The sea, in Makah understanding, is not merely a resource base but a living environment with which the community maintains specific relationships of respect and reciprocity.

The whale does not simply die when the harpoon strikes.

It gives itself to the worthy hunter.

The salmon runs because of the respect that the community shows for the salmon.

The relationship between the human community and the marine environment is a relationship of mutual obligation, maintained through the correct performance of ceremonies, through the respectful treatment of the animals taken, and through the transmission of the knowledge that keeps the relationship in balance.

The Ozette assemblage documents the material dimension of this relationship: the specific tools, the specific techniques, the specific household organization that allowed the Makah to maintain their way of life on this particular coast for a very long time.