Mythologies of the Chimakum Tribe

October 02, 2023

The Chimakum, also spelled Chemakum and Chimacum Native American people (known to themselves as Aqokúlo and sometimes called the Port Townsend Indians), were a group of Native Americans who lived in the northeastern portion of the Olympic Peninsula in Washington state, between Hood Canal and Discovery Bay until their virtual extinction in 1902. Their primary settlements were on Port Townsend Bay, on the Quimper Peninsula, and Port Ludlow Bay to the south. Today, Chimakum people are enrolled in three federally recognized tribes: the Skokomish, Jamestown S'Klallam, and Port Gamble S'Klallam tribes, although lineage is not traceable at present.

The Chimakum Indians are a small tribe of Washington state, relatives of the Quileute Indians. They are also known as the Chimukum, Chimacum, Aqokulo, or Port Townsend Indians. The Chimakum no longer exist as a distinct tribe. Most Chimakum people merged into the Clallam and Skokomish tribes in the 19th century, where their descendants still live today. The Chimakum language is no longer spoken, but seems to have been either a dialect of Quileute or a closely related language.

Chimakum Indians. A Chimakuan tribe, now probably extinct, formerly occupying the peninsula between Hood’s canal and Port Townsend, Washington. Little is known of their history except that they were at constant war with the Clallam and other Salish neighbors, and by reason of their inferiority in numbers suffered extremely at their hands. In 1855, according to Gibbs, they were reduced to 90 individuals. The Chimakum were included in the Point no Point treaty of 1855 and placed upon the Skokomish Reservation, since which time they have gradually diminished in numbers. In 1890 Boas was able to learn of only three individuals who spoke the language, and even those but imperfectly.

The Chimakum, also spelled Chemakum and Chimacum are a near extinct Native American people (known to themselves as Aqokúlo and sometimes called the Port Townsend Indians), who lived in the northeastern portion of the Olympic Peninsula in Washington state, between Hood Canal and Discovery Bay until their virtual extinction in 1902. Their primary settlements were on Port Townsend Bay, on the Quimper Peninsula, and Port Ludlow Bay to the south. Today Chimakum people are enrolled in three federally recognized tribes: the Skokomish, Jamestown S'Klallam, and Port Gamble S'Klallam tribes, although lineage is not traceable at present.

Those who can boast Chimacum Indian blood in their veins are rare. And even those have it in diluted form. The Chimacums as a tribe disappeared more than a century ago. By the early 1850s, having experienced the ravages of war and pestilence, the Chemakums' numbers were described as 90. Not long thereafter, continued assaults by the enemy Snohomish had all but eliminated the tribe. By 1889, a historian(1) wrote that they originally were a war-like tribe, not very numerous but strong and brave . . . George Gibbs (a geologist, ethnologist and writer who contributed to the study of the indigenous peoples of Washington Territory) in 1852 wrote that "their number is ninety, but they are now virtually extinct, there being only ten left who are not legally married to white men or into other tribes. Of these then there is only one complete family, four in number. With the exception of two or three very old persons, they now mainly speak the Klallam language. They say that their diminuation was caused by small-pox, but probably war had something to do with it."(1) According to various accounts, over time the Chemakums had engaged in wars with the Makah, Klallam, Twana (which tribe included the Quilcene and Skokomish bands), Snohomish and Duwamish tribes.