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Duwamish (tribe)
Encyclopedia
The Duwamish are a Lushootseed Native American
tribe
in western Washington, and the indigenous people of metropolitan Seattle, where they have been living since the end of the last glacial period (c. 8000 BCE, 10,000 years ago). The Duwamish tribe descends from at least two distinct groups from before intense contact with people of European ancestry—the People of the Inside (the environs of Elliott Bay
) and the People of the Large Lake (Lake Washington
)—and continues to evolve both culturally and ethnically. By historic language, the Duwamish are (Skagit-Nisqually) Lushootseed
; Lushootseed is a Salishan language
. Adjacent tribes throughout the Puget Sound
-Strait of Georgia
basin were, and are, interconnected and interrelated, yet distinct.
The present-day Duwamish tribe developed in parallel with the times of the Treaty of Point Elliott
and its aftermath in the 1850s. Although not recognized by the U.S. federal government, the Duwamish remain an organized tribe with roughly 500 enrolled members as of 2004. In 2009, the Duwamish tribe opened the Duwamish Longhouse and Cultural Center on purchased land near their ancient settlement of Ha-AH-Poos (also written hah-AH-poos) in West Seattle near the mouth of the Duwamish River
.
in Discovery Park
(in Seattle's Magnolia
district) date back at least 4,000 years. Villages at the then-mouth of the Duwamish River
in what is now the Industrial District
had been inhabited since the 6th century CE.
Thirteen prominent villages were in what is now the City of Seattle. The people living around Elliott Bay, the Duwamish, Black
and Cedar
Rivers were collectively known as the doo-AHBSH, "People of the Inside" (see below for more detailed discussion of this name). There were four prominent villages on Elliott Bay and the then-estuarial lower Duwamish River . Before civil engineering, the area had extensive tidelands, abundantly rich in seafoods.
The people living around Lake Washington were collectively known as the hah-choo-AHBSH, "People of the Large Lake" (see below for more detailed discussion of this name). At the time of initial major European contact, these people considered themselves distinct from the related People of the Inside, with whom they are joined in today's Duwamish tribe. Prior to the construction of the Lake Washington Ship Canal
in the 1910s, Lake Washington drained into the Black River in what is now Renton
. The Black River joined the Cedar and White (now Green
) rivers to become the Duwamish River and empty into southeast Elliott Bay. With ever-increasing European contact, the People of the Large Lake and the People of the Inside became unified under the rubric of the Duwamish Tribe.
valley. Common to Coast Salish
, villages were diffuse: people dispersed in the spring, congregated for the salmon
in the summer, and wintered in village longhouses.
In spring, salmonberry
shoots and bracken
fern fiddlehead
s were foraged, while men hunted deer or elk grazing on the skunk cabbage
or the anthropogenic grassland
s. Camas
from nearby prairies would be gathered or traded. The grasslands encouraged berries, fern roots, bulbs and other useful plants. Garry Oak
s, whose thick bark helps them survive fires, are typically associated with prairies, and their presence at Seward Park
and Martha Washington Parks suggests that anthropogenic grasslands extended between them. They may have been planted for their edible acorns.
In summer and fall, thimbleberries
, salal
, raspberries, salmonberries
, trailing blackberries
, serviceberries
, strawberries, huckleberries
, and others were foraged. The berries were eaten fresh, or dried and formed into cakes to preserve them for winter. Mixed with dried fish and oil in recipes, pemmican
made hearty late winter fare or compact, hardy provision for travel. Women and children would gather important wetland plants such as cattails for mats and wapato
("Indian potatoes") for food. Crayfish
and freshwater mussel
s were available in the lake.
Shellfish
and tidal resources were available year round, limited only by red tide
or similar infrequent closures. From midsummer through November, life revolved around the iconic salmon s√ʔuládxʷ and realization of its inspiring power and wealth, both corporeal and spiritual. Salmon returned to virtually every stream with enough flow; among these streams was sqa’ts1d (“blocked mouth”), now called Genesee Creek, which formerly drained the Rainier Valley
. The name of the creek suggests that a fishing weir in place blocked the mouth of the stream during part of the spawning season. Such weirs were made from the willows that occur abundantly along the lake shore. Fish were dried on racks to preserve them for the winter months.
During the long wet winter and early spring, the diet of dried fish and berries was supplemented by hunting duck
s, beaver
, muskrat
, raccoon
, otter
, and bear
. Winters were for construction and repair, for the arts, socializing and ceremonies, and for stories in a rich oral tradition.
Life was, however, not quite idyllic. Northern Coast Salish and Wakashan from harder climates to the north were wont to raid. Food resources varied, and resources were not always sufficient to last through to spring. The size of the salmon run has always varied tremendously from year to year. Nutritional diseases were not very distant. There is evidence that an extensive trade and potlatch
network evolved to help distribute resources to area needs that varied year to year, and was potent and effective until the "Spirit of Pestilence" arrived: European disease
s arriving in the 1770s ravished the region for more than a century.
Each village had one or more cedar plank longhouse (khwaac'ál'al or syúdəbàl?txʷ) containing extended families in a social structure that foreshadowed cohousing
of today. Tens of people lived in each one. There are several reasonable approximations to longhouses in Seattle today. The entry and beam architecture of restaurateur Ivar Haglund
's Salmon House Restaurant (1969) beside Lake Union
in Northlake
is as authentically accurate as building codes allowed. Another example is actual, on the north face of the Burke Museum at the University of Washington
. More recently, the design of the main hall of the Duwamish Longhouse and Cultural Center (opened 2009) closely echoes a traditional longhouse.
Villages were usually located facing a beach and body of water or river navigable by canoe, near a creek and drinking water source. Beyond the diffuse villages and anthropogenic grasslands, most land was heavily forested. Understory tended to be dense along the edges; travel by canoe was generally far more practical than by land. The nearby creek (dᶻəlíxʷ) would often be called Little Water(stútələkʷ), an endearing familiar.
The People of the Inside and the People of the Large Lake, like other Salish, were more a collection of villages linked by language and family ties than a nation or state. Relationships and stature among family and community were important measures or goals in life.
The People of the Inside, the People of the Large Lake, the People of Lake Sammamish
and to a little lesser extent, the People of the Snoqualmie
were all closely interrelated in a daisy chain following the geography. The Suquamish
were also related. Of these, the first two, today's Duwamish, were a relatively dense population on prime real estate, and were the most immediately dispossessed at the time of Whites settlement.
Trading relationships and privileges were extensive between peoples of the entire Pacific Northwest
(or "Cascadia"), including over the passes to what is now Eastern Washington. Relationships and trade were often cemented with the world-wide practice of intermarriage. Villages were linked to others through intermarriage, which also carried status and trading privileges; the wife usually went to live at the husband's village. While each extended family village might have their own customs, there were strong commonalities, particularly in language but also including philosophical beliefs, economic conditions, and ceremonial practices.
The central and southern part of Puget Sound
was the primary waterway connecting the greater Lushootseed (Skagit-Nisqually) Coast Salish Nations. Environmental resources were so abundant that the Skagit-Nisqually Salish had one of the world's few sedentary hunter-gatherer
societies. Life before the arrival of Europeans revolved around a social organization based on house groupings within a village, and reciprocal hospitality within and between villages.
Society was divided into upper class, lower class, and slaves, all largely hereditary. Nobility was based on impeccable genealogy, inter-tribal kinship, wise use of resources, and possession of esoteric knowledge about the workings of spirits and the spirit world, making an effective marriage of class, secular, religious, and economic power. Like some other Native American Nations, the People of the Inside and the People of the Large Lake made their free-born look different: mothers carefully shaped the heads of their young babies, binding them with cradle boards just long enough to produce a steep sloping forehead. Traditionally there was no recognized permanent political leadership, which confused and frustrated people of European ancestry when they began to trade and settle in the area. There was little political organization that was understood by Europeans. The highest-ranking appropriate male would assume the role of ceremonial leader for some timely purpose, but rank could be variable and was determined by different standards.
in the Puget Sound
-Strait of Georgia
the pace of social and organizational change, accelerating thereafter. White settlements at sbuh-KWAH-buks (Alki) and what is now Pioneer Square
in Downtown Seattle
were established in 1851 and 1852.
