Nootka island girl, 1787. by de Saint-Sauveur, source: LACMA.
I found some interesting images at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. These come from a book published in 1787: Costumes civils actuels de tous les peuples, volume 4: Americas by Jacques Grasset de Saint-Sauveur (1757-1810). Needless to say, it’s one of the earliest publications with NW Coast content, comprising four plates and 14 pages of “customs” of Nootka Island (Nuu-chah-nulth territory). I’m not entirely sure where Grasset de Saint-Sauveur would have got his inspiration from – Cook’s journals most likely? You can see all the plates from the four volumes at the LACMA (great images from around the world), or you can read and download the entire book here. But why bother, when I extract the information for you below.
Nootka Island girl, 1787, detail. by de Saint-Sauveur, source: LACMA.
In the detail above, I am sure twoeyes will be interested in the fish, self-evidently (bait warning) these are hake, or salmon. The peculiar gourd-like objects attracted a bit of discussion in this previous post on the Webber interior scene at Nootka. That images dates from 1778, and may well provide the visual inspiration for these ones. You can see the strong similarity in the cloak style between the images. The use of double-poles to support house planks is also roughly accurate. I hear that twoeyes counted well over 2,000 preserved fish in the interior of that Webber image, a fishy fact he slapped his committee around with at his recent Ph.D. oral defence.
Nootka Island woman, 1787. by de Saint-Sauveur, source: LACMA.
These images are a bit like trading cards of world clothing. I wouldn’t place too much stock in them. This “Kamchatka Peasant“, for example, is incongruously set in front of some palm trees. All the same, the decorated hat, probably showing a whale, in the above picture is not obviously the same one as the women wear in the Webber image.
Nootka Island Man, 1787. by de Saint-Sauveur, source: LACMA.
The picture of a man above has a plausible bent-wood box in the frame. I’ve seen a number of ethnographic examples of low-rise boxes like this one, in contrast to the chest-shaped ones which are more or less cubes. I’m not sure what to make of the red and yellow hairpiece.
Nootka Island Warrior, 1787. by de Saint-Sauveur, source: LACMA.
The warrior above has a pretty fearsome club with a realistic human head. Cook was greeted at Yuquot with human body parts but I’m not aware of anything quite like this artifact! In the accompanying text, de Saint-Sauveur describes armour, and it doesn’t resemble this image much at all, apart from the feathers. My poor translation:
The Nootka inhabitants also have a specialized war garment. It’s a coat made of double and triple-ply leather … it covers the chest to the neck and down to the heels. It is sometimes covered with pleasant painted panels. It is strong enough to resist puncture, even pikes could not puncture it. Therefore they treat it like a complete defensive armour of chain-mail. [continues to discuss war drums, feathers etc.. page 258]
I suppose the image does show a long coat, or cloak, reaching to the ankles, but it leaves the nethers rather unprotected, one would think. I should leave it up to the ethnohistorical specialists to fill me in on this document.
By the way, there are also two nice plates depicting clothing of Oonolashka (Unalaska, in the Aleutians), in addition to the “Nootka” ones. Previous posts on Webber in Nootka Sound: watercolour scene, house interior, village scene.
Some words from Noota Island, from Saint-Sauveur 1787
Northwest Coast Archaeology 
The quoted armor description is clearly describing clamons, the elk hide armor made on the Lower Columbia and exported. It was worn as described. Other accounts have it stopping musket balls. It is interesting that 1787 is 5 years before the first reported European and American “discovery” of the Columbia and direct access to the local specialty. A Lt. Broughton of the Vancouver expedition ascended the Columbia as far as the western end of the Columbia River Gorge in 1792 (the eastern edge of the modern Portland metro area) and maritime fur traders began visiting the river shortly thereafter to takeon clamons to trade farther north. We have archaeological evidence for an explosion in production at contact at Cathlapotle where the numbers of end scrapers with hide working wear increase markedly with the appearance of trade beads. Hides were being processed prior to this and may have found their way north, maybe in exchange for Nuu-Chah-Nulth freight canoe hulls. Trade with Europeans and Americans also began before 1792 along adjacent parts of the coast line. The only clamon I know of is held at the Field Museum in Chicago
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bait taken, those look like herring! cool post and great news about elk armour!
