What Were The Makkah Like?

Before non-Indian peoples arrived, the Makah Tribe
lived in 5 villages in the American Northwest and
in Canada (now they live on a reservation on the most
Northwestern tip of Washington State's Olympic Peninsula).  
Their lifestyle was to make use of the
abundance of forest, river and lakes,  the tideland and ocean,
They used the many different woods, plants and game
animals in the forest, caught fish in the river and lake,
harvested what was in the tide pools and hunted Whales.   
Mostly Gray Whales, but others were also hunted.  
There is evidence that the Makah hunted whale as far
back as 2,000 years ago.  Other sea mammals were
hunted as well.  Seals and Sea Otters were just as
important  as the whales.  This abundance helped to
develop a complex society with rules that effected very one.
It also made it possible for some people to not have to
gather their own food or make other items they needed.
These people could do specialized jobs and trade.
This opened the way fo the Makah to develop a very
distinctive art style, the concept of personal wealth and
a way of owning songs, dances and resource areas
long before the first non-Indians arrived (1788).
This influx of new wealth and goods caused serious
disruptions to the Makah way of life as well as the
ecology itself.  Not only did the Europeans introduce
things like like guns and alcohol, their increasing demand
for native goods almost destroyed the fur-bearing seal
and otter populations.  Later, European and American
whaling ships did the same for the Humpback and
Gray Whales.  By the 1920s,the Makah had given up
whaling because there were no more whales to hunt.
The same with the whales.
To add to this, these ships also brought disease.
In 1852, a smallpox epidemic nearly destroyed
the Makah population, causing one of those five
villages to be abandoned.  The extreme number of
deaths not only disrupted the social order, it also
caused the loss of knowledge of ceremonies and rites.
The Makah way of life started to fall apart.  Three years
later, it would change forever, The Treaty of Neah Bay
was signed.  They gave up land while keeping
certain rights, such as fishing whaling and fishing in
usual and accustomed areas.   In return, the United
States government agreed to provide certain things,
education and health care among them.  The Treaty
also created the Makah Reservation.