By the time Coast Salish began to realize the implications of the changes brought by Europeans at ever-increasing rates, the time was late. After just five years, lands were occupied; the Treaty of Point Elliott was signed in 1855. There is question about legitimacy, from the lack of understanding of the two sides about each other to the motivations of the U.S. government and its agents. Whites recognized leaders more or less at their own choosing, bypassing what they saw as the maddening fluidity of tribal leadership. The potlatch was widely banned, and the longhouse soon suppressed.
(b. c. 1784, d. 1866; see below for more detailed discussion of his name), is complex and enigmatic. Chief Seattle's mother Sholeetsa was of the People of the Inside and his father Shweabe was si'ab ("high status man") of the Suquamish. Chief Seattle's career earned and validated his inherited status. As an adult he was among the leaders of his people from the times they were the People of the Inside and the People of the Large Lake to becoming known as the Duwamish tribe. Chief Seattle had two wives and seven children, probably the most famous being his daughter, known as Princess Angeline
. Some of the family tree of Chief Seattle is known today.
Besides Chief Seattle and his descendants, Lake John Cheshiahud
and his family are among the few late-19th century Duwamish individuals about whom anything specific is known. He is found in archives as Cheshiahud, Cheslahud, Lake John Cheshiahud, or Chudups John. He was one of the few Duwamish people who didn't move from Seattle to the Port Madison Reservation
. He and his family lived on Portage Bay
, part of Seattle's Lake Union
, in the 1880s, where the lyrical photo at right was taken c. 1885. According to the Duwamish Tribe, Chudups John had a cabin and potato patch at the foot of Shelby Street (either West Montlake Park
or the Roanoke neighborhood, on either side of Portage Bay), as late as 1900 on land given him by pioneer David Denny
(or property he purchased— see Cheshiahud
). Photographer Orion O. Denny recorded Old Tom and Madeline, c. 1904, further noted in the archives of the University of Washington
Library as Madeline and Old John, also known as Indian John or Cheshishon, who had a house on Portage Bay in the 1900s, south of what is now the UW campus.
Chudups John and his family, like Princess Angeline, seem to have been excepted from the law by which Native people had been prohibited from residence in Seattle since the mid-1860s. Their story is typical of the relatively few Natives remaining in Seattle after proscription, the rest having moved or died of diseases. In 1927, his daughter Jennie (Janey) provided a list of the villages along Lake Washington that is a primary source of current knowledge of the village locations.
Hwehlchtid, known as "Salmon Bay Charlie," of the shill-shohl-AHBSH lived in the village of shill-SHOHL on the southern shore Salmon Bay, and was very loath to leave. (The village near today's Hiram M. Chittenden Locks
lends its name to today's Shilshole Bay
, immediately northwest of Salmon Bay.) Charlie and his wife Chilohleet'sa (Madelline) remained in their traditional homeland long after others of their tribe had moved away. In about 1905, long-time Seattle Times photographers Ira Webster and Nelson Stevens captured an evocative image of Salmon Bay Charlie's house at Shilshole with a canoe anchored offshore.
, and ratified in spring 1859. Signatories to the Treaty of Point Elliott included Territorial Governor Isaac Stevens
and representatives from the Duwamish, Suquamish
, Snoqualmie
, Snohomish
, Lummi
, Skagit
, Swinomish, and other tribes. The Duwamish signatories to the treaty were si'áb Si'ahl (Chief Seattle), si'áb Ts'huahntl, si'áb Now-a-chais, and si'áb Ha-seh-doo-an. Other prominent Native American signers included Snoqualmoo (Snoqualmie) and Snohomish chief Patkanim
, identified on the treaty as Pat-ka-nam; Skagit chief Goliah; and Lummi chief Chow-its-hoot
. The treaty guaranteed both fishing rights and reservations
. The treaty established the Port Madison
, Tulalip
, Swinomish, and Lummi reservations. Reservations for the Duwamish, Skagit, Snohomish, and Snoqualmie are conspicuously absent.
As noted above, Coast Salish did not have permanent political offices or formal political institutions that were understood by Whites. Due to a documented mix of motivations, Territorial Governor Isaac Stevens
appointed chiefs of tribes in order to facilitate goals of his administration. The Point Elliott Treaty is further complicated by the style of governor Stevens, and the gulf of misunderstanding between the parties.
The treaty contains provisions that raised concern by an attorney in the employ of the Natives at the treaty negotiations. It also contains the now-famous provision cited by Judge Boldt
118 years later:
According to Hazard Stevens, son of Isaac Stevens, "The salient features of the policy outlined [by Governor Stevens to his advisers] were as follows:
These goals were significantly different from the verbal assurances provided during negotiations, and all the Native Nations were oral cultures.
, some to the Tulalip
or Muckleshoot
reservations. Others refused to move. Some Coastal Salish were passionately unwilling to leave their "usual and accustomed places" (a common 19th century phrase that became treaty terms), to a degree nearly inconceivable to Whites today. The People of the Inside and the People of the Large Lake (the Duwamish) in what is now Seattle were (and are) no exception.
In the mid-1860s the U.S. Superintendent of Indian Affairs proposed a Duwamish Indian Reservation along the White and Green River Valleys. In 1866, some 152-170 King County settlers petitioned Arthur Denny, the Territorial Delegate to Congress, against a reservation for the Duwamish tribe on the then-Black River, near what is now Renton
and Tukwila
. The first signature was Chas. C. Terry (Charles Terry), followed by Arthur himself and David Denny
, H. L. Yesler (Henry Yesler
), David "Doc" Maynard and virtually all of the Seattle establishment of the time. The petition was forwarded to the Bureau of Indian Affairs
(BIA). The BIA withdrew the proposal.
Visible Native presence in the City of Seattle had disappeared by 1910, effected primarily by City proscription (c. 1865) and in part by repeated arson.
Tribal membership criteria vary by tribe. For the Duwamish, in accordance with Salish tradition, enrollment is by the applicant providing a documented genealogy. Consequently, not all Duwamish today are members of the Duwamish Tribe. The Duwamish Tribe recorded about 400 enrolled members in 1991 and about 500 in 2004. The tribe is of moderate size with respect to moderately-sized federally-recognized Washington tribes.
The Duwamish were party to land claims against the federal government in the 1930s and 1950s. Following the Boldt Decision
(1974, upheld 1979) they sought inclusion per the Treaty of Point Elliott, and in 1977 filed petition, together with the Snohomish and Steilacoom (Chillacum) for federal recognition that is still pending as of 2009,
The Duwamish Tribe's chances of federal recognition hinge, in large part, on proving they have "continually maintained an organized tribal structure since their ancestors signed treaties with the United States in the 1850s." U.S. District Judge George Boldt (1903–1984) found in 1979 that the tribe had not existed continuously as an organized tribe (within the meaning of federal law) from 1855 to the present, and was therefore ineligible for treaty fishing rights. A gap in the record from 1915-1925 prompted Boldt's decision.
According to Russel Barsh, attorney for the Samish in that tribe's effort to gain recognition, which succeeded in 1996, "the Samish proved in a hearing that Judge Boldt's decision against these tribes was based on incomplete and erroneous evidence." This would argue for allowing an appeal of the decision.
In the mid-1980s the BIA concluded that since the Duwamish Indians have no land, they cannot be recognized as a "tribe".
In June 1988, 72 descendants of Washington settlers reversed their ancestors and petitioned the Bureau of Indian Affairs in support of federal recognition of the Duwamish tribe. The signers were members of the Pioneer Association of the State of Washington, which maintains Pioneer Hall in Madison Park
as a meeting hall and archive of pioneer records.
In the mid-1990s proposals were made in Congress to extinguish all further efforts by unrecognized tribes to gain recognition. These were defeated. Success or continued failure tends to drift with the national mood and leanings of Congress. Effectively, recognition turns upon the mood of Congress with respect to honoring treaties with Native Americans. Occasionally tribes succeed, in such as with the Boldt Decision in 1974.
The Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) denied recognition in 1996. The tribe then assembled additional evidence for its active existence through the decade in question. Evidence was assembled from Catholic church records, news reports, oral histories, and further tracing of bloodlines. Ken Tollefsen, a retired Pacific University
anthropologist, helped assemble the additional data. This new evidence prompted the Bureau of Indian Affairs to reverse its 1996 decision, and the tribe briefly won federal recognition in January 2001, in the waning days of the Clinton
administration. However, the ruling was voided in 2002 by the Bush
administration, citing procedural errors.
The Tulalip
s have opposed efforts by local unrecognized tribes, contending that the Tulalip tribe (a post-Treaty construct) are the heirs of an amalgam of unrecognized tribes. This is also the case where it comes to the Muckleshoot
s. Such potentially adversarial intentions notwithstanding, the Duwamish Tribe (as of November 2009) are currently continuing their litigation for the purpose of gaining tribal recognition in the ongoing case Hansen et al vs. Kempthorne et al, Case # 2:2008cv00717, Western Washington Federal District Court, King County, Washington, Judge John C. Coughenour presiding. The Duwamish Tribe continue to publicly request donations, and (as of November 2009) have raised some, but not all, of the requisite costs of this litigation, in order to be able to continue their long-standing efforts for their existence as a legitimate tribe to be formally acknowledged and recognized by the federal government.
Members of the Duwamish continue to be involved in Seattle's Urban Indian
culture, as represented in such institutions as United Indians of All Tribes
and the Seattle Indian Health Center.
While there had been few visible signs of traditional Native culture in Seattle since the early 20th century, in March 1970 local Indians burst back into visibility on the most unmistakable way. Bob Satiacum
(Puyallup), United Indians founder Bernie Whitebear
(Colville Confederated Tribes) and other Native Americans invaded and occupied then-active Fort Lawton
, which was originally Indian land, by scaling fences and by scaling the bluffs from the beach. The base had been declared surplus by the Department of Defense
. Under Treaty of Point Elliott, the United Indians of All Tribes presented a claim to all lands that might be declared surplus. After worldwide interest, long negotiations and congressional intervention, an eventual result was construction and a 99-year renewable lease with the City of Seattle for a 17 acres (68,796.6 m²) site adjacent to the new Discovery Park
after the decommissioning of most of the base. The result was Daybreak Star Cultural Center
(1977), an urban base for Native Americans in the Seattle area.
Cecile Hansen, great great grandniece of Chief Sealth, has been the elected chair of the Duwamish Tribe since 1975, as well as a founder and the current president of Duwamish Tribal Services. In line with the re-asserted Native presence in Seattle, the Tribe established Duwamish Tribal Services in 1983 as a non-profit 501[c]3 organization to provide social and cultural services to the Duwamish Tribal community. Hansen has also dedicated herself to gaining treaty rights for the Duwamish.
James Rasmussen of the Duwamish Tribe has been a leader since 1980 in efforts to restore the Duwamish River, working with citizens groups and other tribe members. Accomplishments include gaining federal Superfund
Site status for the last 5 miles (8 km) of the river from Turning Basin and Herring House Park to the mouth. The lower Duwamish was the former concentration of Duwamish villages before substantial European contact. The most contaminated spots are being dredged and capped, largely c. 2007, overseen by the Port of Seattle
and the United States Environmental Protection Agency—and watchdogged. Complications ensue from the difficulties in tracing those responsible. Riparian cleanup and habitat restoration continues with citizens groups together with the Port.
As part of identity and heritage, the Duwamish, after much fundraising, constructed the Duwamish Longhouse and Cultural Center on purchased land across the way from Terminal 107 Park, site of a venerable former village called yee-LEH-khood, or Ha-AH-Poos.(see Downtown and lower Duwamish River). The new cultural center is built along what is now Marginal Way SW, east of what is now Puget Park, and west of the north tip of what is now called Kellogg Island
The Renton History Museum (Renton, Washington) has a small exhibit on the archaeological and cultural history of the Duwamish Tribe.
The present-day name Duwamish is an anglicization of Dxʷ'Dəw?Abš or Dkhʷ'Duw'Absh, "the People of the Inside", or more literally "the People Inside the Bay". This tribal designation also includes the historic "People of the Large Lake" (Xacuabš, Xachua'bsh, hah-choo-AHBSH or hah-chu-AHBSH, People of HAH-choo or Xachu, "People of a Large Lake", "Lake People").
The identical anglicization Duwamish has also come to designate the Duwamish River
, which, since its straightening in the early 20th century, has been officially known as the Duwamish Waterway. The People of the Inside called the river, including what is today known as the Cedar River
, Dxʷdəw. The names all originate with dəkʷ or dəgʷ from dəw for "inside something relatively small" (in this case Elliott Bay with respect to Puget Sound).
The name Seattle is also of Lushootseed origin. The famous Duwamish leader from whom the city name derives is now best known as Chief Seattle
, from si'áb Si'ahl, "high status man Si'ahl". The form Sealth is also used, as in the name of Chief Sealth High School
. His gravestone gives his name as a baptized
Roman Catholic: Noah Sealth. Another transcription of the name Si'ahl is see-YAHTLH. Lushootseed (Skagit-Nisqually)
Coast Salish
did not have political chiefs in a European sense, so "chief" is also rather arbitrary. Chief Seattle was prominent in both the Duwamish tribe and the Suquamish
tribes(Suquamish is an anglicization of Dkhʷ'Suqw'Absh; this has no English translation beyond "People of Suq'ʷ." Suquamish is also found as xʷsəqʷəb, [suqʼʷábʃ], [ʔítakʷbixʷ], [ʔitakʷbixʷ]).
The name Seattle for the city dates from as early as 1853; the naming is attributed to David Swinson 'Doc' Maynard
.
The Duwamish language, Southern Lushootseed, belongs to the Salishan family. The tribe is Lushootseed (Whulshootseed) (Skagit-Nisqually)
Coast Salish
. The Lushootseed pronunciation of the people of the Duwamish Tribe is [dxʷdɐwʔabʃ] or Dkhʷ'Duw'Absh, or less accurately, Dkhw'Duw'Absh (see the footnote for a pronunciation brief). English does not have equivalents for half of the sounds in the language.
Native Americans in the United States
Native Americans in the United States are the indigenous peoples in North America within the boundaries of the present-day continental United States, parts of Alaska, and the island state of Hawaii. They are composed of numerous, distinct tribes, states, and ethnic groups, many of which survive as...
tribe
Tribe
A tribe, viewed historically or developmentally, consists of a social group existing before the development of, or outside of, states.Many anthropologists use the term tribal society to refer to societies organized largely on the basis of kinship, especially corporate descent groups .Some theorists...
in western Washington, and the indigenous people of metropolitan Seattle, where they have been living since the end of the last glacial period (c. 8000 BCE, 10,000 years ago). The Duwamish tribe descends from at least two distinct groups from before intense contact with people of European ancestry—the People of the Inside (the environs of Elliott Bay
Elliott Bay
Elliott Bay is the body of water on which Seattle, Washington, is located. A line drawn from Alki Point in the south to West Point in the north serves to mark the generally accepted division between the bay and the open sound...
) and the People of the Large Lake (Lake Washington
Lake Washington
Lake Washington is a large freshwater lake adjacent to the city of Seattle. It is the largest lake in King County and the second largest in the state of Washington, after Lake Chelan. It is bordered by the cities of Seattle on the west, Bellevue and Kirkland on the east, Renton on the south and...
)—and continues to evolve both culturally and ethnically. By historic language, the Duwamish are (Skagit-Nisqually) Lushootseed
Lushootseed
Lushootseed is the language or dialect continuum of several SalishNative American groups of modern-day Washington state...
; Lushootseed is a Salishan language
Salishan languages
The Salishan languages are a group of languages of the Pacific Northwest...