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Twoeyes, I’m glad you think that. My gut reactions was herring as well.
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Hi Ken,
There’s a picture of some leather Tlingit armour in this prior post as well.
and another one of elk hide linked in this related post
That’s really interesting about the endscrapers and possible specialist manufacture? I take it these “clamons” are something different than these kinds of “leather shirts”, so to speak?
Often enough I find I’m the last one to come across something and that’s probably the case with this volume.
I found an article on St Sauveur and the “Indians of Baja California” that gives some useful background more generally:
http://escholarship.org/uc/item/6bb7x43m
twoeyes – pollocks!
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I should add, I only skimmed the translation, he specifies elk or buffalo hide for these leather armour garments. And it’s not drums, it is plaited deer hooves, the rattling of which strike terror into their enemies…. It’s actually an interesting series of observations and it would be good to track down where he got the info from.
And, it seems more proper to refer to him as “Grasset” vs “St-Sauveur”, so live and learn eh.
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Quentin and Ken: Love the clothing–looks like a lot of artist license in these finished paintings–would be wonderful to find the original sketches. I understand that sometimes artists back home take the sketches and produce these publishable images even though they did not do the original sketches or were part of the visiting group. Looks like attempts to show open twined yellow cedar bark capes/skirts and maybe some wrapped duck down on cords capes/skirts on royal people.
My favorite ethnology, which was written just 15 years after your illustrated expedition to Nootka, is by John Jewitt, as slave to Maquinna from 1803 to 1805. Talk about involuntary participant observer, but he did a good job in detail since he wanted to know as much as possible about the culture and became a proficient speaker of the language–all in the name of survival. He did daily journals, which are published, and in his books about his adventures and sufferings (which also was a play) wrote about the leather war garments. From his accounts the raw hide came from the southern Nuu-chah-nulth, from Wickanninish (Clayoquot) and Kla-iz-zarts (Makah)–no doubt elk, and probably not herds of elk near Yuquot/Nootka Sound. Here is how Jewitt described it (from Hilary Stewart’s amazing illustrated version of the journal, 1987:75-77, Douglas & McIntyre, Vancouver (unfortunately out of print for some time now):
“The chiefs have also mantles….one that is made from the skin of a certain large animal, which is brought from the South by the Wickanninish and Kla-iz-zarts [Makahs have good herds of elk in their territory]. This they prepare by dressing it in warm water, scraping off the hair and what flesh adheres to it carefully with sharp muscle (sic) shells, and spreading it out in the sun to dry, on wooden frame, so as to preserve the shape [so they get the raw, unprocessed hides from the south]. When dressed in this manner it becomes perfectly white and as pliable as the best deer’s leather, but almost as thick again….. This skin is called Metamelth and is probably got from an animal of the moose kind [no doubt elk], it is highly prized by these people, is their great war dress, and only worn when they wish to make the best possible display of themselves…..”
Thanks for sharing those amazing images. Best, Dale
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Thanks Dale. What do you think of the zig-zag weaving detail of the knob on top of the woman’s hat?
I think it needs to be restated that neither Grasset nor his artist can have come to the NW Coast. Surely they were working from images and writings in circulation at the time. But what was circulating? This is actually published less than 10 years after Cook was at Yuquot, and before Vancouver’s voyage. Very early indeed. Where did they get the imagery? I am pretty sure the girl is a remixing of Webber’s image. The cloak matches, the partition within the house becomes the outside of a house, and the “gourds” and the fish strongly match.
But what of the other figures? and where does the vocabulary and other ethnographic detail come from? I don’t know the ethnohistoric literature well enough but this seems like a really interesting example of the hunger for “exotic knowledge” and the rapid circulation of imagery. I mean nowadays, it’d be all over twitter, but we maybe underestimate the rapidity of knowledge spread back in the day. This’d make a nice MA topic for someone.
