Trade and Connection

The Ozette village was not an isolated community.

It was part of a network of relationships and exchanges that connected the Makah to other Northwest Coast peoples and to communities of the interior through direct trade, through marriage alliances, and through the ceremonial networks that distributed prestige goods across a wide geographic area.

The position of Ozette at Cape Alava gave the community a strategic location at the junction of the Strait of Juan de Fuca and the open Pacific.

Canoe travel along the coast and across the strait to Vancouver Island was part of the regular pattern of social and economic life.