The Quileute are a canoe-going people with a long maritime tradition of fishing and hunting on the open Pacific from cedar dugout canoes. This seafaring heritage continues today, including participation in intertribal canoe journeys along the Northwest Coast. Their deep knowledge of the ocean contrasts with the many shipwrecks suffered by unfamiliar mariners on this coast.
Heading back inland, carry this with you about the people whose land you crossed. The Quileute didn't just live beside this dangerous ocean, they mastered it, in cedar canoes, generations deep, and they still take to the water today. The sea that wrecked so many outside ships was a familiar road to the people who knew it best. Respect, it turns out, is also a kind of seamanship.
Photo: Ron Clausen · CC BY-SA 4.0