By the way, Jewitt’s journal is available online in a variety of forms though not the nicely produced Stewart version. A good edition is this 1896 one with introduction by Robert Brown:
https://archive.org/stream/adventuresofjohn00jewiuoft#page/n7/mode/2up
Or can be downloaded as PDF here:
https://archive.org/details/adventuresofjohn00jewiuoft
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there are two fantastic Jewitt documents, one is the ‘Narrative’ which you link to here, and then there is the actual ‘journal’ which can be downloaded from Canadiana.org http://eco.canadiana.ca/view/oocihm.90038/3?r=0&s=1
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Canadiana.ca is subscription only for the general public – you can see 20 free pages or something. It’s a shame. Surprised the Journal doesn’t seem to be on archive.org or on google books.
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oops, institutionalized access blinders on
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all is not lost, there’s a copy here, 13 meg PDF auto download:
Click to access 2jewitt-journal-nootka-sound.pdf
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a fun quote from Jewitt’s journal for culinary contemplation:
January 24, 1805
“This day invited to a feast consisting of fresh herring roasted. At this feast I saw a man eat seventy-five large herring for his breakfast.”
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Call a doctor, that man’s stomach would be hard of herring.
Seriously though can we believe that number? 75 anchovies, maybe, but the world record for competitive hot dog eating is “only” 69. and that includes the buns.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-23192352
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Quentin: I find it interesting that these are 3 royal women depicted–is that in the Cook expedition drawings. Certainly royal women are depicted in knob-top hats at that time all along Nuu-chah-nulth territories (“Maria” wife of Tatoosh at Makah).
I would say someone drawing this had a knob-top hat handy and saw the rows of reversed twining on the knob, creating a zig-zag look, with one row up-to-the right and the next up-to-the-left, but in this drawing highly enlarged and exaggerated. To do that you probably have a hat to work from, and note the typical technique of reversed twining on the knob to create a pattern (though again from a much finer gauge of weave). As we have said, this is someone trying to make this interesting and publishable in their public media.
I actually took the 1st drawing to be showing a temporary lean-too shelters, which are often mat covered. I guess those “gourds” I took for bladders full of some kind of oil. So maybe we are dealing with drawings/sketches not well known in the collections.
Too bad Jewitt was not a great artist! He was somewhat limited in his writings since his owner Maquinna, did not approve of his writing practice and he had to make his own inks after awhile. He also appeared to use artist license to make his story more interesting to the public–he probably was sold back to the “rescue” ship since he was not doing well at the end and Maquinna knew he was worth something and wanted to try and re-establish relationships with sailing ships. Also doubtful (and not supported in his journals) that he married a royal woman(!)–good story though and he had no doubt seen weddings so could make the story ring true.
Thanks for the references. I got permission from Hilary to make copies of her book for a 2nd textbook in the bookstore for my NWC class–much more interesting then the encyclopedia 1st text–Vol 7 NWC Handbook!
Hope you are ready for break–bet your daughter is ready for Xmas! Best to all, Dale
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Here, for example, is a 1783 publication – Ledyard’s description of life in Nootka Sound. Ledyard was a marine on Cook’s expedition. This book might have been available in Paris in the mid-1780s. The pasted in text is from the first link.
http://www.washington.edu/uwired/outreach/cspn/Website/Classroom%20Materials/Curriculum%20Packets/Indians%20&%20Europeans/Documents/6.html
http://www.wdl.org/en/item/23/
____________________________________
[We set anchor in Nootka Sound on Vancouver Island.] On the 1st of April [1778] we were visited by a number of natives in their boats. . . . This was the first fair opportunity after our arrival that I had of examining the appearance of those unknown aborigines of North-America. It was the first time too that I had been so near the shores of that continent which gave me birth from the time I at first left it; and though more than two thousand miles distant from the nearest part of New-England I felt myself plainly affected. . . . It soothed a home-sick heart, and rendered me very tolerably happy.
