Language and material culture are inseparable in Indigenous traditions, and the Makah language carries information about the objects in the Ozette collection that purely material analysis cannot generate.

Every category of object in the collection has a Makah name.

The name is not simply a label but a compressed encoding of knowledge: the function of the object, its relationship to other objects and practices, the context in which it is used and by whom.

When elders who retained knowledge of the Makah language engaged with the objects recovered from Ozette, they were engaging with a named world, one in which the specific term for a specific type of harpoon head encoded information about its use and its relationship to the broader whaling system.

The Makah Language Program at Neah Bay has worked for decades to document, teach, and revitalize the language.