The Quileute Indians

The Quileute Tribe Mascot

CULTURE

The Quileute Indians lived in the the forests and on the Washington coast in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. The Quileutes were a peaceful tribe with traditional gender roles. The women of the tribe gathered plants, berries, and herbs and collected oysters and clams from the sea. They cared for the children, cooked, and cleaned. The men in the tribe were marine hunters and fishermen. They mainly fished for salmon and trout. They hunted seals, sea lions, and even whales! They hunted deer, birds, and small game in the forests. They used harpoons and bows and arrows for hunting and the few times they had to go to war. Warriors wore armor made of hardened elk hide.

The Quileute not only used their environment for food, but they used it to build homes, make clothing, and to create tools and weapons as well. They lived in villages on the Pacific Coast. They used cedar planks to build homes with flat roofs. Several families usually lived in a house together. The men usually did not wear shirts. They wore deerskin kilts or breech clouts. Quileute women wore skirts and cloaks made of shredded cedar bark. When it was cold, they wore tunics, fur cloaks and moccasins on their feet.

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Both men and women wore basketry hats made from woven spruce. They dug out logs to make canoes for fishing and traveling on the water. The Quileute were excellent wood workers known for their totem poles.

The Quileute have many stories and legends that are handed down from generation to generation. One major legend made popular in 2008 by the Twilight saga, was the belief that the Quileute were descendants of wolves.

HISTORY

The Quileute Tribe lived on the Washington Coast and did not have much contact with white settlers until Robert Gray, an American sea captain arrived on their coasts in May of 1792. Gray began trading with the Quileute, but soon settlers began to arrive around 1830. By 1855, they had entered into a treaty with the U.S. government. The Quinault River Treaty gave the U.S. 800,000 acres of Quileute timberland. In return, the Quileute were allowed to hunt, fish and and worship on the land. The government also promised to provide health care and schools for the Quileute if the Quileute would move to the Quinault Reservation, but because they occupied so little of the timberland that the government now owned, the U.S. did not force the Quiluete onto the reservation.

In 1882, a teacher named A.W. Smith, came to the La Push village of Quileute and tried to convert them to Christianity and assimilate them into American culture. President Benjamin Harrison oped the La Push Reservation and almost 300 Quileute Indians lived there. In 1889, a settler who wanted the La Push reservation land, set fire to the reservation and destroyed the village that the Quileute people had established there. The Quileute were forced to rebuild on their own. In 1928, the government provided the remaining 165 Quileute members a new 80 acre reservation.

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They were supposed to receive money to compensate members of the tribe as well. It was not until 1963 that the tribe along with their neighbors the Hot Tribe were awarded roughly 112,000 for the land that had been taken from them.

Since then, the Quileute have established their own government that is run by a tribal council. The Quileute gained some attention from 2008 to 2012 with the filming of the Twilight Saga. The series of movies featured the Quileute tribe as a major part of the movie plot which prompted people all over the U.S. to come and learn more about Quileute history and culture.

TODAY

According to the 2000 census, the Quileute Tribe has 2,000 registered tribe members. 371 of these members live on the La Push Reservation. The reservation is run by a tribal council. They have their own schools, health care, and court systems. Their major source of income is tourism. La Push is on the Washington Coast and has a resort and a marina. They continue to practice many customs like the Wolf Dance.

The Quileute people welcome outside interest in their tribe’s culture and encourage tourism. The tribe is small and isn’t able to generate a lot of money but is dedicated to helping improve their tribe’s future. Almost half of the Quileute living on the La Push reservation live in poverty but they are working to improve. The received $44 million to rebuild schools on higher ground and out of the tsunami zone and they continue to expand their tourism services.

The tribe gained recognition when the Twilight series came out in 2008. The movies featured the tribe and Hollywood versions of their history and culture. The tribe has mixed feelings about the movies. Some are happy that the movies has encouraged more tourism to the area. Other members feel that their culture was misrepresented and that they were taken advantage of because the Quileute did not get any of the profits from the Twilight movies and were not consulted about how their culture would be portrayed in the movies.

The Quileute Tribe symbol

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The Quileute Indians

CULTURE

HISTORY

TODAY

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