I had no sooner beheld these Americans than I set them down for the same kind of people that inhabit the opposite side of the continent. [Ledyard, born in Connecticut, was familiar with the Native Americans of New England.] They are rather above the middle stature, copper-coloured, and of an athletic make. They have long black hair, which they generally wear in a club on the top of the head, they fill it when dressed with oil, paint and the downe of birds. They also paint their faces with red, blue and white colours, but from whence they had them or how they were prepared they would not inform us, nor could we tell. Their cloathing generally consists of skins, but they have two other sorts of garments, the one is made of the inner rind of some sort of bark twisted and united together like the woof of our coarse cloaths, the other . . . is also principally made with the hair of their dogs, which are mostly white, and of the domestic kind. Upon this garment is displayed the manner of their catching the whale—we saw nothing so well done by a savage in our travels. . . . Their language is very guttural, and if it was possible to reduce it to our orthography, [it] would very much abound with consonants.
In their manners they resemble the other aborigines of North-America; they are bold and ferocious, sly and reserved, not easily provoked but revengeful; we saw no signs of religion or worship among them, and if they sacrifice it is to the God of liberty.
When a party was sent to procure some grass for our cattle they would not suffer them to take a blade of it without payment, nor had we a mast or yard without an acknowledgment. They intimated to us that the country all round further than we could see was theirs. . . . The houses we saw near this cove appeared to be only temporary residences from whence it was supposed that in winter they retired into the interior forests, and in summer lived any where that best answered the purposes of fishing or hunting.
The food we saw them use consisted solely of dried fish and blubber oil, the best by far that any man among us had ever seen: this they put into skins. We purchased great quantities of it [for] our lamps [and] many other purposes useful and necessary. Like all uncivilized men they [were] hospitable, and the first boat that visited us in the Cove brought us what thought the greatest possible [gift], and no doubt they offered it to us to eat; this was a human arm roasted. I have heard it remarked that human flesh is the most delicious, and therefore tasted a bit, and so did many others without swallowing the meat or the juices, but either my conscience or my taste rendered it very odious to me.
We intimated to our hosts that what we had tasted was bad, and expressed as well as we could our [disapproval] of eating it on account of its being part of a man like ourselves. They seemed to be sensible by the contortions of our faces that our feelings were disgusted, and apparently paddled off with equal dissatisfaction and disappointment themselves.
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Hi,
This is a wonderful site! I’ve been lurking here for some time, and I think at last I may have something to contribute.
The date of 1787 is interesting since there were very few vessels on the coast at that time, and they’re fairly well documented.
There’s the Meares-Douglas expedition, the Portlock-Dixon expedition, Colnett, Barkley, and Hanna.
If I were to guess, I’d think the Meares-Douglas expedition would probably be worth looking into. They spent the winter of 1786-7 on the NW Coast and are known to have had an artist on board. In addition, Meares was a shameless self-promoter who circulated his story widely when he returned to England, so it would be natural that the images might have found their way to France.
The Portlock-Dixon expedition would be another possibility. I believe they had an artist as well, though not the incentive to publish, as they were licensed to trade on the coast and not looking to generate more competition.
There’s a good journal for Colnett, but I don’t know of art.
Barkley and Hanna probably aren’t likely to have bothered with anthropology, but you never know. Few records survive.
As to Ken Ames’ remarks on clamons, I know from the surviving journals that they were in high demand as a fur trade item in Haida Gwaii in the 1790’s, and that the American and English fur traders found it worth sailing to the Columbia River as the place that they could be purchased in commercial quantities. I’m sure many communities made them, but from the trade journals it appears that the Chinook were the people who specialized in making them for resale.
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I’d somehow thought that the images were from a voyage of 1787 but on re-reading I saw that the book was published in 1787. If that’s correct, I don’t think there could have been anybody bit the Cook expedition that could have been the source of the drawings, as I believe Hanna is the next documented vessel on the coast in 1785.
I’ll go back to lurking now….
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Interesting that Ledyard point out the wool textiles at Nootka as: “is also principally made with the hair of their dogs, which are mostly white, and of the domestic kind.” Jewitt’s 1803-5 book also points out “a kind of grey cloth made of hair of some animal which they procure from the tribes to the South,..” (Stewart’s version: 1987:75). Stewart footnotes “2 The animal may well have been a dog bred specially for its wool by the Coast Salish of southern Vancouver Island and Puget Sound.”