. Adjacent tribes throughout the Puget Sound
Puget Sound
Puget Sound is a sound in the U.S. state of Washington. It is a complex estuarine system of interconnected marine waterways and basins, with one major and one minor connection to the Strait of Juan de Fuca and the Pacific Ocean — Admiralty Inlet being the major connection and...
-Strait of Georgia
Strait of Georgia
The Strait of Georgia or the Georgia Strait is a strait between Vancouver Island and the mainland coast of British Columbia, Canada. It is approximately long and varies in width from...
basin were, and are, interconnected and interrelated, yet distinct.
The present-day Duwamish tribe developed in parallel with the times of the Treaty of Point Elliott
Treaty of Point Elliott
The Treaty of Point Elliott of 1855, or the Point Elliott Treaty,—also known as Treaty of Point Elliot / Point Elliott Treaty—is the lands settlement treaty between the United States government and the nominal Native American tribes of the greater Puget Sound region in the recently-formed...
and its aftermath in the 1850s. Although not recognized by the U.S. federal government, the Duwamish remain an organized tribe with roughly 500 enrolled members as of 2004. In 2009, the Duwamish tribe opened the Duwamish Longhouse and Cultural Center on purchased land near their ancient settlement of Ha-AH-Poos (also written hah-AH-poos) in West Seattle near the mouth of the Duwamish River
Duwamish River
The Duwamish River is the name of the lower of Washington state's Green River. Its industrialized estuary is known as the Duwamish Waterway.- History :...
.
History
Before white settlement
What is now Seattle has been inhabited since the end of the last glacial period (c. 8000 BCE—10,000 years ago). Sites at West PointWest Point (Seattle)
West Point is the westernmost point in Seattle, Washington, USA, jutting into Puget Sound from the Magnolia neighborhood. It also marks the northern extent of Elliott Bay; a line drawn southeastward to Alki Point marks the western extent of the bay. At the point itself is the 1881 West Point...
in Discovery Park
Discovery Park (Seattle)
Discovery Park is a 534 acre park in the peninsular Magnolia neighborhood of Seattle, Washington. It is the city's largest public park and contains 11.81 miles of walking trails. United Indians of All Tribes' Daybreak Star Cultural Center is within the park's boundaries...
(in Seattle's Magnolia
Magnolia, Seattle, Washington
Magnolia is the second largest neighborhood of Seattle, Washington by area. It occupies a hilly peninsula northwest of downtown. Magnolia is isolated from the rest of Seattle, connected by road to the rest of the city by only three bridges over the tracks of the BNSF Railway: W. Emerson Place in...
district) date back at least 4,000 years. Villages at the then-mouth of the Duwamish River
Duwamish River
The Duwamish River is the name of the lower of Washington state's Green River. Its industrialized estuary is known as the Duwamish Waterway.- History :...
in what is now the Industrial District
Industrial District, Seattle, Washington
The Industrial District is the principal industrial area of Seattle, Washington. It is bounded on the west by the Duwamish Waterway and Elliott Bay, beyond which lies Delridge of West Seattle; on the east by Interstate 5, beyond which lies Beacon Hill; on the north by S King and S Dearborn Streets,...
had been inhabited since the 6th century CE.
Thirteen prominent villages were in what is now the City of Seattle. The people living around Elliott Bay, the Duwamish, Black
Black River (Duwamish River)
The Black River, also known as the Duwamish River, was a river in King County in the U.S. state of Washington. It drained Lake Washington until 1916 when the opening of the Lake Washington Ship Canal lowered the lake, causing the Black River to dry up...
and Cedar
Cedar River (Washington)
The Cedar River is a river in the U.S. state of Washington. About long, it originates in the Cascade Range and flows generally west and northwest, emptying into the southern end of Lake Washington...
Rivers were collectively known as the doo-AHBSH, "People of the Inside" (see below for more detailed discussion of this name). There were four prominent villages on Elliott Bay and the then-estuarial lower Duwamish River . Before civil engineering, the area had extensive tidelands, abundantly rich in seafoods.
The people living around Lake Washington were collectively known as the hah-choo-AHBSH, "People of the Large Lake" (see below for more detailed discussion of this name). At the time of initial major European contact, these people considered themselves distinct from the related People of the Inside, with whom they are joined in today's Duwamish tribe. Prior to the construction of the Lake Washington Ship Canal
Lake Washington Ship Canal
The Lake Washington Ship Canal, which runs through the City of Seattle, Washington, connects the fresh water body of Lake Washington with the salt water inland sea of Puget Sound. The Ship Canal includes a series of locks, modeled after the Panama Canal, to accommodate the different water levels...
in the 1910s, Lake Washington drained into the Black River in what is now Renton
Renton, Washington
Renton is an Eastside edge city in King County, Washington, United States. Situated 11 miles southeast of Seattle, Washington, Renton straddles the southeast shore of Lake Washington. Founded in the 1860s, Renton became a supply town for the Newcastle coal fields...
. The Black River joined the Cedar and White (now Green
Green River (Washington)
The Green River is a long river in the state of Washington in the United States, arising on the western slopes of the Cascade Mountains south of I-90....
) rivers to become the Duwamish River and empty into southeast Elliott Bay. With ever-increasing European contact, the People of the Large Lake and the People of the Inside became unified under the rubric of the Duwamish Tribe.
Seasons
There were numerous villages in what would become the Seattle metropolitan area as well as the nearby Snoqualmie RiverSnoqualmie River
The Snoqualmie River is a long river in King County and Snohomish County in the U.S. state of Washington. The river's three main tributaries are the North, Middle, and South Forks, which drain the west side of the Cascade Mountains near the town of North Bend and join near the town of Snoqualmie...
valley. Common to Coast Salish
Coast Salish
Coast Salish languages are a subgroup of the Salishan language family. These languages are spoken by First Nations or Native American peoples inhabiting the territory that is now the southwest coast of British Columbia around the Strait of Georgia and Washington state around Puget Sound...
, villages were diffuse: people dispersed in the spring, congregated for the salmon
Salmon
Salmon is the common name for several species of fish in the family Salmonidae. Several other fish in the same family are called trout; the difference is often said to be that salmon migrate and trout are resident, but this distinction does not strictly hold true...
in the summer, and wintered in village longhouses.
In spring, salmonberry
Salmonberry
Rubus spectabilis is a species of Rubus native to the west coast of North America from west central Alaska to California....
shoots and bracken
Bracken
Bracken are several species of large, coarse ferns of the genus Pteridium. Ferns are vascular plants that have alternating generations, large plants that produce spores and small plants that produce sex cells . Brackens are in the family Dennstaedtiaceae, which are noted for their large, highly...
fern fiddlehead
Fiddlehead
Fiddleheads or Fiddlehead greens are the furled fronds of a young fern, harvested for use as a vegetable. Left on the plant, each fiddlehead would unroll into a new frond...
s were foraged, while men hunted deer or elk grazing on the skunk cabbage
Skunk Cabbage
Skunk Cabbage may refer to:* the genus Lysichiton* Asian Skunk Cabbage, Lysichiton camtschatcense, grows in eastern Asia* Eastern Skunk Cabbage, Symplocarpus foetidus, grows in eastern North America...
or the anthropogenic grassland
Grassland
Grasslands are areas where the vegetation is dominated by grasses and other herbaceous plants . However, sedge and rush families can also be found. Grasslands occur naturally on all continents except Antarctica...
s. Camas
Camassia
Camassia is a genus of six species native to western North America, from southern British Columbia to northern California, and east to Utah, Wyoming and Montana...
from nearby prairies would be gathered or traded. The grasslands encouraged berries, fern roots, bulbs and other useful plants. Garry Oak
Garry Oak
Quercus garryana, the Garry Oak, Oregon White Oak or Oregon Oak, has a range from southern California to extreme southwestern British Columbia, particularly southeastern Vancouver Island and the adjacent Gulf Islands. It grows from sea level to 210 m altitude in the northern part of its range, and...
s, whose thick bark helps them survive fires, are typically associated with prairies, and their presence at Seward Park
Seward Park (Seattle)
Seward Park is a 300 acre park in Seattle, Washington, U.S.A., that occupies all of Bailey Peninsula, a forested peninsula off south Seattle that juts into Lake Washington....
and Martha Washington Parks suggests that anthropogenic grasslands extended between them. They may have been planted for their edible acorns.
