Ozette Indian Village Archeological Site

The Ozette were North American Indians were among the Nuu- chah- nulth, one of the resident in Western Canada and in the U.S. state of Washington group of culturally and linguistically related strains. The Ozette spoke Wakashan and were probably a southern branch of the Makah. They lived at Lake Ozette and the Ozette River in Clallam County today on the Olympic Peninsula in Washington State. At the same time called Ozette Makah probably a place of the same name, which replaced the well eponymous predecessor settlement that had fallen victim to a natural disaster. The Ozette archaeological site is one of the most important and comprehensive of the cultures of the Northwest Coast.

History

Ozette was spilled in the years after 1500 by a massive mudslide. As of 1967, Richard Dougherty of Washington State University opportunity with permission of the Makah to begin archaeological digs in sheltered spots at Cape Alava. Even these first excavations showed that here a Walfängerkultur had left a village that stretched back at least 2000 years. In February 1970, however, a storm surge brought the excavation site in greatest danger, so that has now been dug with more resources and staff. The excavations undertaken Stephen Samuels and Richard Daugherty.

Around 55,000 artifacts have the excavations from 1966 / 70-1981 unearthed, to have three out of five longhouses excavated. In addition, the oldest obtain sculpture from the area ( about 800 BC), when it is also unclear whether the Makah had their predecessors culture already displaced at this time. At least 67 whales were detected in the remains. The excavations showed that along the west coast, a trade was to the north of Vancouver Iceland and up to Oregon and California. All these finds is dedicated to a museum.

There are also around Ozette some concentration of petroglyphs unevenly occurring in the Nuu- chah- nulth territory.

The northern living Makah settled in the area at an unknown date. Around 1870, consisted of 15 Ozette houses where around 200 Makah lived, but the place shrank increasingly in favor of Neah Bay. 1917, the site was abandoned.

In 1979 opened the Makah Cultural and Research Center after seven years of planning and construction. There, 500 to 600 exhibits will be of the 55,000 artifacts. Most of the exhibits are located on the Makah Museum in Neah Bay.