Archaeological examples of these dogs (distinct from village dogs) are well documented and they were often reported by early Western explorers in the Makah and Coast Salish territories (see Gleeson’s Ozette dog remains studies–MA thesis 1970 and Crockford 1997). At Ozette we found abundant examples of textile weaving equipment (looms, spinners, weaver’s swords, spools and one good example of a twill wool blanket in a crushed box) so certainly a likely source of production and trade north (Jewitt’s Kla-iz-zarts/Makah group).
Speaking of COOL journals we must not forget descriptions of communities in the deep south (of Puget Sound). We report in the
Qwu?gwes report (reviewed here in this blog below) of a visit by Peter Puget and crews in rowing crafts (1792), where he probably visited the Squaxin people using this site over 215 years ago–which is the first scientific record, and since we see dates (following an earthquake that dropped the area 3 M 1000 years ago) with initial occupation at 700 years ago, this represents the last 30% of that occupation:
This was the first Western scientific expedition into Puget Sound, and was lead by Captain George Vancouver. He sent Lt. Puget in two small rowing crafts with about 20 men to explore southern Puget Sound and to record the appearance of the country, its resources and inhabitants. From the account and map of the expedition’s route, they reached the end of Eld Inlet on May 26, 1792 and were hosted by Squaxin/Squi-Aitl people at their village (camp)–very likely Qwu?gwes since we are at the southern end of Eld–wish we found some looking glasses from that time period in the site(!). I love the basketry descriptions! ALSO the description of the leather war garments (elk was very abundant in our fauna) and their processing of fur bearing animals as found emphasized in the site fauna (Rebecca Wigen’s chapter in report). I love how he does an ethnographic comparative analysis in comparing the down worn by the royal Squaxin people to how women powder their hair in his own country!
The journal is important because the entries do describe some details of the life of the Squi-Aitl people at Qwu?gwes site. However, these Western scientific observations were written with expected Euro-centrisms and biases, and must be viewed with that in mind.
“About an Hour after we set out, An Indian Village made its Appearance from whence some Canoes came off perfectly unarmed. He pointed that we were near the Termination of this Arm; which intelligence we found true; In our way down we landed for a Short time & were received by the Inhabitants with all the Friendship and Hospitality we could have expected. These people I should suppose were about Sixty in Number of all Ages and Descriptions they lived under a Kind of Shed open at the Front and Sides. The Women appeared employed in the Domestic Duties such as curing Clams & Fish, making Baskets, of various Colours & as neatly woven that they are perfectly watertight. The Occupations of the Men I believe consists chiefly in Fishing, constructing Canoes & performing all the Labourious Work of the Village; Though it was perfectly Curiosity which had induced us to land, yet that was the sooner satisfied, by the horrid Stench which came from all parts of theses Habitations, glad were we to return to the boats, having previously distributed medals, trinkets and other articles among the different families, with which they were highly delighted. The Natives had but Two Sea Otter Skins which were purchased & a variety of Marmot, Rabbit Raccoon Deer & Bear Skins were also procured. The Men had a War Garment on, it consisted of a very thick Hide supposed to be made from the Moose Deer, & well prepared. I have no doubt but it is Sufficient Shield against Arrows, though not against Fire Arms. The Garment reaches from the Shoulders down to the Knees, this however was got in exchange for a Small piece of Copper, from which we may suppose that they were not of much Value, they likewise disposed of some well constructed Bows and Arrows, in Short it was only to ask, & have your Wish gratified, the only Difference, I perceived between our present Companions and former Visitors, were the Extravagance with Which their faces were Ornamented. Streaks of Red Ochre and Black Glimmer, were on some, others entirely with the Former, & a few that gave the Preference to the Latter. every person had a fashion of his own, & to us who were Strangers to the Indians, this Sight conveyed a Stronger Force of the Savageness of the Native Inhabitants, than any other Circumstance we had hitherto met with; not but their Conduct, friendly & inoffensive, had already merited our warmest Approbation, but their appearance was absolutely terrific. & it will frequently occur, that the Imagination receives a much greater Shock by such unusual Objects, than it would otherwise would, was that Object divested of its Exterior Ornamants or Dress, or the Sight was more familiarized to People in a State of Nature & Though we could not behold these Ornaments with the Same satisfactory Eye as themselves, yet in receiving the looking Glasses, each appeared well Satisfied with his own Fashion, at least the Paint was not at all altered. They likewise had their Hair covered with the Down of Birds; which certainly was a good substitute for Powder, & the Paint only differed in the Colours & not the Quantity used by own Fair Country women. In these two Instances we meet with some Resemblance to our Customs & I believe the above mentioned Ornaments were of a Ceremonious Nature for our Reception at the Village” (Puget 1792).
