To recover wooden objects from a context 500 years old is to look directly into an earlier phase of that tradition, to see what the forms and techniques were before the centuries of change that followed contact.

The carved and decorated wooden objects from Ozette document that the core elements of what we recognize as Northwest Coast art were already present, already sophisticated, already characterized by the formline design principles and the specific formal vocabulary that continues to mark Northwest Coast art as one of the most distinctive artistic traditions in human cultural history.

The Technology of the Whale Hunt

Whaling was the most prestigious economic and spiritual activity in Makah life, and the Ozette assemblage documents the material technology of the whale hunt in extraordinary detail.