The Ozette Prairies of Olympic National Park - Natural Resources ...

turns)” or k’ikiLti, “Elk’s home” since Quileute tradition holds that Elk lived here at the Time of Beginnings
and was created here. Close to the traditional settlement site of Shuwah (shoxwat’ or bo’lakw
“turbulent water place”), it was important as a hunting, berrying and digging grounds.
D) The Soleduck Valley (t’sixwoqwsoqw, “the high-upstream prairie area, or possibly t’axital,
“hot area”) was a large area of contiguous and interlocking prairies that was cognitively divided by the
Quileute into the following general divisions: (a) t’loqwolyaqw, “lakeside prairie,” what became known
as the Tyee Prairie (a post-contact name, Tyee is the Chinook Jargon word for ‘chief’); (b) an area that was
traditionally called Beaver Prairie (qwat’layaxi yaqw, “Whale-rocks prairie,” because it contains a chain
of backbone-shaped rocks attributed by Quileute myth to a primeval whale dropped here by Thunderbird;
and (c) prairie segments as far up as the mouth of Bear Creek. This was an important hunting area,
especially for bear, deer and elk. It was also a foraging area. (d) There were also open wetlands along
lower Beaver Creek, Lake Pleasant, lower Lake Creek, and elsewhere in this region that were important
reed-collecting areas but they were not considered prairies.
E) The camas prairie (t’lot’lopa yaqw, “lots of blue things prairie,” located south of Forks on the east
side of the highway, southeast of Dennis the Woodcarver’s workyard) and other open areas in this region
between the Bogachiel and the Hoh Rivers. It was much used by both the Quileute and Hoh, served by a
trail that ran from the south edge of the Forks Prairie to the loop in the middle Hoh River. There are both
prairies (yaqw) and seasonal wetlands (loqwt’lil) here: (1) the central lower half of Sect. 27 between Hell
Roaring Creek and Alder Creek (Lilotq’achal Loq’wt’liL, meaning unknown.), (2) the central lower half of
Sect. 25, east of Alder creek (name unknown).
Prairie Resources utilized by the Quileute. The prairies were basic to Quileute economic patterns. Their
prairies were considered to be both the breadbasket and meat larder of the people. According to a reconstruction
of the ten most important aboriginal food categories (based on Ram Singh, p.48), the products
of prairie foraging represented the 4th and 5th most crucial subsistence foodstuffs: camas, fern, and other
roots; and berries and sprouts. Families regularly moved to summer campsites, over which they had
recognized use-rights. At other times, women would travel alone or in groups to forage in the prairies.
In 1916 Frachtenberg [3:127] remarked “The Quileute, men and women, are good walkers. Even today
many women go for camas south of Forks (14 miles).” Men would hunt in the prairies; women, along
with the elderly and the young, would forage for roots, berries and other edibles, medicinal herbs and
various materials. The following discussion of the economic resources of the Quileute prairies derive
primarily from the work of Reagan (1923; 1934), Frachtenberg (1916), Gunther (1973), and interviews by
the author.
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