Quileute
From NativeWiki
Quileute is a group, currently numbering approximately 750, of Native American peoples from western Washington state in the United States. The Quileute people settled onto the Quileute Indian Reservation after signing the Treaty of Point Elliott with the former Washington Territory in 1855. It is located near the southwest corner of Clallam County, Washington at the mouth of the Quillayute River on the Pacific coast. The reservation's main population center is the community of La Push, Washington. The 2000 census reported an official resident population of 371 persons on the reservation, which has a land area of 4.061 km² (1.5678 sq mi, or 1,003.4 acres).
The Quileute tribe linguistically belongs to the Chimakuan family of languages among Northwest Coast indigenous peoples. The Quileute language is one of a kind, as the only related aboriginal people to the Quileute, the Chemakum, were wiped out by Chief Seattle and the Suquamish people during the 1860s. The Quileute language is one of only five known languages to not have any nasal sounds (m, n).
Like many Northwest Coast natives, in pre-Colonial times the Quileute relied on fishing from local rivers and the Pacific Ocean for food and built plank houses (longhouses) to protect themselves from the harsh, wet winters west of the Cascade Mountains. The Quileutes, along with the Makah people, were once great whalers.
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Phonology
Quileute has three vowels, Template:IPA, long and short, as well as Template:IPA which only occurs long. Stress is historically penultimate, though this has become somewhat obscured and is no longer predictable. It has the following consonants (Template:IPA and Template:IPA are rare):
| Labial | Alveolar stop | Alveolar fricate | Lateral | Palatal | Velar | Labialized velar | Uvular | Labialized uvular | Glottal | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Plosive | p | t | Template:IPA | Template:IPA | Template:IPA | Template:IPA | Template:IPA | Template:IPA | Template:IPA | Template:IPA |
| Ejective | Template:IPA | Template:IPA | Template:IPA | Template:IPA | Template:IPA | Template:IPA | Template:IPA | Template:IPA | Template:IPA | |
| Fricative | Template:IPA | Template:IPA | Template:IPA | Template:IPA | Template:IPA | Template:IPA | Template:IPA | Template:IPA | ||
| Voiced | Template:IPA | Template:IPA | Template:IPA | (Template:IPA) | ||||||
| Glide/Semivowel | Template:IPA | Template:IPA |
Inclusion in Popular Fiction
The Quileute tribe makes an appearance in the Stephenie Meyer books: Twilight (novel) (2005), New Moon (novel) (2006), and Eclipse (novel) (2007). The reservation is also the setting of the book Spirit Quest by Susan Sharpe.
See also
- Chemakum
- Chimakuan languages
- Twilight (novel) by Stephenie Meyer
- New Moon (novel) by Stephenie Meyer
- Eclipse (novel) by Stephenie Meyer
References
- Quileute Reservation, Washington United States Census Bureau
External links
- Official Quileute Tribe page - Quileute Natural Resources
- Forks-Web - Quileute Tribe page
- University of Washington Libraries Digital Collections – The Pacific Northwest Olympic Peninsula Community Museum A web-based museum showcasing aspects of the rich history and culture of Washington State's Olympic Peninsula communities. Features cultural exhibits, curriculum packets and a searchable archive of over 12,000 items that includes historical photographs, audio recordings, videos, maps, diaries, reports and other documents.