In summer and fall, thimbleberries
Thimbleberry
Rubus parviflorus, commonly called thimbleberry or salmonberry, is a species of Rubus, native to western and northern North America, from Alaska east to Ontario and Michigan, and south to northern Mexico...
, salal
Salal
Gaultheria shallon is a leathery-leaved shrub in the heather family , native to western North America. In English it is known as salal, shallon, or in Britain simply Gaultheria.-Ecology:...
, raspberries, salmonberries
Salmonberry
Rubus spectabilis is a species of Rubus native to the west coast of North America from west central Alaska to California....
, trailing blackberries
Blackberry
The blackberry is an edible fruit produced by any of several species in the Rubus genus of the Rosaceae family. The fruit is not a true berry; botanically it is termed an aggregate fruit, composed of small drupelets. The plants typically have biennial canes and perennial roots. Blackberries and...
, serviceberries
Serviceberry
Amelanchier , also known as shadbush, shadwood or shadblow, serviceberry or sarvisberry, wild pear, juneberry, saskatoon, sugarplum or wild-plum, and chuckley pear is a genus of about 20 species of deciduous-leaved shrubs and small trees in the Rose family .Amelanchier is native to temperate regions...
, strawberries, huckleberries
Vaccinium parvifolium
Red Huckleberry is a species of Vaccinium native to the western North America, where it is common in forests from southeastern Alaska and British Columbia south through western Washington and Oregon to central California. In the Oregon Coast Range, it is the most common Vaccinium...
, and others were foraged. The berries were eaten fresh, or dried and formed into cakes to preserve them for winter. Mixed with dried fish and oil in recipes, pemmican
Pemmican
Pemmican is a concentrated mixture of fat and protein used as a nutritious food. The word comes from the Cree word pimîhkân, which itself is derived from the word pimî, "fat, grease". It was invented by the native peoples of North America...
made hearty late winter fare or compact, hardy provision for travel. Women and children would gather important wetland plants such as cattails for mats and wapato
Wapato
Wapato can mean:* Any of various plants in the genus Sagittaria* Wapato, Washington, a town named after the plant in the State of Washington in the United States* USS Wapato , a United States Navy tug in service from 1966 to 1996...
("Indian potatoes") for food. Crayfish
Crayfish
Crayfish, crawfish, or crawdads – members of the superfamilies Astacoidea and Parastacoidea – are freshwater crustaceans resembling small lobsters, to which they are related...
and freshwater mussel
Mussel
The common name mussel is used for members of several families of clams or bivalvia mollusca, from saltwater and freshwater habitats. These groups have in common a shell whose outline is elongated and asymmetrical compared with other edible clams, which are often more or less rounded or oval.The...
s were available in the lake.
Shellfish
Shellfish
Shellfish is a culinary and fisheries term for exoskeleton-bearing aquatic invertebrates used as food, including various species of molluscs, crustaceans, and echinoderms. Although most kinds of shellfish are harvested from saltwater environments, some kinds are found only in freshwater...
and tidal resources were available year round, limited only by red tide
Red tide
Red tide is a common name for a phenomenon also known as an algal bloom , an event in which estuarine, marine, or fresh water algae accumulate rapidly in the water column and results in discoloration of the surface water. It is usually found in coastal areas...
or similar infrequent closures. From midsummer through November, life revolved around the iconic salmon s√ʔuládxʷ and realization of its inspiring power and wealth, both corporeal and spiritual. Salmon returned to virtually every stream with enough flow; among these streams was sqa’ts1d (“blocked mouth”), now called Genesee Creek, which formerly drained the Rainier Valley
Rainier Valley, Seattle, Washington
The Rainier Valley neighborhood in Seattle, is located east of Beacon Hill; west of Mount Baker, Seward Park, and Leschi; south of the Central District and First Hill; and north of the city line...
. The name of the creek suggests that a fishing weir in place blocked the mouth of the stream during part of the spawning season. Such weirs were made from the willows that occur abundantly along the lake shore. Fish were dried on racks to preserve them for the winter months.
During the long wet winter and early spring, the diet of dried fish and berries was supplemented by hunting duck
Duck
Duck is the common name for a large number of species in the Anatidae family of birds, which also includes swans and geese. The ducks are divided among several subfamilies in the Anatidae family; they do not represent a monophyletic group but a form taxon, since swans and geese are not considered...
s, beaver
Beaver
The beaver is a primarily nocturnal, large, semi-aquatic rodent. Castor includes two extant species, North American Beaver and Eurasian Beaver . Beavers are known for building dams, canals, and lodges . They are the second-largest rodent in the world...
, muskrat
Muskrat
The muskrat , the only species in genus Ondatra, is a medium-sized semi-aquatic rodent native to North America, and introduced in parts of Europe, Asia, and South America. The muskrat is found in wetlands and is a very successful animal over a wide range of climates and habitats...
, raccoon
Raccoon
Procyon is a genus of nocturnal mammals, comprising three species commonly known as raccoons, in the family Procyonidae. The most familiar species, the common raccoon , is often known simply as "the" raccoon, as the two other raccoon species in the genus are native only to the tropics and are...
, otter
Otter
The Otters are twelve species of semi-aquatic mammals which feed on fish and shellfish, and also other invertebrates, amphibians, birds and small mammals....
, and bear
Bear
Bears are mammals of the family Ursidae. Bears are classified as caniforms, or doglike carnivorans, with the pinnipeds being their closest living relatives. Although there are only eight living species of bear, they are widespread, appearing in a wide variety of habitats throughout the Northern...
. Winters were for construction and repair, for the arts, socializing and ceremonies, and for stories in a rich oral tradition.
Life was, however, not quite idyllic. Northern Coast Salish and Wakashan from harder climates to the north were wont to raid. Food resources varied, and resources were not always sufficient to last through to spring. The size of the salmon run has always varied tremendously from year to year. Nutritional diseases were not very distant. There is evidence that an extensive trade and potlatch
Potlatch
A potlatch is a gift-giving festival and primary economic system practiced by indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest Coast of Canada and United States. This includes Heiltsuk Nation, Haida, Nuxalk, Tlingit, Makah, Tsimshian, Nuu-chah-nulth, Kwakwaka'wakw, and Coast Salish cultures...
network evolved to help distribute resources to area needs that varied year to year, and was potent and effective until the "Spirit of Pestilence" arrived: European disease
Disease
A disease is an abnormal condition affecting the body of an organism. It is often construed to be a medical condition associated with specific symptoms and signs. It may be caused by external factors, such as infectious disease, or it may be caused by internal dysfunctions, such as autoimmune...
s arriving in the 1770s ravished the region for more than a century.
Society
There is very little information prior to the 1850s about ancestors of today's Duwamish people, for a mix of reasons. The anthropological societal descriptions we have snapshot structures in the second quarter of the 19th century and a little after. European contact and changes began accelerating greatly from 1833.For 500 generations they flourished until newcomers came... much was lost; much was devalued, but much was also hidden away in the hearts of the dispossessed.
Their voices insist upon a hearing and the cumulative wisdom of their long residence in this land offers rich insights to those willing to listen. The challenge now is to find a way to make knowledge of the ancient traditions, the experience of change and the living reality accessible and available.
- David M. Buerge, "Native Americans of the Pacific Northwest: An Introduction"
Cohousing
A cohousing community is a type of intentional community composed of private homes supplemented by shared facilities. The community is planned, owned and managed by the residents – who also share activities which may include cooking, dining, child care, gardening, and governance of the...
of today. Tens of people lived in each one. There are several reasonable approximations to longhouses in Seattle today. The entry and beam architecture of restaurateur Ivar Haglund
Ivar Haglund
Ivar Haglund was a Seattle folk singer and the "flounder" of Ivar's.-Background:Ivar Haglund was born in Seattle, Washington. Ivar Haglund was born to pioneers Johan Ivar Haglund, a Swedish immigrant and Daisy Hanson Haglund, daughter of Norwegian immigrants...
