The Sea in Winter

Although Maisie’s family is of mixed Indigenous heritage, Day places particular emphasis on the history of the Makah people, an Indigenous nation in the Pacific Northwest. The Makah reservation is located on Neah Bay, which is the tribe’s ancestral home and is situated on the Northwest tip of the Olympic Peninsula in Washington State. As she struggles to overcome her own personal challenges, Maisie travels to Neah Bay with her family, and this place becomes central to her healing journey.

Historically, Makah life was connected to the sea and the land. The Makah ancestral lands included a vast inland and coastal area that offered the tribe an abundance of natural resources. Seals, salmon, and whales were central to the tribe’s nutrition and cultural practices. The Makah had a range of both permanent villages and seasonal summer villages along the northwestern shoreline. During the summer, the tribe would gather in the summer camps to go fishing and whaling. The Makah people used animals and plants with respect and balance, and they were also skilled mariners. The whaling tradition was a crucial cultural practice, and every part of the whale was used to sustain the tribe.

However, with the advent of European colonization, the Makah way of life was altered forever, and the tribe was devastated by foreign diseases like smallpox that reduced their population and disrupted their traditional practices. In 1855, the Makah and the United States government signed the Treaty of Neah Bay, which required the Makah to cede part of their tribal lands in order to maintain their sovereignty, their access to natural resources, and their cultural practices. Subsequent colonial policies forced the tribe’s assimilation into Western society, and even in modern times, the tribe continues to resist these ongoing dynamics of cultural erasure. This issue is depicted in The Sea in Winter with the recollections of Maisie’s mother, as well as her and Jack’s focus on relevant political issues.

Despite the opposition from conservationists, the practice of whaling remains a significant tradition among the Makah today. While the tribe reserved their right to hunt whales, non-Indigenous commercial whaling operations had almost exterminated gray whales by the early 20th century. From the 1920s to the 1990s, the Makah people was forced to abandon traditional whaling. Later, as the whale population recovered, the tribe gradually reclaimed their right to exercise their whaling tradition, and in the late 1990s, they briefly resumed whaling. However, the backlash and legal obstacles soon put a permanent stop to the practice. For the Makah, the revitalization of the gray whale signified a mirroring cultural revival and a way to reconnect with their traditional and spiritual values. Since then, the Makah people have re-established their relationship with their culture and continue to pass this knowledge on to younger generations, as Day demonstrates when Maisie and her brother learn about the stories of their ancestors.