The Sea Is My Country

Joshua L. Reid argues that marine spaces and resources were and are central to Makah culture, traditions, and history. Located on the densely forested Olympic Peninsula in Washington State, Makahs were able to maintain their deep relationship with the sea well into the twentieth century and repeatedly adapted to evolving markets and technologies. Employing a marine-based borderlands approach, Reid has written an impressive study of the “people of the cape” and their ability to navigate a rapidly changing world after contact in the late eighteenth century (p. xv). The first four chapters of The Sea Is My Country chronicle the significance of regional indigenous leaders, their vital trade and kin connections, and the role of violence in intranative and native-newcomer interactions through the 1850s. Early white traders unknowingly entered a complicated political arena, with native leaders vying for control of resources, other Indians, and the growing coastal trade. As Reid deftly shows, by the time the Hudson's Bay Company (HBC) began building forts in the region, the Makah had become major players in regional trade networks. Despite the HBC's increased presence and influence, Makahs maintained their sovereignty and greatly profited from trading whale oil and other commodities. Makahs prevented nonnatives from settling in their territory, and their fierce reputation helped them garner expanded coastal fishing and whaling rights in mid-1850s treaty negotiations

Archaeology · Economic history · Economics · Economy · Fur trade · Geography · Indigenous · Maritime boundary · Negotiation · Peninsula · Political science · Politics · Reputation · Sovereignty · State (computer science · Treaty · Whaling · History · Indigenous Studies and Ecology · Law