Tatoosh Island is a collective name for a small group of islands located one mile
off the tip of Cape Flattery. Captain John Meares named the island Tatooche after Makah chief Tatootche.1 “Tatoosh” is the Chinook word for thunder bird or nourishing beast, which, according to Makah legend, was the creature that inhabited the island.2 The Cape Flattery Lighthouse was built on the main island in 1857 to guide ships
into the Strait of Juan De Fuca.3 Other names that have been used to describe Tatoosh Island are “Tu-tutsh”, I“sla
de Tutusi”, and “Tatouche”.4
1. Robert Hitchman, Place Names of Washington (Tacoma: Washington State Historical Society, 1985), 298.