |title=QTS School Profile |url=https://docs.google.com/document/d/1n7DCsU0DzP9wbSpDp-89YHbE4h79jE3WYpIyFGi478w/edit?usp=embed_facebook |access-date=May 29, 2022 |website=Google Docs |language=en}}</ref>

==Quileute tribe in fiction==
In Susan Sharpe's 1991 novel ''Spirit Quest'', eleven-year-old Aaron Singer spends part of his summer vacation on the Quileute Indian Reservation in Washington. There he becomes friends with Robert, a Quileute boy. At the encouragement of his family, who no longer incorporate many of their traditions into daily life, Robert attends tribal school to learn the Quileute language and culture. At Aaron's urging, the boys go together on their version of a "spirit quest", where Aaron finds and saves a trapped eagle. Though he admires and respects Robert's culture, Aaron realizes that he can never be a part of it the way Robert is. Aaron's initially romantic view is replaced by deeper understanding.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Spirit Quest|url=https://www.publishersweekly.com/978-0-02-782355-4|access-date=April 16, 2021|website=www.publishersweekly.com}}</ref>

Stephenie Meyer's ''[[Twilight (novel series)|Twilight]]'' series features [[Jacob Black]] and other [[List of Twilight characters#Werewolves|werewolf characters]], all fictional members of the Quileute tribe and residents of La Push. It has been heavily criticized for its negative depiction of native people, their culture and the incorrect telling of the Quileute stories. The Quileute tribe received no compensation from ''Twilight'', despite their name and culture being appropriated. The [[Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture|Burke Museum]] created a website to combat all the misconceptions and educate fans about the truth of the Quileute tribe.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Quileutes |url=https://www.burkemuseum.org/static/truth_vs_twilight/quileutes.html |access-date=February 27, 2023 |website=www.burkemuseum.org}}</ref>

Historian [[Daniel Immerwahr]] posits that the Fremen in [[Frank Herbert]]'s ''[[Dune (novel)|Dune]]'' are based on Herbert's interactions with Henry Martin, or Han-daa-sho, a fisherman who lived on the Quileute reservation in La Push, Washington.<ref>{{Cite news|last1=Immerwahr|first1=Daniel|title=How Is 'Dune' So Prescient About Climate Change? Thank This Native American Tribe.|work=The New York Times |date=October 23, 2021 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/23/opinion/culture/dune-frank-herbert-native-americans.html}}</ref>

==References==
{{reflist}}

==Sources==
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20071222221259/http://factfinder.census.gov/servlet/DTTable?_bm=y&-context=dt&-ds_name=DEC_2000_SF1_U&-CONTEXT=dt&-mt_name=DEC_2000_SF1_U_P001&-mt_name=DEC_2000_SF1_U_P003&-tree_id=4001&-transpose=N&-redoLog=false&-all_geo_types=Y&-geo_id=label&-geo_id=25000US3030&-search_results=25000US3030&-_showChild=Y&-format=&-_lang=en&-show_geoid=Y Quileute Reservation, Washington]. United States Census Bureau.
* [http://www.quileutenation.org/culture/history "History,"] Quileute Nation, April 23, 2008
* Joahnsen, Bruce Elliot. Native Peoples of North America, Vol. 2
* Powell, James V. "Quileute", Smithsonian Encyclopedia, Vol. 7: Northwest Indians
* Silverberg, Robert. The Home of the Red Man: Indian America Before Columbus. p.&nbsp;214. New York Graphic Society: 1963
* {{cite book |url=https://dc.library.northwestern.edu/items/097ba629-ac3b-4f04-b5b1-f6d8139df44c |pages= 139–150 |title=The North American Indian, 1907–1930 |volume=9 |last=Curtis |first= Edward S. |author-link=Edward S. Curtis}}
* [http://www.u-s-history.com/pages/h1565.html "Quileute Indian Tribe,"] U-S-History.com
* [http://www.quileutenation.org/index.cfm?page=tribal_departments.html "Tribal Council/Departments"]. Quileute Nation{{dead link|date=July 2016 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}
* [http://anthropology.si.edu/outreach/Indbibl/bibNW.html "North American Indian Bibliography: Northwest Coast"]
* Leggatt, Judith and Kristin Burnett. "Biting Bella: Treaty Negotiation, Quileute History, and Why 'Team Jacob' Is Doomed to Lose" in Nancy Reagin (ed.) Twilight and History. New York: Wiley & Sons, 2010

==External links==
{{Commons category|Quileute Tribe}}

* [http://www.quileutenation.org/ Quileute Nation Official Website]
* [http://www.quileuteoceanside.com/ Quileute Oceanside Resort Website]

{{Quileute}}
{{Indigenous peoples in Washington}}
{{authority control}}

[[Category:Quileute| ]]
[[Category:Indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest Coast]]
[[Category:Native American tribes in Washington (state)]]