Makah Days

At the annual flag raising ceremony of Makah Days in Neah Bay, two flags are hoisted at the same time: the flag of the United States and the flag of the Makah Tribe. The town lies at the northwesternmost tip of Washington’s Olympic Peninsula. Most visitors reach it by the Strait of Juan de Fuca Highway, Route 112, about four and a half hours from Seattle depending on route and weather. On the weekend closest to August 26, tribal members who have moved away come home. Neighboring tribes from Washington and First Nations people from Vancouver Island join them. The tribe says it is closely related to the Nuu-chah-nulth, and some of its family members come from the island. The tribe’s word to everyone else is that all are welcome.

Salmon, slahal and the race up Bahokus Peak

KNKX, the public radio station that covered the 2024 edition, reported that the program fills multiple venues for hours and often runs into the night. Young dancers perform outdoors on a platform that takes center stage. Children and adults spend months each year practicing the dances and putting together their regalia. The salmon bake sets fish on sticks to slow-cook over a wood fire. War canoe races run in a constant stream through the weekend, and Makah Days marks the end of the season for the sport. Slahal games are on the schedule, and in 2024 KNKX found bone games going all night long.

The street fair offers native arts and crafts alongside more modern goods. The committee counts the crowd in the thousands. For the 2026 celebration the Makah Tribal Council barred electric-assisted bicycles and motorized foot scooters from the street fair, the event area, and designated high-traffic and detour routes. The Grand Parade comes through town, and there are fireworks.

The athletic events cover a lot of ground. The Bahokus Peak Challenge is a three-mile race, entirely uphill, to the top of 1,429-foot Bahokus Peak, a climb of almost 1,400 feet. Other events include a softball tournament, a cornhole tournament, a youth three-on-three basketball tournament, and a golf invitational.

The 2026 weekend, August 28 to 30

The golf invitational opened the 2026 celebration and ended with a pulled pork banquet in the Legends Room. Isaac Brunk and Sam Luce tied for first at 82. Greig Arnold took closest to the pin in the 55-and-older division at the eighth hole. In the Makah Community Gym, the youth three-on-three drew 94 players, eight teams in each of three brackets. The gym was packed with spectators, and a DJ played.

The Talent Show had 16 performances across three age groups. Crystal Hottowe served as emcee, and the Coast Guard station at Neah Bay supplied the judges. In the 18-and-up division, Joseph Greene and Raylee Greene tied for first and split $700. Royalty is crowned during the show. The 2026 court is Queen Taylor Jarrett-Smith, Prince Anderson Smith, Princess Ajae Irving-Weems, Junior Warrior Eli Maxson, and Junior Miss Nya Ellis, with Violet Carrick as Junior Miss runner-up. Ajae Irving-Weems also placed third in the talent division for ages 10 and under.

The 2026 Grand Parade had 28 entries registered online and more that joined on site. Its theme was “Honoring Our State Champions.” The Neah Bay High School state champions, representing 12 teams, rode as Grand Marshals, and the Makah Days Committee gave letterman jackets to the head coaches. Hazel R. Greene, the emcee, brought the Makah language and culture into the parade with what the committee called “a wonderful mix of humor and heart.” The winners were announced from the Grand Stand, and then the list was lost “in the shuffle between events.” When it turned up, the winners were Lila Parton for family entry, the Seahawks for moving vehicle, and the Elks Lodge for civic entry.

On Championship Sunday, Rezzy N Deadly won the softball tournament over the Tomahawks, and Pork Sword took third. The other teams included This Has to Stop and Comeback with Attitude. Twenty-three teams played cornhole. Bates Masters took first and won $300 and jackets, and Charlie Irving collected $20 for the first four-bagger. A volunteer committee runs all of it on what its own page calls limited funding.

A cedar cape and a whaling hat

Royalty is crowned in several age groups. The young people chosen serve as cultural role models, and KNKX reported that they are judged on their dedication to traditional dancing, their language skills, and their regalia. In 2024 the crowned Makah Days Warrior was Elijah Parker, 17. He wore the whaling hat his father, Theron Parker, wore in 1999 as harpoonist for the last Makah whale hunt. “This cape I’m wearing right now: I made it out of cedar– I hand pounded it myself, cut it, stripped it, and everything like that. Made it all myself,” he said.

That same weekend, after the flags went up, Makah Vice Chairman Chad Bowechop spoke to the crowd. “What we want you to recognize is: yes! Makah’s on duty! And Makah will revive the whale hunt, we are a whaling people,” he said. In May 2024, after a decades-long legal effort, the tribe had won a federal waiver that KNKX reported would clear the way for a renewed hunt as soon as the following year. Whaling is a Makah treaty right. “That would be amazing, if I’m the next face of the next whale hunt,” Elijah Parker said.

The 2024 Queen was Angel Buckingham, 19. She said she had been preparing since she could barely walk, and she had served earlier as a Makah Princess and as Junior Miss. Her great-grandmother was the first Makah Days queen, crowned in 1954.

From a flag in 1913 to a law in 1924

The sources explain the date in different ways. The Peninsula Daily News ties the weekend to the first time the tribe raised the American flag in Neah Bay, on August 26, 1913. The tribe’s own page gives the same date for the flag. It then notes that only on June 2, 1924, were all Native Americans, the Makah among them, granted the right to vote. KNKX describes the festival as commemorating the federal law that gave all Native Americans U.S. citizenship and gave them back the right to practice their culture. The tribe’s page also honors Makah veterans of World War II, the Korean and Vietnam wars, and all major conflicts.

KNKX reported that colonists and settlers made it illegal for decades for the Makah and other tribes to practice their culture. Mary Hunter, a lifelong tribal member, described those years. “The government had told us, no dancing, no using your language, no singing your songs, no gathering – you have to become like us. And this was the one day of the year – two days of the year that we could be who we are.” She said she looks forward to the festival every year. “Because that’s how we are. We live in this world and we live in the other world.”

The 100th annual Makah Days was held in August 2024, with the flag raising on August 24. Angel Buckingham, newly crowned, said she likes to picture the first celebration a century earlier. She imagines it running all day and all night, after decades of keeping the culture underground. “It gives me goosebumps thinking about how that could have felt, how that did feel to our ancestors, and how excited they felt. And I know they had to have felt a lot of freedom,” she said.