The local Thurston County Historical Commission recently placed an illustrated historic marker at the south end of Eld Inlet to show we are part of the early explorations of the Northwest Coast (1790s), and not just a non-Indian occupation from the 1840s on (when the American Wilkes scientific expedition changed the name of Friendly Inlet to Eld (his mid-shipman) to remove as many British names for the area as possible–promoting the U.S. claim on Washington/Oregon Territories).
Wow are we ever getting into the early ethnographic in this archy blog….Thanks, Dale
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Since others here are drawing upon the journals of early explorers to the NW Coast, perhaps someone might be able to clear up some confusion I have about the identity of a Makah figure noted vividly by Meares, sailing in the Felice Adventurer and stopping briefly on June 29, 1788, off Tatoosh Island. Here the ship was surrounded by canoes “filled with people of a much more savage appearance than we had hitherto seen.” They were led by an individual so singular Meares wrote, “So surly and forbidding a character we had not yet seen.” His name was Tatoosh and he “informed us that the power of Wickananish ended here, and that we were now within the limits of his government…” Jewitt later wrote of a warrior named something like ‘Tootoosh’ at Nootka who ultimately went insane and died. I believe I have also seen early drawings of a character named Tatoosh, described variously as Makah and Nootkan. So who was this Tatoosh? Was he Makah, or were there more than one or multiple with similar sounding names? I thought Mr. Croes might have a clue. Thanks for any information anyone might provide, I’ve always wondered about it.
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Also Dale, didn’t Crawford take DNA samples from wool dog bones found at Ozette?
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I believe the confusion about whether Tatoosh was Makah or Nootkan arises from the difficulties the early traders had with names. If you look at the various references in “Voyages of the Columbia”, Howay, you’ll see that there two brothers of the elder Wickananish named Tootoocheetticus and Tatoochcosettle (with alternate spellings) of the Tla-o-quiat whose names are often confused with Tatoosh of Classet who is powerful Makah leader near Cape Flattery.
Here are a couple good quotations:
Haswell March 1789 “We hove too to wate for the Canoe and the Sea made fare breaches over us The canoe came mearly alongside They had no skins and told us their were none up the straits but that the Chief Tatooth of Clahset had purchaced them all They offer’d their own manufactored blakets which weir realy curious and Children for sale.”
Hoskins June 1791: “On the morning of the 29th Tootooch’s island bore east south east, seven leagues distance; many canoes from the village bound a fishing; one of which was dispatched to inform the Chief of our arrival. at four in the afternoon, several canoes came of with skins; saw a vast number of canoes, bound out a fishing in one of which was Tootooch the Chief; who came on board and requested us to tarry until the evening’ as he said fish was very plenty now, and he, as an example to others, must go to catch them himself, therefore till then he could not spare the time; when he would fetch of many skins; but in this he deceived us, for few were purchased and none of him.
At noon Tootiscoosettle came on board: he had just come from Clioquot in a large canoe with four masts; bound to Tootooch’s island, a trading. I believe this man was of no service to us, for if he had not come here, I have reason to believe Tootoch would have kept his word.”
There’s a further confusion too. I’m told by my Chinook speaking friends that “tatoosh” is the word for breast.
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Dale – South Puget Sound is indeed underrated!
