The Sea Is My Country: The Maritime World of the Makahs

The Henry Roe Cloud Series on American Indians and Modernity

by Joshua L. Reid

The first full-scale history of the Makah people of the Pacific Northwest, whose culture and identity are closely bound to the sea

For the Makahs, a tribal nation at the most northwestern point of the contiguous United States, a deep relationship with the sea is the locus of personal and group identity. Unlike most other indigenous tribes whose lives are tied to lands, the Makah people have long placed marine space at the center of their culture, finding in their own waters the physical and spiritual resources to support themselves. This book is the first to explore the history and identity of the Makahs from the arrival of maritime fur-traders in the eighteenth century through the intervening centuries and to the present day.
 
Joshua L. Reid discovers that the “People of the Cape” were far more involved in shaping the maritime economy of the Pacific Northwest than has been understood. He examines Makah attitudes toward borders and boundaries, their efforts to exercise control over their waters and resources as Europeans and then Americans arrived, and their embrace of modern opportunities and technology to maintain autonomy and resist assimilation. The author also addresses current environmental debates relating to the tribe’s customary whaling and fishing rights and illuminates the efforts of the Makahs to regain control over marine space, preserve their marine-oriented identity, and articulate a traditional future.

Genres: History, Indigenous, Nonfiction, Anthropology, Academic, Nature, Sociology

416 pages, Paperback

First published May 26, 2015

Reviews

[Paloma · Rating 4 out of 5]

pretty interesting but boy am i glad to be done

[Katherine · Rating 4 out of 5]

read this for research of my college essay on the makah and whaling. it's a pretty good modern source and covers the early era and into modern issues in the 60s, 90's and within the few years around the 2010's

[Angela Gyurko · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a scholarly, well-researched, well-sourced, highly documented history of the indigenous inhabitants of the northwestern part of the Olympic Peninsula and Puget Sound covering the time period from the late 1700s-1970s, focusing primarily on those inhabitants now known as the Makah Nation. An adaptation of Reid's PhD thesis, it draws on written documents of white travelers to the area and indigenous oral histories, and is dense with facts, examples, transcriptions of names and terms into the local languages, and detailed geographies that explain how the indigenous people of the Salish Sea navigated these waters.

At several points in the first half of the book, I laughed out loud. The indigenous people of the northwest had some good times vexing the earliest travelers to Puget Sound, all of whom were looking for the fabled Northwest Passage.

But the book becomes more serious as the colonists begin to outnumber the natives and begin to oppress the original inhabitants of the area, stealing their traditional lands, plundering the seas in the Makah's traditional fishing areas, and basically trashing the marine ecosystem despite the Makah telling them, "Yeah, don't do that. Umm... that's never going to work out here. Umm... if you keep doing that everything will die off. Can you please stop doing that?"

Reading example after example of how the white people screwed over the Makah should be mandatory for everyone wanting to run for political office.

I greatly appreciate the campground run by the Makah Nation, which allows people to visit the majestic land they inhabit. I purchased this book at the gift store at the museum, which is a great accompaniment to this book.

P.S. The USG should compensate the Makah for the schooners seized and destroyed in the 1920s.

[Travis · Rating 4 out of 5]

A thorough history of the Macah people told from their perspective. Covers the time from pre-contact to the modern-day including the controversial 1999 hunting of a whale. Explores how the Macah people were able to maintain agency and sovereignty through their access to the Sea. Thoroughly enjoyed this eye-opening telling of an often overlooked aspect of American history.

[Maria · Rating 4 out of 5]

Insightful history of the Makah people, sad but not one-sidedly tragic.

[Ellie Price · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was desperate to read more about my history and the Makah tribe but this book was very dry and I had a hard time making any progress. I did not finish.

[Bella]

for school. will not be reviewing.

[MacQuaid Hiller]

The Sea Is My Country is an incredible dive into the history of the Makah nation of the northwest Olympic Peninsula and the greater borderlands region. It covers history from roughly the beginning of interaction with whites to the modern day, as well as introducing the ideas of borderlands theory and intentionally orienting that history towards the sea, the primary area of Makah economic and social interaction. If you ever thought that your high school Native history education was surface level or otherwise lacking, you'll love this book. It goes incredibly deep into the people and goings on at Cape Flattery, from inter-House wars to some of the most detailed discussion of trade I've ever read. As far as Native history goes it's really a very hopeful book, mirroring how Makahs have always managed to find ways to work within or meld colonial institutions to their needs. It also touches on ideas that impact all the Native peoples of Washington, and despite being primarily a deep dive into the Makahs it also introduces and explores a number of concepts useful in study of all tribal nations. Also I had this professor last quarter and have him again next quarter, he's great, probably the best lecturer I've ever had and a really cool guy.