thumb|right|Klallam chief Chitsamanhan and his wife, ca. 1884

The Klallam (; also known as the S'Klallam or Clallam) are a Coast Salish people Indigenous to the northern Olympic Peninsula. The language of the Klallam is the Klallam language (), a language closely related to the North Straits Salish languages. The Klallam are today citizens of four recognized bands: Three federally-recognized tribes in the United States and one band government in Canada. Two Klallam tribes, the Jamestown S'Klallam and Lower Elwha Klallam, live on the Olympic Peninsula, and one, the Port Gamble S'Klallam, on the Kitsap Peninsula in Washington state. In Canada, the Scia'new First Nation is based at Becher Bay on southern Vancouver Island in British Columbia.

Name and etymology

The Klallam-language name for the tribe is (meaning "strong people"). According to the oral history of the Klallam, the name was earned after the tribe won a challenge around hoisting a log onto a house. They put the log in the water, and then floated it onto their shoulders. When they came back with the log, other tribes started cheering "strong people".

There exists a wide variety of English spellings including "Chalam", "Clalam", "Clallem", "Clallum", "Khalam", "Klalam", "Noodsdalum", "Nooselalum", "Noostlalum", "Tlalum", "Tlalam", "Wooselalim", "S'Klallam", "Ns'Klallam", "Klallam" and "Clallam". "Clallam" was used by the Washington Territory legislature in 1854 when it created Clallam County. The following year "S'klallam" was used in the Point No Point Treaty. In the following decades the simpler "Klallam" or "Clallam" predominated in the media and research literature. In 1981 "S'Klallam" was used when the United States Department of the Interior officially recognized the Lower Elwha, Jamestown, and Port Gamble (or Little Boston) tribes.

In local media today "Clallam" is usually used to refer to Clallam County, Washington. It is also used in the names of a number of non-native commercial enterprises. The spellings with 'K' are used to refer to the native peoples. The Lower Elwha tribe has adopted "Klallam" as its official spelling. The Port Gamble and Jamestown tribes have adopted "S'Klallam" as their official spelling.

History

Pre-Contact

thumb|right|Klallam pole for netting ducks, Mount Rainier as seen from [[Admiralty Inlet, in engraving made in 1792 by John Sykes]]

Before the arrival of Europeans to the Pacific Northwest the territory inhabited by the Klallam stretched across the north coast of the Olympic Peninsula from the mouth of the Hoko River on the west to Port Discovery Bay on the east. There were also some Klallam living across the Strait of Juan de Fuca on Vancouver Island, in or near today's Saanich, Sooke, and Beecher Bay. Klallam villages were mostly located along the coast, while some villages were inland along rivers, inlets or large lakes.

Based on early interviews of tribal elders by early ethnologists and anthropologists, the estimated number of Klallam villages has ranged from ten to over thirty, with some ambiguity in distinguishing permanent from seasonal settlements, and some villages with mixed or disputed tribal identity.

While language and tradition united the Klallam people, there were extensive trade, inter-marriage, and other forms of cooperation between the Klallam and surrounding tribes.

Like many other indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest coast, the Klallam held potlatches, which played a large role in determining social status.

The first white settler of Port Townsend arrived in 1850. That same year the Klallam chief Chetzemoka, known as the Duke of York—many Klallam were given royal names by whites who had difficulty pronouncing Klallam names—was taken by a ship captain on a visit to San Francisco, returning very impressed. In the early 1850s many settlers came to Port Townsend and elsewhere in the region. By 1853 there were sawmills operating at Port Townsend, Port Gamble, and Port Ludlow. A small settlement was established in Klallam territory near Dungeness Spit and present-day Sequim. These early settlers, who lived in conditions little better, or worse than the Klallam, began selling large amounts of liquor to the Klallam, which quickly had deleterious effects.

Diet

thumb|right|Klallam men on beach with the Shaker church in the background, [[Jamestown, Washington, ca. 1903]]

The lands, rivers, marine waters, and beaches in Klallam territory provided an abundant, year-round supply of food. Strategic intertribal marriages and agreements also allowed them permission to hunt or forage outside their homeland. Though their diet included large and small land game, sea fowl, and shellfish, the most important source of food was fish. Salmon still plays a significant nutritional and spiritual role in the Klallam culture.

The Klallam fished year round using a variety of tools and techniques particular to the species, location, and season. They were known to use traps, trolling, gillnets, spears, rakes, dip nets, and holes dug in the beach. Specific locations were known to produce certain fishes at the right time of year, and special implements and skills were employed for a successful catch.

Ethnobotany

They apply a poultice of the smashed flowers of Viola adunca to the chest or side for pain.

Tribal groups

  • Lower Elwha Tribal Community of the Lower Elwha Reservation, Washington
  • Jamestown S'Klallam Tribe of Washington
  • Port Gamble Indian Community of the Port Gamble Reservation, Washington
  • Scia'new First Nation (Becher Bay Indian Band), Vancouver Island, British Columbia

Schools

The Klallam tribes do not operate their own schools.

Lower Elwha Klallam children are offered a Klallam cultural and language immersion program at the Lower Elwha Klallam Head Start. Older children are provided with Klallam language and tribal history courses at Dry Creek Elementary School, Stevens Middle School and Port Angeles High School, where most Lower Elwha Klallam children attend school.

A majority of Jamestown S'Klallam children attend Sequim School District schools.

A majority of Port Gamble S'Klallam children attend schools in the North Kitsap School District in the Kingston area.

See also

  • Tse-whit-zen, an ancient Klallam village unearthed in 2004 in Port Angeles, Washington
  • Coast Salish
  • Clallam (steamboat)

References

Further reading

  • Boyd, Colleen E. 2009 "You see your culture coming out of the ground like a power": Uncanny Encounters in Time and Space on the Northwest Coast. Ethnohistory 56(4): 699–732.
  • Boyd, Colleen E. 2009 "The Indians themselves are greatly enthused": The Wheeler-Howard Act and the Reorganization of Klallam Space. The Journal of Northwest Anthropology 43(1):3–26.
  • Boyd, Colleen E. 2006 "That government man tried to poison all the Klallam Indians": Metanarratives of History and Colonialism on the Central Northwest Coast. Ethnohistory 53(2):331–354
  • Boyd, Colleen E. 2006 "Oral Traditions of the Pacific Northwest." In American Indian Religious Traditions: an Encyclopedia, Suzanne Crawford and Dennis Kelley, eds. pp. 663–672. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO
  • Available here through the Washington State Library's Classics in Washington History collection.
  • Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe
  • Jamestown S'Klallam Tribe
  • Elaine Grinnell, Klallam storyteller and basket & drum maker
  • Washington Post: "Northwest Tribe Struggles to Revive Its Language"
  • Klallam language
  • Thomas Charles Sr.
  • S'Klallam or Klallam <small>(Olympic National Park)</small>
  • S'Klallam Tribe
  • Tribes of the Olympics
  • University of Washington Libraries Digital Collections – The Pacific Northwest Olympic Peninsula Community Museum A web-based museum showcasing aspects of the rich history and culture of Washington State's Olympic Peninsula communities. Features cultural exhibits, curriculum packets and a searchable archive of over 12,000 items that includes historical photographs, audio recordings, videos, maps, diaries, reports and other documents.