's Salmon House Restaurant (1969) beside Lake Union
Lake Union
Lake Union is a freshwater lake entirely within the Seattle, Washington city limits.-Origins:A glacial lake, its basin was dug 12,000 years ago by the Vashon glacier, which also created Lake Washington and Seattle's Green, Bitter, and Haller Lakes.-Name:...
in Northlake
Northlake, Seattle, Washington
Northlake is a neighborhood in Seattle, Washington, that consists of the southern part of Wallingford, below N 40th Street. It is so named for being on the northern shore of Lake Union. Landmarks are Gas Works Park, with the Wallingford Steps above, and Ivar's Salmon House...
is as authentically accurate as building codes allowed. Another example is actual, on the north face of the Burke Museum at the University of Washington
University of Washington
University of Washington is a public research university, founded in 1861 in Seattle, Washington, United States. The UW is the largest university in the Northwest and the oldest public university on the West Coast. The university has three campuses, with its largest campus in the University...
. More recently, the design of the main hall of the Duwamish Longhouse and Cultural Center (opened 2009) closely echoes a traditional longhouse.
Villages were usually located facing a beach and body of water or river navigable by canoe, near a creek and drinking water source. Beyond the diffuse villages and anthropogenic grasslands, most land was heavily forested. Understory tended to be dense along the edges; travel by canoe was generally far more practical than by land. The nearby creek (dᶻəlíxʷ) would often be called Little Water(stútələkʷ), an endearing familiar.
The People of the Inside and the People of the Large Lake, like other Salish, were more a collection of villages linked by language and family ties than a nation or state. Relationships and stature among family and community were important measures or goals in life.
The People of the Inside, the People of the Large Lake, the People of Lake Sammamish
Sammamish (tribe)
The Sammamish people were a Coast Salish Native American tribe in the Sammamish River Valley in central King County, Washington. Their name is variously translated as "meander dwellers"" or "willow people." They were also known to early European-American settlers as "Squak", "Simump", and...
and to a little lesser extent, the People of the Snoqualmie
Snoqualmie (tribe)
The Snoqualmie Tribe is a tribal government of Coast Salish Native American peoples from the Snoqualmie Valley in east King and Snohomish Counties in Washington state. The Snoqualmie settled onto the Tulalip Reservation after signing the Point Elliott Treaty with the Washington Territory in 1855...
were all closely interrelated in a daisy chain following the geography. The Suquamish
Suquamish
The Suquamish are a Lushootseed-speaking Native American Tribe, located in present-day Washington in the United States.The Suquamish are a southern Coast Salish people; they spoke a dialect of Lushootseed, which belongs to the Salishan language family. Like many Northwest Coast natives, the...
were also related. Of these, the first two, today's Duwamish, were a relatively dense population on prime real estate, and were the most immediately dispossessed at the time of Whites settlement.
Trading relationships and privileges were extensive between peoples of the entire Pacific Northwest
Pacific Northwest
The Pacific Northwest is a region in northwestern North America, bounded by the Pacific Ocean to the west and, loosely, by the Rocky Mountains on the east. Definitions of the region vary and there is no commonly agreed upon boundary, even among Pacific Northwesterners. A common concept of the...
(or "Cascadia"), including over the passes to what is now Eastern Washington. Relationships and trade were often cemented with the world-wide practice of intermarriage. Villages were linked to others through intermarriage, which also carried status and trading privileges; the wife usually went to live at the husband's village. While each extended family village might have their own customs, there were strong commonalities, particularly in language but also including philosophical beliefs, economic conditions, and ceremonial practices.
The central and southern part of Puget Sound
Puget Sound
Puget Sound is a sound in the U.S. state of Washington. It is a complex estuarine system of interconnected marine waterways and basins, with one major and one minor connection to the Strait of Juan de Fuca and the Pacific Ocean — Admiralty Inlet being the major connection and...
was the primary waterway connecting the greater Lushootseed (Skagit-Nisqually) Coast Salish Nations. Environmental resources were so abundant that the Skagit-Nisqually Salish had one of the world's few sedentary hunter-gatherer
Hunter-gatherer
A hunter-gatherer or forage society is one in which most or all food is obtained from wild plants and animals, in contrast to agricultural societies which rely mainly on domesticated species. Hunting and gathering was the ancestral subsistence mode of Homo, and all modern humans were...
societies. Life before the arrival of Europeans revolved around a social organization based on house groupings within a village, and reciprocal hospitality within and between villages.
Society was divided into upper class, lower class, and slaves, all largely hereditary. Nobility was based on impeccable genealogy, inter-tribal kinship, wise use of resources, and possession of esoteric knowledge about the workings of spirits and the spirit world, making an effective marriage of class, secular, religious, and economic power. Like some other Native American Nations, the People of the Inside and the People of the Large Lake made their free-born look different: mothers carefully shaped the heads of their young babies, binding them with cradle boards just long enough to produce a steep sloping forehead. Traditionally there was no recognized permanent political leadership, which confused and frustrated people of European ancestry when they began to trade and settle in the area. There was little political organization that was understood by Europeans. The highest-ranking appropriate male would assume the role of ceremonial leader for some timely purpose, but rank could be variable and was determined by different standards.
Contact and rapid change
From the 1800s, effects of the Maritime Fur TradeMaritime Fur Trade
The Maritime Fur Trade was a ship-based fur trade system that focused on acquiring furs of sea otters and other animals from the indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest Coast and natives of Alaska. The furs were mostly sold in China in exchange for tea, silks, porcelain, and other Chinese...
in the Puget Sound
Puget Sound
Puget Sound is a sound in the U.S. state of Washington. It is a complex estuarine system of interconnected marine waterways and basins, with one major and one minor connection to the Strait of Juan de Fuca and the Pacific Ocean — Admiralty Inlet being the major connection and...
-Strait of Georgia
Strait of Georgia
The Strait of Georgia or the Georgia Strait is a strait between Vancouver Island and the mainland coast of British Columbia, Canada. It is approximately long and varies in width from...
the pace of social and organizational change, accelerating thereafter. White settlements at sbuh-KWAH-buks (Alki) and what is now Pioneer Square
Pioneer Square, Seattle, Washington
Pioneer Square is a neighborhood in the southwest corner of Downtown Seattle, Washington, USA. It was once the heart of the city: Seattle's founders settled there in 1852, following a brief six-month settlement at Alki Point on the far side of Elliott Bay. The early structures in the neighborhood...
in Downtown Seattle
Downtown Seattle
Downtown is the central business district of Seattle, Washington. It is fairly compact compared to other city centers on the West Coast because of its geographical situation: hemmed in on the north and east by hills, on the west by the Elliott Bay, and on the south by reclaimed land that was once...
were established in 1851 and 1852.
By the time Coast Salish began to realize the implications of the changes brought by Europeans at ever-increasing rates, the time was late. After just five years, lands were occupied; the Treaty of Point Elliott was signed in 1855. There is question about legitimacy, from the lack of understanding of the two sides about each other to the motivations of the U.S. government and its agents. Whites recognized leaders more or less at their own choosing, bypassing what they saw as the maddening fluidity of tribal leadership. The potlatch was widely banned, and the longhouse soon suppressed.
Prominent contact-era Duwamish people
The role of the most famous of the Duwamish, Chief SeattleChief Seattle
Chief Seattle , was a Dkhw’Duw’Absh chief, also known as Sealth, Seathle, Seathl, or See-ahth. A prominent figure among his people, he pursued a path of accommodation to white settlers, forming a personal relationship with David Swinson "Doc" Maynard. Seattle, Washington was named after him...
