mcrc

IV. Defining Identity Through Things of the Past: the Makah Cultural and Research Center

Ever since Ozette was excavated in the 1970s, the Makah have communicated with archaeologists about their ancestry. The objects excavated remain on Makah land, in the Makah Cultural and Research Center (MCRC), a native-run museum which curates and exhibits the artifacts. The MCRC treats the artifacts as both archaeological and sacred material. Their curatorial practices include holding powerful objects in a separate storage area, and reburying some especially sacred objects. These practices, as well as the exhibit discussed below, speak of the implications of native involvement in owning, curating, and exhibiting their own objects, and their ability to embrace museological objects in new ways, using them to prove past activities and reinstate tradition in contemporary culture.

At the MCRC, the Makah have taken the opportunity to construct their own collective identity. This identity involves both the past and the present, using archaeological artifacts to construct an exhibit that is both academically and community oriented. As the first label reads, "The Ozette houses are canoes carrying scientists into a world that respects the history of our people. The Ozette houses are war clubs against ignorance and hostility. The Ozette houses are thunder and lightening for Makahs, voices from the past illuminating our heritage." Here the transition from academic interests to tribal interests is made fluid. The houses at Ozette stand simultaneously for many interests, beliefs, and ways of knowing. Thus the objects in the exhibit are meant to represent the interests of both insiders and outsiders.

The labels are written mostly in the past tense, though some, as will be discussed later, are in the present. The same holds true for point of view—most labels are in the third person, but some are in the first. These seeming disparities may be the Makah’s way of blending past and present, academic and tribal, in their presentation, in much the same way that the whale hunt revival merges these interests and disparities.

The Makah’s desire to present themselves as scholarly and scientific is clear in the exhibit. They were involved with the excavations at Ozette and are now running the MCRC, not to mention having curated the exhibit. The Makah need to be experts on their own culture, not only for themselves and their community, but for the academic and museological communities. The power to speak about themselves to these disciplines that have formerly spoken for them, gives the Makah the power to define their own identity.

In the exhibit, the Makah successfully present two dialogues—one written for themselves and the other for outsiders. The differences between Makah and outsider are made clear:

For us, Ozette adds a wealth of physical evidence to our oral history; the combination keeps us in touch with our past. For others, a number of factors make the Ozette site unique. The sheer number of recovered artifacts and the amount of preserved organic material impresses some. The variety of artifacts and the fact that these items were in use at the time of the slide affects others. In addition, artifacts were found in various stages of development, from roughed out forms to objects in their prime, to well worked tools, to discards. Still others are most impressed by the fact that the buried village reflects a pre-contract reality, and that the Ozette houses were unearthed where they were covered by the slide.

Here the Makah view of Ozette is shown as different than those understood by outsiders. The label speaks of a collective "us" and tells of the connection to the past which these objects provide for the Makah. The "others" mentioned in the label have a different idea of what Ozette means. To them, the site holds archaeological and anthropological data, as well as a fascination with the uniqueness of the site, but no direct connect to their own past.

For the Makah, Ozette is more than an archaeological site. This is explained by a label explicitly titled, "The Impact of Ozette on the Community": The Ozette artifacts were confirming the oral history of the Tribe as told by Elders for generations. One artifact, a piece of net made from nettles, contributed to a major judicial decision which favored Tribal fishing rights. Because the age of the net was scientifically established, the court found that Natives in Western Washington had used nets prior to contact with non-Indians. Consequently, Native peoples could continue to use nets in their respective contemporary fisheries. Data from Ozette have also been used in other court cases and have brought about rulings favorable to Makah and other Native people.

Although the exhibit makes no mention of the whale hunt revival, it does mention regaining the above fishing rights, as well as the revival of arts and crafts:

The Ozette information also provided many Makahs with the opportunity to revitalize traditions and technologies that were no longer general knowledge, and had slipped from everyday practice during the time of assimilation. Artists learned ancient carvings and weaving techniques with the help of the Elders. Still others devoted time and energy to learning the ancestral language and worked to preserve it.

The Makah speak to both archaeologists and themselves about identity. They use knowledge gained from archaeology, while giving knowledge from oral history to the archaeologists. In a section labeled "Coming Together of the Makah Community and Archaeologists," there are photographs of a potlatch with both archaeologists and Makahs present. Another label tells of Makah elders who assisted dissertation research by "identifying artifacts and by supplying info about the manufacture and use of artifacts, as well as cultural and subsistence patterns." Thus the process of knowing about the past is identified as reciprocal.

In the main gallery, cases are arranged according to the traditional seasonal round, evoking a sense of history while highlighting everyday activities. Here, the text weaves in and out of past and present tenses. Some cases are presented in the context of the past, others are mixed. For example, the display on "Plant Gathering" reads:

The Makahs gathered plants for food and medicine. It isn’t known when or how "Ozette Potatoes" were introduced to the Makahs, but they are still grown by some of our people today. The potatoes look more like a root than the potato we buy in the grocery stores today. The "Ozette Potato" seems to be tastier and are in great demand by the community of Neah Bay.

