| La Push | |
|---|---|
| — Unincorporated community — | |
| James Island from the beach at La Push | |
|
La Push
|
|
| Coordinates: | |
| Country | United States |
| State | Washington |
| County | Clallam |
| Time zone | Pacific (PST) (UTC-8) |
| • Summer (DST) | PDT (UTC-7) |
| ZIP codes | 98350 |
| FIPS code | |
| GNIS feature ID | |
La Push is a small unincorporated community in Clallam County, Washington, United States. It is home to the Quileute tribe and is located along the Quileute River. La Push is known for its whale-watching and natural beauty.
Contents |
The name La Push is an infusion of the French la bouche, meaning "mouth", into Chinook Jargon. It describes the town's location at the mouth of the Quileute River.[1]
La Push is home to the westernmost ZIP Code in the Contiguous United States, 98350.
La Push, 14 miles from Forks, is home to the Quileute Tribe. Tribal members built cedar canoes that ranged in size from two-man to ocean-going freight vessels capable of carrying three tons. They ranked second only to the Makah as whalers, and first among all the tribes as sealers. Special woolly-haired dogs were bred, and their hair spun into prized blankets. According to the stories, the Quileutes only kin, the Chimakum, were separated from them by a great flood that swept them to the Quimper Peninsula on the other side of the North Olympic Peninsula, where they were wiped out by Chief Seattle and the Suquamish Tribe in the 1860s. First official contacts with the white man occurred in 1855, when the Quileutes signed a treaty with representatives of Territorial Governor Isaac Stevens. A treaty a year later would have moved them to a reservation in Taholah, but the Quileute territory was so remote it was not enforced. In February 1889, an executive order by President Grover Cleveland established a one mile square reservation at La Push which, at the time, had 252 inhabitants. While villagers were picking hops in Puyallup, the town was destroyed by arson in 1889.
Today, La Push has oceanfront resorts, a seafood company, fish hatchery, and a revamped marina.
The Quileute Tribe has recreated its traditional skills and crafts, which are taught at school along with the unique language, which is unrelated to any root language in the world, and one of only five in the world without nasal sounds.
The popular Quileute Days takes place July 17–19 in La Push. The tribal celebration of cultural heritage and modern lifestyle includes a fireworks display, a traditional salmon bake, dancing and songs, a softball tournament, and other field sports, a slo-pitch tournament, a horse show tournament, arts and craft display and food concessions
La Push and the Quileute Tribe have been recently featured in author Stephenie Meyer's Twilight series.
|
||||||||||||||||||||