Signs of cultural heritage
Take a stroll down the waterfront of Port Angeles and you’ll find the nation’s first street signs in Klallam and English. These modest signs have played a role in revitalizing the native language of some of the original inhabitants of the peninsula. Ancestral Klallam homelands span the Olympic Peninsula. Villages were anchored along the shoreline of the Salish Sea, including what is now Port Angeles.
Language revitalization has been a Lower Elwha Klallam effort for many years. More than 200 high school students have participated in Klallam language classes. Classes are also taught in Port Angeles at Peninsula Community College.
Says Indian Country Today: “The work of indigenous language revitalization is often said to be one of the main elements of decolonization. The bilingual street signs near Waterfront Park in Port Angeles are evidence of this principle in action.”
You’ll see the street signs along the Port Angeles waterfront at the intersections of Oak St. and Railroad Ave., in front of the city’s new performing arts center. You’ll also find historical markers of tribal history, info on the Klallam creation story and two beaches where Klallam canoes once landed.
For more information about the tribes that are indigenous to Clallam County: