The history of the Makah Tribe’s relationship with the federal government illuminates the context in which the Ozette project occurred and helps explain why the community’s insistence on tribal control of the excavation and its collection was so significant.

The treaty signed in 1855 at Neah Bay, in which the Makah ceded a large portion of their territory to the United States while retaining their reservation and their fishing and whaling rights, was one of the Puget Sound treaties negotiated by Washington Territory Governor Isaac Stevens.

These treaties are notable for explicitly protecting Indigenous fishing rights, a provision that reflected the centrality of fishing to the economies and identities of the coastal tribes.

The period from the late nineteenth century through the mid-twentieth century was characterized by federal policies that severely disrupted tribal communities.