(b. c. 1784, d. 1866; see below for more detailed discussion of his name), is complex and enigmatic. Chief Seattle's mother Sholeetsa was of the People of the Inside and his father Shweabe was si'ab ("high status man") of the Suquamish. Chief Seattle's career earned and validated his inherited status. As an adult he was among the leaders of his people from the times they were the People of the Inside and the People of the Large Lake to becoming known as the Duwamish tribe. Chief Seattle had two wives and seven children, probably the most famous being his daughter, known as Princess Angeline
Princess Angeline
Princess Angeline , also known in Lushootseed as Kikisoblu, Kick-is-om-lo, or Wewick, was the eldest daughter of Chief Seattle. Born in what is now Rainier Beach in Seattle, Washington, she was named Angeline by Catherine Broshears Maynard, second wife of Seattle pioneer Doc Maynard...
. Some of the family tree of Chief Seattle is known today.
Cheshiahud
Cheshiahud and his family on Lake Union, Seattle, Washington in the 1880s are, along with Princess Angeline, among the few late-19th century Dkhw'Duw'Absh about whom a little is known...
and his family are among the few late-19th century Duwamish individuals about whom anything specific is known. He is found in archives as Cheshiahud, Cheslahud, Lake John Cheshiahud, or Chudups John. He was one of the few Duwamish people who didn't move from Seattle to the Port Madison Reservation
Port Madison Indian Reservation
The Port Madison Indian Reservation is an Indian reservation in northern Kitsap County, Washington. It occupies 30.273 km² on the western and northern shores of Port Madison, and is divided into two separate parcels by Miller Bay. The unincorporated towns of Suquamish and Indianola both lie...
. He and his family lived on Portage Bay
Portage Bay
Portage Bay is an arm of Seattle, Washington's Lake Union and is part of the Lake Washington Ship Canal. Its western limit can be said to be the Ship Canal Bridge, which carries Interstate 5 over the water; North Passage Point Park and South Passage Point Park sit on opposite shores between the...
, part of Seattle's Lake Union
Lake Union
Lake Union is a freshwater lake entirely within the Seattle, Washington city limits.-Origins:A glacial lake, its basin was dug 12,000 years ago by the Vashon glacier, which also created Lake Washington and Seattle's Green, Bitter, and Haller Lakes.-Name:...
, in the 1880s, where the lyrical photo at right was taken c. 1885. According to the Duwamish Tribe, Chudups John had a cabin and potato patch at the foot of Shelby Street (either West Montlake Park
West Montlake Park
West Montlake Park is a park in the Montlake neighborhood of Seattle, Washington. The park is bounded on the north by the Montlake Cut, on the west by Portage Bay, on the south by the Seattle Yacht Club marina, and on the east by West Park Drive E...
or the Roanoke neighborhood, on either side of Portage Bay), as late as 1900 on land given him by pioneer David Denny
Denny Party
The Denny Party is a group of white pioneers credited with founding Seattle, Washington because they settled at Alki Point on November 13, 1851.A wagon party headed by Arthur A. Denny left Cherry Grove, Illinois on April 10, 1851...
(or property he purchased— see Cheshiahud
Cheshiahud
Cheshiahud and his family on Lake Union, Seattle, Washington in the 1880s are, along with Princess Angeline, among the few late-19th century Dkhw'Duw'Absh about whom a little is known...
). Photographer Orion O. Denny recorded Old Tom and Madeline, c. 1904, further noted in the archives of the University of Washington
University of Washington
University of Washington is a public research university, founded in 1861 in Seattle, Washington, United States. The UW is the largest university in the Northwest and the oldest public university on the West Coast. The university has three campuses, with its largest campus in the University...
Library as Madeline and Old John, also known as Indian John or Cheshishon, who had a house on Portage Bay in the 1900s, south of what is now the UW campus.
Hwehlchtid, known as "Salmon Bay Charlie," of the shill-shohl-AHBSH lived in the village of shill-SHOHL on the southern shore Salmon Bay, and was very loath to leave. (The village near today's Hiram M. Chittenden Locks
Hiram M. Chittenden Locks
The Hiram M. Chittenden Locks are a complex of locks that sit at the west end of Salmon Bay, part of Seattle's Lake Washington Ship Canal. They are known locally as the Ballard Locks after the neighborhood to their north...
lends its name to today's Shilshole Bay
Shilshole Bay
Shilshole Bay is the part of Puget Sound east of a line drawn northeasterly from Seattle's West Point in the southwest to its Golden Gardens Park in the northeast. On its shores lie Discovery Park, the Lawtonwood section of the Magnolia neighborhood, the neighborhood of Ballard, and Golden Gardens...
, immediately northwest of Salmon Bay.) Charlie and his wife Chilohleet'sa (Madelline) remained in their traditional homeland long after others of their tribe had moved away. In about 1905, long-time Seattle Times photographers Ira Webster and Nelson Stevens captured an evocative image of Salmon Bay Charlie's house at Shilshole with a canoe anchored offshore.
The Treaty of Point Elliott
The Treaty of Point Elliott was signed on 22 January 1855, at Muckl-te-oh or Point Elliott, now Mukilteo, WashingtonMukilteo, Washington
Mukilteo , which means "good camping ground", is a city in Snohomish County, Washington, United States. The population was 20,254 at the 2010 census. It is on the shore of the Puget Sound, and is the site of a Washington State Ferries terminal linking it to Clinton, on Whidbey Island.Mukilteo is...
, and ratified in spring 1859. Signatories to the Treaty of Point Elliott included Territorial Governor Isaac Stevens
Isaac Stevens
Isaac Ingalls Stevens was the first governor of Washington Territory, a United States Congressman, and a brigadier general in the Union Army during the American Civil War until his death at the Battle of Chantilly...
and representatives from the Duwamish, Suquamish
Suquamish
The Suquamish are a Lushootseed-speaking Native American Tribe, located in present-day Washington in the United States.The Suquamish are a southern Coast Salish people; they spoke a dialect of Lushootseed, which belongs to the Salishan language family. Like many Northwest Coast natives, the...
, Snoqualmie
Snoqualmie (tribe)
The Snoqualmie Tribe is a tribal government of Coast Salish Native American peoples from the Snoqualmie Valley in east King and Snohomish Counties in Washington state. The Snoqualmie settled onto the Tulalip Reservation after signing the Point Elliott Treaty with the Washington Territory in 1855...
, Snohomish
Snohomish (tribe)
The Snohomish are a Lushootseed Native American tribe who reside around the Puget Sound area of Washington, north of Seattle. They speak the Lushootseed language. The tribal spelling is Sdoh-doh-hohbsh, which means "wet snow" according to the last chief of the Snohomish tribe, Chief William...
, Lummi
Lummi
The Lummi , governed by the Lummi Nation, are a Native American tribe of the Coast Salish ethnolinguistic group in western Washington state in the United States...
, Skagit
Skagit (tribe)
The Skagit are either of two tribes of the Lushootseed Native American people living in the state of Washington, the Upper Skagit and the Lower Skagit. They speak a subdialect of the Northern dialect of Lushootseed, which is part of the Salishan family. The Skagit River, Skagit Bay, and Skagit...
, Swinomish, and other tribes. The Duwamish signatories to the treaty were si'áb Si'ahl (Chief Seattle), si'áb Ts'huahntl, si'áb Now-a-chais, and si'áb Ha-seh-doo-an. Other prominent Native American signers included Snoqualmoo (Snoqualmie) and Snohomish chief Patkanim
Patkanim
Patkanim was chief of the Snoqualmoo and Snohomish tribe in what is now modern Washington State....
, identified on the treaty as Pat-ka-nam; Skagit chief Goliah; and Lummi chief Chow-its-hoot
Chow-its-hoot
Chow-its-hoot or Chowitsuit is a Lummi name. Several Lummi individuals have carried this name. Commonly, the name refers to the man who signed the Point Elliott Treaty in 1855 on behalf of the southern band of Lummis. He had no children. His father was named Sa-hop-kan. He had at least one brother,...
. The treaty guaranteed both fishing rights and reservations
Indian reservation
An American Indian reservation is an area of land managed by a Native American tribe under the United States Department of the Interior's Bureau of Indian Affairs...
. The treaty established the Port Madison
Port Madison Indian Reservation
The Port Madison Indian Reservation is an Indian reservation in northern Kitsap County, Washington. It occupies 30.273 km² on the western and northern shores of Port Madison, and is divided into two separate parcels by Miller Bay. The unincorporated towns of Suquamish and Indianola both lie...
