1897, WA: Traditional “clisquis houses”
An untranslated Chinook Jargon term is used for a traditional style of dwelling on the Olympic Peninsula of Washington state…
Do you recognize the word clisquis?
In the 2012 Grand Ronde Tribes dictionary, that’s ɬískwis, ‘mat(s)’.
A ɬískwis-háws (image credit: Architecture of the Salish Sea Tribes of the Pacific Northwest)
So, we’re hearing someone’s February, 1852 memory of S’Klallam (Coast Salish) temporary shelters that were usual at resource-gathering sites, in this case, what’s now Port Townsend, WA.
A small unfinished log house, with-
out chink or daub, was the only
fixture of civilization on the bay. But
the Clisquis houses of the Clallams
were strongly in evidence all along the
beach, this being the principle village
of the tribe.
— from “Memories of the Past”, in the Olympia (WA) Washington Standard of February 5,1897, page 3, column 5