Greg – great quote, and thanks David for the commentary.
David – thanks for un-lurking, stay un-lurked please! I think there would be a useful exercise in going through the 400+ other images
of clothing around the world from this 1787 volume and look for recurring motifs.
By this I mean I suspect the artists in Paris were engaged in a sort of cultural mashup – working with very little evidence they would remix the info they did have (e.g., Cook’s journals and the various publications of his crew) with generic flourishes or images of the exotic. This explains the palm tree in Kamchatka. An inventory of the Pacific places would help narrow down the sources of the original works they drew on. Anway, this is what I, in my more “cultural studies” moments, would find most interesting, tracing the geneologies of these images. We saw that a little in one of the Webber images, where a dog by the hearth got turned into a human between sketch and some subsequent engraving (or the other way around, it’s been a while).
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For example, this “woman from the entry to Prince William [Sound?]” has similar feathers and a sort of distaff sized staff-with-head much like the warrior above.
http://collections.lacma.org/node/208585
While this man from the same place has a hat that appears to be NWC-meets-Japan, and is posed in front of palm trees.
http://collections.lacma.org/node/208596
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Erna Gunther writes about Chief Tatoosh as a major Makah leader who was also called Tatootche, Tetacus, Tetaku and Tutuzi. She also shows a drawing by Cardero, a Spanish painter, of him and those of his three wives (Gunther 1972:67-68: Indian Life on the NWC of North America). Gunther recounts Meares visit in 1788 and says he told them that “the power of Wickananish ended here and his territory extended from this point south and east” (Gunther 1972:57).
In 1792 the Spanish ships Sutil and the Mexicana visited the Spanish fort at Neah Bay, Bahia de Nunez Gaona (which was partly reconstructed recently in Neah Bay with the help of Spain along with a Makah Veteran’s Park through the efforts and land donation by Makah Elder Ed Claplanhoo. Ed was Chair when he contacted Dick Daugherty about the Ozette site eroding and being vandalized and setting up a partnership with WSU in the wet site rescue excavations. Ed passed away recently and at his Memorial they read a letter of thank you from the King of Spain(!)).
Getting back to Tatoosh, he asked and got invited to sail with the Spanish ships in 1792 for a visit at Esquimault, showing his connections to Salish that far east (Gunther 1972;68-71). Makahs were ideally situated for trade north, south and east making them a unique hub of trade and possibly the most influential Nuu-chah-nulth community–Jewett certainly described them as having the most warriors (1000) of any Nuu-chah-nulth (Maquinna, his owner, had 500 and Wickananish had 700). I spend a far amount of time trying to recognize this Makah long-term influence in the Nuu-chah-nulth region in my conclusions to the Hoko River Rockshelter volume (Croes 2005:233-236) and will link that summary chapter here if you want to see those 3 pages (pp. 233-236): https://www.dropbox.com/s/x2ytzuidjb3zxmv/PART%203%20Hoko%20RS%20Chpt%206%20Conclusions%20and%20References.pdf .
Another aspect to remember is that these royal names are passed down, so the Maquinna Cook meet in 1778 was probably the father of Maquinna who owned Jewett. Maquinna is in Yuquot today, through inheritance, so these chiefs described by trading vessels could be different individuals through time. I never heard about Tatoosh going insane, but certainly Jewett describes how at Yuquot chief, Tootoosch, went insane (which could be the reason you thought it was Tatoosh, but it was this Yuquot warrior with a similar name).
Happy Holiday break to all! Dale
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Wow, I’m glad I asked, what terrific information! I was quite sure the Yuquot Tootoosch was a different fellow than the Makah Tatoosh, since the time frame was different (Meares vs. Jewitt), but the similarity of the names added to the confusion. Anyhow, thank you Dr. Croes and Mr. Cottrell, I really appreciate the info. Happy Holidays!
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Jewitt was asked how they treated madness in his country and he told Maquinna that whipping the person was a technique. Maquinna told him and Thompson to try it, which Thompson readily did, just making Tootoosch freak out more….so much for Western methods for treating mental illness….
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