Ozette Indian Village Archeological Site
Ozette Native American Village Archaeological Site | |
 | |
  | |
| Location | Address restricted[2] |
|---|---|
| Nearest city | Neah Bay, Washington |
| NRHP reference No. | 74000916[1] |
| Added to NRHP | January 11, 1974 |
The Ozette Native American Village Archeological Site is the
The 22-mile-long Hoko-Ozette Road, accessed via
The area is popular with backpackers and day-hikers, many of whom undertake to complete the 9.5 mile long Ozette Loop trail; commencing/terminating at Lake Ozette Ranger Station and taking in the coastal locations of Sand Point and Cape Alava.
In 1997, a delegation from Mihama came to Ozette to commemorate the souls of three Japanese sailors whose ship ran aground in the area in 1834, and who were held briefly by the Makah before being released to Fort Vancouver.[4]
History
Around 1560 (according to radiocarbon dating), a
The mudslide preserved several houses and their contents in a collapsed state until the 1970s when they were excavated by Makahs and archaeologists from Washington State University. More than 55,000 artifacts were recovered, spanning a period of occupation around 2,000 years,[6]: 171 representing many activities of the Makahs, from whale and seal hunting to salmon and halibut fishing; from toys and games to bows and arrows. Of the artifacts recovered, roughly 30,000 were made of wood, extraordinary in that wood generally decays particularly fast.[6]: 113 Hundreds of knives were recovered, with blade materials ranging from mussel shell,[6]: 113 to sharpened beaver teeth, and iron, presumed to have drifted from Asia on wrecked ships.[3] The oral history of the Makah mentions a "great slide" which engulfed a portion of Ozette long ago.
The Makah Museum opened in 1979 and displays replicas of cedar long houses as well as whaling, fishing, and sealing canoes.[7]
Ozette was occupied prior to frequent European visitation. It was therefore in existence before smallpox and other foreign diseases decimated the population. Since the mudslide buried the village and houses so rapidly, Ozette provides good preservation of what a society looked like as it was before abandonment or after looting.[8]
See also
References
- ^ "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. July 9, 2010.
- OCLC 20706997.
- ^ ISBN 978-0-295-98696-8.
- ^ "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. July 9, 2010. [verification needed]
- ^ Schalk, Randall (1988). "Management Zones and Archaeological Expectations". The Evolution and Diversification of Native Land Use Systems on the Olympic Peninsula. University of Washington Institute for Environmental Studies.
- ^ ISBN 0-295-96628-9.
- ^ Steury, Tim, Washington State Magazine A Dialogue with the Past: Modern Archaeology in the Pacific Northwest and What We Are
- ISBN 978-0-13-615686-4.
General references
- Kirk, Ruth; Daugherty, Richard D. (1974). Hunters of the Whale: An Adventure in Northwest Coast Archaeology. New York: William Morrow and Company.
External links
