Chimakum

/tʃɪˈmɑːkəm/ noun

Definition

A member of a Native American tribe that inhabited the Olympic Peninsula in the Pacific Northwest, or the now-extinct language they spoke.

Etymology

From the autonym or indigenous name of the people, documented in 19th-century ethnographic records. The tribe inhabited the region for over 3,500 years before European contact.

Kelly Says

The Chimakum were a distinct people with their own unique language, but smallpox and forced assimilation made them the only recorded tribe to completely lose their distinct identity by 1900—it's a powerful example of how contact transformed Native societies!

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