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INDIAN NOTES 
 AND MONOGRAPHS 
 
 Edited by F. W. Hodge 
 
 A SERIES OF PUBLICA- 
 TIONS RELATING TO THE 
 AMERICAN ABORIGINES 
 
 HOW THE MAKAH OBTAINED 
 
 POSSESSION OF CAPE 
 
 FLATTERY 
 
 TOLD BY 
 
 ALBERT IRVINE 
 
 TRANSLATED BY 
 
 LUKE MARK I STUN 
 
 NEW YORK 
 
 MUSEUM OF THE AMERICAN INDIAN 
 
 HEYK FOUNDATION 
 
 1921 
 

HOW THE MAKAH OB- 
 TAINED POSSESSION OF 
 CAPE FLATTERY 
 
 TOLD BY 
 
 ALBERT IRVINE 
 
 TRANSLATED BY 
 
 LUKE MARKISTUN 
 
HOW THE MAKAH OBTAINED 
 
 POSSESSION OF CAPE 
 
 FLATTERY 
 
 Told by Albert Irvine 
 
 Translated by Luke ]\L\rkistun 
 
 HIS Xeah bay was owned by the 
 Xitinat, together with Tatoosh 
 island. There was a man who 
 went out from this village here, 
 out on the road leading south from the 
 village, and on the trail he met a man who 
 lived out in the woods, a wild man. One 
 of his feet was bigger than the other, one 
 big and one small, of this man. When 
 he got up to the wild man he lost all his 
 senses, also his breath. When this man 
 came to, he became the strongest man in 
 the village. 
 
 INDIAN NOTES 
 
6 
 
 THE MAKAH 
 
 
 At this time the Makahs heard about 
 this man that got the strength (the 
 Makahs were from Waatcht, Sooes, and 
 Ozette), so they came over here to have a 
 hair-pulling contest. One of the Makahs 
 challenged the man that had the strength, 
 but he refused: he wanted to try with 
 one of the slaves. So the Nitinat let 
 him and the Makah (slave) come out; 
 he belonged to one of the chieftains of the 
 Makahs. So they had the hair-pulling 
 contest and in the contest the Makah 
 got his neck [head] twisted right off, 
 which killed him. 
 
 After this time, five girls went across 
 from Ozette village to Ozette island. 
 They were going out picking licorice- 
 roots, and when they were going home 
 from the island, a storm came up and 
 these girls drifted on to Tatoosh island 
 and there became slaves to the Nitinats. 
 Then the Makah tribe found out that 
 they were drifted to Tatoosh island and 
 asked to buy these girls from them; they 
 bought back four, missing one. 
 
 Then they had council together and 
 
 
 INDIAN NOTES 
 
CAPE FLATTERY 
 
 said: "It is enough, what the Nitinats 
 have done to us! They have twisted 
 off the head of one of us and made slaves 
 of our girls. Let us make war with 
 them!" So they made war with these 
 Nitinats. They made their first attack 
 at Tatoosh island; they fought without 
 any firearms, no powder. They had 
 bows and arrows, also spears. So they 
 were standing close to each other during 
 this fight. There was great slaughter on 
 both sides. When they got back home, 
 that is, the Ozettes, they left two canoes 
 on guard; if the Nitinats would attack 
 them, they had these canoes day after 
 day on guard. If any of the canoes 
 should go from Tatoosh to Ozette they 
 were going to have these canoes go out 
 and slaughter them. These Nitinats 
 moved away from the island on account 
 of being killed off so easily on that 
 Tatoosh island, therefore they moved to 
 the mainland, where they call Deah, 
 where a person may see these shells and 
 clam-beds around here, that was from 
 the time when the Nitinats were here. 
 
 AND MONOGRAPHS 
 
THE MAKAH 
 
 Now this gave a chance for the Ozettes, 
 Sooes, and Waatcht people to get to- 
 gether and come over and attack these 
 Xitinats. They fought on this ground. 
 The Alakahs had a council over these war 
 affairs, and said, "We'll never give up 
 fighting for the place!" They were 
 going to fight till they drove the Nitinats 
 out of the place. The Nitinats found 
 out that they were losing, so they tried 
 to make peace. They asked the chief 
 of the Makahs' daughter to marry their 
 chief, so they wouldn't fight any more. 
 
 There were a brother and a sister 
 among these Ozettes. They had noses, 
 ears, and hair just alike. After they had 
 this council, it was suggested that this 
 young man should go in the place of his 
 sister. This man's name was Wutswud. 
 Now, he left word that he would be gone 
 four days; it was this man that went as a 
 young girl. When this young man's 
 father brought him over to the Nitinats. 
 Wutswud got a knife and cut himself in 
 the groin, and when he got together with 
 the man that he married, he reached 
 
 INDIAN NOTES 
 
CAPE FLATTERY 
 
 9 
 
 down where he had cut himself and 
 showed his bloody hand to the husband 
 and told him not to sleep with him for 
 that reason. 
 
 Now, after the three days, on the fourth 
 day he wanted him close alongside of 
 him and hugged him pretty close. Dur- 
 ing the night he [W'utswud] felt around 
 for the husband to find out whether he 
 was asleep. When he found he was 
 sound asleep, he went for the door to 
 open it, then he came back. He got 
 hold of this Nitinat who was next to the 
 chief and cut his throat. He took the 
 head off and carried it along with him. 
 This Nitinat chief's name was Watl- 
 wiekoos. 
 
 On the fourth day they were on the 
 lookout for this man to make his appear- 
 ance. Truly enough, he appeared and 
 showed that he had the head, which he 
 showed by making a zigzag on the beach. 
 This was a signal for the Ozette Indians. 
 So the Nitinats moved to Tatoosh again, 
 and had only one chief this time. So the 
 Makahs got together and made an 
 
 
 AND MONOGRAPHS 
 
 

 
 10 
 
 THE MAKAH 
 
 
 attack on the Nitinats which were on 
 Tatoosh island, slaughtering a good 
 many, but they did not get the chief. 
 The Ozettes went back home, and during 
 the night the Sooes came up toward the 
 cape and hid themselves in the coves 
 there for that day. They saw a canoe 
 out between Kitidit [Duncan rock] and 
 Tatoosh island, and in it was the chief 
 of the Nitinats. So they paddled off 
 from their hiding place to capture this 
 man who was out fishing. They had 
 paddled quite a way out before the folks 
 on Tatoosh island discovered that there 
 were war-canoes coming, so they called 
 out and gave the w^arning from the 
 island to the man who was out fishing, 
 shouting, "Here come the war-canoes!" 
 They called out like that two or three 
 times, so the man out fishing paddled for 
 the island and met them just as they were 
 close to the cape as you go into the land- 
 ing place. The man that was out fishing 
 jumped from the canoe to the shore; 
 while he was going up the rocks, they 
 threw a spear at him. He was hit, not 
 
 
 INDIAN NOTES 
 
 BD 14.8^ 
 
CAPE FLATTERY 
 
 through his body, but through his 
 blanket that he wore, and they i)ulled 
 him down from there and killed him. 
 This chief's name was Kitlcheduk. 
 
 Their chiefs were killed, and they 
 stayed two days packing up. They did 
 not move across at first when they moved 
 out of here; they moved up the sound 
 [east]. 
 
 The Makahs captured at this time 
 what they have here, and became sole 
 owners of the place. They became 
 owners of Xeah bay' and Tatoosh island. 
 
 Now our title to this ground and the 
 reason I am here now is because we have 
 shed blood here. That is our title to 
 these grounds. 
 
 AND MONOGRAPHS 
 
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