Whether by the dangers of whale-chasing, the decimation of wars, or the importation of foreign diseases, most of the Makahs have died otf, and the places that knew them shall know them no more.
On the Quinault (pronounced Keen-nut) reservation are about four hundred and fifty men, women, and children, who occupy about one hundred and forty thousand acres. They are a degraded tribe, whom the agents appointed to instruct them have been unable to elevate to a comprehension of the ideas entertained by civilized people. Their houses are more comfortable than those of the tribes of the interior, being constructed of planks hewn from cedar or spruce, set up on end, and roofed with like material. The floor is of earth, and is a foot below the level of the ground. A raised platform, which serves for seat or bed, runs along the sides. Mats are used to sleep on. Several families occupy one house, and cook at a common fire in the centre, the smoke escaping from an opening in the roof. The women are simply slaves. They provide everything the family requires except game and fish, and make all the clothing for both sexes. Chastity is not in favor, the absence of it being more profitable. The food of the tribe consists, after game and fish, of roots, berries, water-fowl, eggs of wild fowl, and shell-fish. Meat is not much eaten, and at their feasts they drink bear-, seal-, and whale-oil, and are not particular about the condition of the whale-blubber, which they consume in every state of putridity.
When an attempt was made to establish a salmon-cannery at Quinault, it failed on account of the high price demanded by the natives for fish, they shrewdly deciding, no doubt, that it was not good policy to encourage the too rapid destruction of their food supply.
Whether from indolence or superstitious dread, these people were as wholly ignorant of the interior of the peninsula as the white intruders.
The names of the streams coming down from the mountains on the coast side are Menotelops, Moclips, Chepalis, Quinault, Baft, Queets, Ohalat, Bagachiel Killiwah, Solduck, Dicky, Quillayute, Osette, and Waach. On the north, falling into the Strait of Fuca, are Oleho, Clallam, Lyre, Elwha, and Dungeness.