Not only is time fluid, but identity is, as well. The Makah are both third person others, as well as a first person "our people." Although past and present weave together in the text, the Makahs of the past are not referred to as "our ancestors." They are an historical other. One more note on this label is the mention of the "community of Neah Bay." This may not be just Makah, but others who live in the town. Thus, there are three characters at work in this one label: historical Makah, today’s Makah, and the people who live in Neah Bay. Again, as with the archaeologists, the Makah are aware of multiple perspectives and address multiple interests.

Occasionally a label speaks entirely in the first person, jolting the visitor out of museum mode as a reminder of place:

I was told that often times on sealing expeditions a shark would follow closely behind the canoe. Since the sharks were so huge and unpredictable, a method of diversion was developed using a fairly large rock. When the shark swam close by, the rock was dropped from the canoe. The shark would follow the rock down never to return.

This label is in the display entitled "Stone Technology," and is a wonderful illustration of the limitations of archaeological data and the need for native knowledge. Save for oral history, this tradition would be lost. The memory of this one elder (who is not mentioned by name) gives importance and meaning to objects archaeologists would have not known how to interpret. This label speaks from the Makah view alone, yet speaks to outsiders, relating not only this anecdotal remembrance, but the importance of the Makah’s own memories. This first person perspective is also used in the "Sealing" display. On a label entitled "Seal Hunter," we read not just an anecdote, but one man’s personal connection with this tradition.

Some Makahs were whalers, some were fishermen and some were seal hunters like me. I was always fascinated by that long slender sealing spear. Throwing this spear with a harpoon attached, called for added finesse rather than the brute strength of the whale hunter. I liked the smaller canoes and the fast thrashing action of an enraged seal that had just been harpooned, I considered all of my prey as food and clothing for the family. Tonight we will have fresh seal meat. Tomorrow my wife and grandmother will render the fat to make seal oil. This winter we will enjoy smoked seal meat as a result of our hunting today. I will never tire of this calling that requires in return that I be physically and spiritually prepared to face the ocean and overcome the seal in his own environment.

This is the most powerful label in the museum. It relates not only the specifics of a particular tradition, but the tradition’s importance to community, family, and the individual. After reading this label, which is in a case with weapons from seal hunting, the visitor is faced with a diorama including stuffed seals in front of a painted, scenic background. What would have before been seen by the outsider as a cute animal, is now seen through the eyes of the Makah seal hunter providing for his family. The seal may still be cute, but the power of the seal hunter’s words displace the normal feeling of anti-sealing sympathy with a pragmatic, family-values perspective.

The above "Sealing" display could be said to speak for whaling as well. The whaling display does not speak in the first person or the present tense. However, one can imagine a Makah whale hunter saying the same words as the seal hunter. There are no pictures of whales, just the tools used to hunt and prepare them. The text reflects a temporal and emotional removal from whaling, yet stresses the tradition’s importance in the past.

More than anything else, whale hunting utilized almost every technical skill possessed by the Makahs from the building of the canoes, to the development of the equipment, the intense physical training, the fulfillment of spiritual preparations for the hunt, and extraordinary knowledge of the ocean. More than anything else, the whale hunt represented the ultimate in both physical and spiritual preparedness and the wealth of the Makah Indian culture.

While this text seems to leave whaling in the past, the use of the Makah language on the artifact identification labels sends a very different message. These labels tell the name of each object in both English and Makah. This aspect of the display, occurring only in the whaling and sealing cases, serves two purposes. One is to teach the public, both insiders and outsiders, but more readily insiders, the Makah language. The other is to identify objects themselves as other. The labels imply that these are not just museological objects; they are things that were actually used and owned by the Makah. If naming is a process of owning, calling these objects by their Makah names powerfully enforces their ancestral, as well as their contemporary, ownership of these objects.

In the center of the seasonal round gallery, sit two canoes—one a whaling canoe, one a sealing canoe. The label for the whaling canoe calls them, "impressive pieces of woodcraft requiring a tremendous amount of skill to build. They are made so precisely that they almost appear to be made from a mold. They are sturdy, seaworthy and built to withstand the rigors of the Pacific Ocean." The visitor is welcomed to appreciate the canoe on many levels: its artistry, its workmanship, and its ruggedness—all qualities associated with museum artifacts. These levels of appreciation reflect very mainstream ideas that museum-goers are familiar with. Behind the canoes, however, is a large black and white photograph, taking up the entire wall, picturing Makah in a canoe on the water. It is here that the Makah define themselves. To them the real power of the canoe, or any of the objects in the exhibit, is in its use. The canoe is invoked as a symbol as well. In the first label (cited above), the Ozette houses are described as "canoes carrying scientists into a world that respects the history of our people." Thus a canoe has the ability to symbolically transport westerners into the Makah world. It has the power to create an understanding between the two cultures here in the museum, as well as outside its walls.