Quileute Tribe

Archeological findings indicate that the area has been inhabited for many thousands of years.

The Quileute /ˈkwɪliːuːt/, also known as the Quillayute /kwɨˈleɪ.uːt/, are a Native American people in western Washington state in the United States. The Quileute people settled onto the Quileute Indian Reservation (47°54′23″N 124°37′30″W) after signing the Quinault Treaty in 1855. It is located near the southwest corner of Clallam County, Washington at the mouth of the Quillayute River on the Pacific coast. The reservation’s main population center is the community of La Push, Washington. 

Like many Northwest Coast natives, in pre-colonial times the Quileute relied on fishing from local rivers and the Pacific Ocean for food and built plank houses (longhouses) to protect themselves from the harsh, wet winters west of the Cascade Mountains. The Quileute, along with the Makah, were once great whalers.

The first official negotiations with the American government occurred in 1855 when Isaac I. Stevens and the Quileute signed the Treaty of Olympia. It said that the Quileute people needed to relocate to the Quinault reservation. This article took away an integral part of the culture of the Northwest Coastal tribes, the rights to possessions and slaves. Their culture had been focused on possessions and they had always owned slaves, but upon entering the U.S. they were forced to give up a key part of their unique history and culture. Later, in 1882, A.W. Smith came to La Push to teach the native children. He made a school there and started to change the names of the people from tribal names to ones from the Bible. In 1889, after years of this not being enforced, President Cleveland gave the Quileute tribe the La Push reservation. 

Surrounded on three sides by The Olympic National Park, the Quileute Reservation is located on 594 acres along the Pacific and on the south banks of the Quillayute River (formed by the Sol Duc, Bogachiel, and Dickey rivers).

The Quileute Tribe is located in La Push, Washington, on the shores of the Pacific Ocean. The Quileute Tribe has lived and hunted in this area for thousands of years. Although the village of La Push is only about one-square mile, the tribe’s original territory stretched along the shores of the Pacific from the glaciers of Mount Olympus to the rivers of rain forests. Much has changed since those times, but Quileute Elders remember “back in the days” When the “old people” dared challenge kwalla, the mighty whale, and recounted the story of how the bayak or raven placed the sun in the sky.

The Quileute language belongs to the Chimakuan family of languages among Northwest Coast indigenous peoples. The Quileute language is one of a kind, as the only related aboriginal people to the Quileute, the Chimakum, were wiped out by Chief Seattle and the Suquamish people during the 1860s. The Quileute language is one of only 6 known languages lacking nasal sounds (i.e., m and n). The Quileute tribe speaks a language called Quileute or Quillayute which is part of the Chimakuan family of languages. The Chimakum, who also spoke a Chimakuan language (called Chemakum, Chimakum, or Chimacum) were the only other group of people to speak a language from this language family. The Quileute language is still in use today, though it is an endangered language. It is spoken only by tribal elders at La Push, and some of the Makah. The tribe is now trying to prevent the loss of the language by teaching it in the Quileute Tribal School using books written for the students by the tribal elders.

Quileute is expanding its Quileute Oceanside Resort, improving its marina, redeveloping its oceanfront Quileute RV Park, promoting its close proximity
to Olympic National Park and working with local chambers of commerce and the Audubon Society to spread the word about what Quileute has to offer.
This is, indeed, a paradise for those who love the outdoors. Quileute is surrounded by Olympic National Park and the Pacific coast. It lies within the Olympic Coast National Marine Sanctuary and nearby is the Quillayute Needles National Wildlife Refuge.

Gray whales migrate past Quileute in March, April and May. Quileute’s shoreline attracts fishers, sea kayakers and surfers;
in summer, kayak and surfing schools set up shop and noted surfer Bill Curry did a televised surfing program last year.
Storm-watchers like to watch the drama of Pacific storms.
Employment increases 15 – 20 percent during the tourism season.

Quileute works with Olympic National Park and state environmental groups to keep clean the headwaters of the rivers that flow through Quileute to the
Pacific. Salmon runs have improved. Quileute Natural Resources manages the tribe’s fisheries programs, restores fish habitat and operates a hatchery for winter steelhead and summer chinook.

Quileute is actively engaged in elk management and essential in understanding the life cycles of the Roosevelt elk on the peninsula, as well as other wildlife such as cougar, black bear, beaver and birds. The Quileute tribe planning a conference center, museum, seafood restaurant, and fishing marina.

The Quileute tribe is run by their own government inside the United States, which consists of a tribal council with staggered 3 year terms.

Tribal website: http://www.quileutenation.org/

Administration Phone: (360) 374-6163

Clinic website: https://quileutenation.org/government/health-center/medical-clinic/

Clinic Phone: (360) 374-9035

Quileute Tribal Health Facility
560 Quileute Heights Loop
PO Box 189
LaPush, WA 98350
Phone: (360)374-9035
or (888)364-2809
Fax: 360-374-2644
Website: https://quileutenation.org/government/health-center/medical-clinic/
Chemical Dependency
Phone: (360) 374-4317
Mental Health Counselor
Phone: (360) 374-4320
Dental Clinic
Phone: 360-374-6984;
M-F 8:00am – 4:00pm
Emergency Walk-In available at the top of every hour
WIC
Phone: 360-645-3298, 360-640-2904