According to the oral history of the Klallam, the name was earned after the tribe won a challenge around hoisting a log onto a house.

"[2] There exists a wide variety of English spellings including "Chalam," "Clalam," "Clallem," "Clallum," "Khalam," "Klalam," "Noodsdalum," "Nooselalum," "Noostlalum," "Tlalum," "Tlalam," "Wooselalim," "S'Klallam," "Ns'Klallam," "Klallam" and "Clallam.

In 1981 "S'Klallam" was used when the United States Department of the Interior officially recognized the Lower Elwha, Jamestown, and Port Gamble (or Little Boston) tribes.

Before the arrival of Europeans to the Pacific Northwest the territory inhabited by the Klallam stretched across the north coast of the Olympic Peninsula from the mouth of the Hoko River on the west to Port Discovery Bay on the east.

There were also some Klallam living across the Strait of Juan de Fuca on Vancouver Island, in or near today's Saanich, Sooke, and Beecher Bay.

Like many other indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest coast, the Klallam held potlatches, which played a large role in determining social status.

[4] Europeans first began to explore the Pacific Northwest coast with Juan Pérez in 1774, James Cook in 1778, and many others, especially maritime fur traders, from the 1780s on.

From 1790 to 1792 the Spanish, based at Nootka Sound on Vancouver Island, made multiple expeditions into the Strait of Juan de Fuca.

It is not known which ship first made contact with the Klallam, but it was most likely before 1789 and probably at the village at Clallam Bay or Port Discovery, and involved gifts of knives, buttons, and copper.

In response a party of about 60 men from Fort Vancouver visited Klallam territory and attacked the first group they found, killing seven including women and children, and burning their house.

[4] In 1832 the HBC trading post Fort Nisqually was established on the southern shore of Puget Sound, in what is the city of DuPont today.

This party found the Klallam mostly unwilling to sell furs, saying the HBC's prices were too low and that they would instead wait for some other, more competitive trader.

[4] In 1847 about 150 Klallam warriors joined with Suquamish led by Chief Seattle in a major attack on the Chimakum people, intending to wipe them out completely.

Although his count was probably too low, the Klallam population was significantly reduced from earlier times, mostly due to alcohol and disease.

A few were arrested by white settlers and sentenced to hard labor at the Skokomish Reservation, but they were not held for long and the punishment was generally considered to have been mild.

Due to rampant alcoholism, petty bickering and fighting, and thievery, the white residents of Dungeness forced them to relocate to other nearby areas twice, and then threatened to have them moved to the Skokomish Reservation.

He and other leading Klallam collected enough money to purchase a parcel of 250 acres, in 1874, and found a town they named Jamestown, after James Balch.

[citation needed] The rugged terrain and dense vegetation of the Olympic Peninsula made the canoe the preferred mode of transportation.

The canoes were carved from western red cedar (Thuja plicata) through an intricate and arduous process requiring great skill, beginning with the selection of the proper tree.

These were used on the rougher waters of Puget Sound, the Strait of Juan de Fuca, and in particular off the Pacific coast, for whaling, transporting larger loads, and carrying up to thirty passengers.

[8] The lands, rivers, marine waters, and beaches in Klallam territory provided an abundant, year-round supply of food.

Though their diet included large and small land game, sea fowl, and shellfish, the most important source of food was fish.

Specific locations were known to produce certain fishes at the right time of year, and special implements and skills were employed for a successful catch.