Description
The Chimakum, also spelled Chemakum and Chimacum Native American people, were a group of Native Americans who lived in the northeastern portion of the Olympic Peninsula in Washington state, between Hood Canal and Discovery Bay until their virtual extinction in 1902. Their primary settlements were on Port Townsend Bay, on the Quimper Peninsula, and Port Ludlow Bay to the south. Today, Chimakum people are enrolled in three federally recognized tribes: the Skokomish, Jamestown S'Klallam, and Port Gamble S'Klallam tribes, although lineage is not traceable at present. Around 1789, there were about 400 Chimacum Indians living on the Quimper Peninsula and along Hood Canal, about 2000 Clallams spread in 16 villages from Discovery to Clallam Bay, another 2000 Makahs and Ozettes at Neah Bay and west of Lake Ozette, and another 500 Quileutes to the south, making the number of native peoples roughly about 6000.
Language
The Chemakum language was one of two Chimakuan languages and very similar to the Quileute language. It is now extinct.
Culture
Traditional life was representative of the complex cultural pattern that was common to indigenous people of the Northwest Coast region. Oriented to the ocean, they fished and hunted sea mammals. Divided themselves into small groups that moved between good fishing and berry-picking sites. In the winter most people lived in their kin group's main building, which was usually in a village on the coast. Most villages had several such buildings, each one the home base of a large extended family group. Spiritualism, the supernatural and the importance of the environment played integral roles in day-to-day life. Therefore, it was not unusual for their worldly goods to be adorned with symbols, crests and totems that represented some important figure(s) from both the seen and unseen worlds.