At Ozette the Makah occupied a landscape of majestic grandeur. Frequently shrouded in clouds, the rainy coast bears a lush green mantle of cedar, fir, hemlock, and spruce. Along the outer coast huge waves break against long sweeping sandy beaches broken by rocky headlands. Rugged mountains descend precipitously to the sea along the fjord-like inlets, which stretch far inland. Large sounds and numerous smaller bays and inlets, studded with island clusters, result in a convoluted coastline that offers a diversity of local environments and a great variety of resources. From the outer coast these people took whales, sea lions, seals, halibut, and shellfish; the protected waterways of the sounds and inlets offered salmon, herring, and other fish; and the forests provided deer, elk, bear, and various plant foods.
Large dugout cedar canoes once traversed the waterways, allowing people to exploit resources throughout their territories and to travel to distant villages for feasts, ceremonies, or raids. Permanent villages of large cedar plank-clad houses faced the sheltered waterways at important locations, although temporary housing was also used at short-term resource camps. The beaches in front of the houses bustled with activity, as the canoes of fishers, sea mammal hunters, and traders arrived and departed.