, Tulalip
Tulalip
Tulalip is a group of Native American peoples from western Washington state in the United States. Today they are federally recognized as the Tulalip Tribes of the Tulalip Reservation.- History :...
, Swinomish, and Lummi reservations. Reservations for the Duwamish, Skagit, Snohomish, and Snoqualmie are conspicuously absent.
As noted above, Coast Salish did not have permanent political offices or formal political institutions that were understood by Whites. Due to a documented mix of motivations, Territorial Governor Isaac Stevens
Isaac Stevens
Isaac Ingalls Stevens was the first governor of Washington Territory, a United States Congressman, and a brigadier general in the Union Army during the American Civil War until his death at the Battle of Chantilly...
appointed chiefs of tribes in order to facilitate goals of his administration. The Point Elliott Treaty is further complicated by the style of governor Stevens, and the gulf of misunderstanding between the parties.
The treaty contains provisions that raised concern by an attorney in the employ of the Natives at the treaty negotiations. It also contains the now-famous provision cited by Judge Boldt
Boldt Decision
United States v. Washington, 384 F. Supp. 312 , was a 1974 court case which affirmed the right of most of the tribes in Washington to continue to harvest salmon...
118 years later:
ARTICLE 5.
The right of taking fish at usual and accustomed grounds and stations is further secured to said Indians in common with all citizens of the Territory,
According to Hazard Stevens, son of Isaac Stevens, "The salient features of the policy outlined [by Governor Stevens to his advisers] were as follows:
- 1. To concentrate the Indians upon a few reservations, and encourage them to cultivate the soil and adopt settled and civilized habits.
- 2. To pay for their lands not in money, but in annuities of blankets, clothing, and useful articles during a long term of years.
- 3. To furnish them with schools, teachers, farmers and farming implements, blacksmiths, and carpenter, with shops of those trades.
- 4. To prohibit wars and disputes among them.
- 5. To abolish slavery.
- 6. To stop as far as possible the use of liquor.
- 7. As the change from savage to civilized habits must necessarily be gradual, they were to retain the right of fishing at their accustomed fishing-places, and of hunting, gathering berries and roots, and pasturing stock on unoccupied land as long as it remained vacant.
- 8. At some future time, when they should have become fitted for it, the lands of the reservations were to be allotted to them in severalty."
- [Italics and underlines added]
These goals were significantly different from the verbal assurances provided during negotiations, and all the Native Nations were oral cultures.
After the Treaty
The United States government did not fulfill its commitments to the Duwamish under the Point Elliott Treaty. The Duwamish did not receive a reservation and, indeed, a proposed reservation was specifically blocked in 1866. Some Duwamish joined other tribes and moved onto reservations. Many moved to the Port Madison ReservationPort Madison Indian Reservation
The Port Madison Indian Reservation is an Indian reservation in northern Kitsap County, Washington. It occupies 30.273 km² on the western and northern shores of Port Madison, and is divided into two separate parcels by Miller Bay. The unincorporated towns of Suquamish and Indianola both lie...
, some to the Tulalip
Tulalip
Tulalip is a group of Native American peoples from western Washington state in the United States. Today they are federally recognized as the Tulalip Tribes of the Tulalip Reservation.- History :...
or Muckleshoot
Muckleshoot
The Muckleshoot are a Lushootseed Native American tribe, part of the Coast Salish peoples of the Pacific Northwest whose traditional territory and reservations is located in the area of Auburn, Washington, between Seattle and Tacoma...
reservations. Others refused to move. Some Coastal Salish were passionately unwilling to leave their "usual and accustomed places" (a common 19th century phrase that became treaty terms), to a degree nearly inconceivable to Whites today. The People of the Inside and the People of the Large Lake (the Duwamish) in what is now Seattle were (and are) no exception.
In the mid-1860s the U.S. Superintendent of Indian Affairs proposed a Duwamish Indian Reservation along the White and Green River Valleys. In 1866, some 152-170 King County settlers petitioned Arthur Denny, the Territorial Delegate to Congress, against a reservation for the Duwamish tribe on the then-Black River, near what is now Renton
Renton, Washington
Renton is an Eastside edge city in King County, Washington, United States. Situated 11 miles southeast of Seattle, Washington, Renton straddles the southeast shore of Lake Washington. Founded in the 1860s, Renton became a supply town for the Newcastle coal fields...
and Tukwila
Tukwila, Washington
Tukwila is a city in King County, Washington, United States. The northern edge of Tukwila borders the city of Seattle. The population was 19,107 at the 2010 census.-History:...
. The first signature was Chas. C. Terry (Charles Terry), followed by Arthur himself and David Denny
David Denny
David Thomas Denny was a member of the Denny Party, who are generally collectively credited as the founders of Seattle, Washington, USA. Though he ultimately underwent bankruptcy, he was a significant contributor to the shape of the city...
, H. L. Yesler (Henry Yesler
Henry Yesler
Henry L. Yesler was an entrepreneur considered to be Seattle, Washington's first economic father and first millionaire. He arrived in Seattle in 1852 and built a steam-powered sawmill, which provided numerous jobs for those early settlers and Duwamish tribe members...
), David "Doc" Maynard and virtually all of the Seattle establishment of the time. The petition was forwarded to the Bureau of Indian Affairs
Bureau of Indian Affairs
The Bureau of Indian Affairs is an agency of the federal government of the United States within the US Department of the Interior. It is responsible for the administration and management of of land held in trust by the United States for Native Americans in the United States, Native American...
(BIA). The BIA withdrew the proposal.
Visible Native presence in the City of Seattle had disappeared by 1910, effected primarily by City proscription (c. 1865) and in part by repeated arson.
Tribal status
The Duwamish Tribe adopted a constitution, bylaws, and further structure in 1925, but as of 2009 they are not recognized as a tribe by the United States federal government. Individually, the Duwamish people continue to be recognized by the BIA as legal Native Americans, but not corporately as a tribe.Tribal membership criteria vary by tribe. For the Duwamish, in accordance with Salish tradition, enrollment is by the applicant providing a documented genealogy. Consequently, not all Duwamish today are members of the Duwamish Tribe. The Duwamish Tribe recorded about 400 enrolled members in 1991 and about 500 in 2004. The tribe is of moderate size with respect to moderately-sized federally-recognized Washington tribes.
The Duwamish were party to land claims against the federal government in the 1930s and 1950s. Following the Boldt Decision
Boldt Decision
United States v. Washington, 384 F. Supp. 312 , was a 1974 court case which affirmed the right of most of the tribes in Washington to continue to harvest salmon...
(1974, upheld 1979) they sought inclusion per the Treaty of Point Elliott, and in 1977 filed petition, together with the Snohomish and Steilacoom (Chillacum) for federal recognition that is still pending as of 2009,
The Duwamish Tribe's chances of federal recognition hinge, in large part, on proving they have "continually maintained an organized tribal structure since their ancestors signed treaties with the United States in the 1850s." U.S. District Judge George Boldt (1903–1984) found in 1979 that the tribe had not existed continuously as an organized tribe (within the meaning of federal law) from 1855 to the present, and was therefore ineligible for treaty fishing rights. A gap in the record from 1915-1925 prompted Boldt's decision.
According to Russel Barsh, attorney for the Samish in that tribe's effort to gain recognition, which succeeded in 1996, "the Samish proved in a hearing that Judge Boldt's decision against these tribes was based on incomplete and erroneous evidence." This would argue for allowing an appeal of the decision.
In the mid-1980s the BIA concluded that since the Duwamish Indians have no land, they cannot be recognized as a "tribe".
In June 1988, 72 descendants of Washington settlers reversed their ancestors and petitioned the Bureau of Indian Affairs in support of federal recognition of the Duwamish tribe. The signers were members of the Pioneer Association of the State of Washington, which maintains Pioneer Hall in Madison Park
Madison Park, Seattle, Washington
Madison Park is a neighborhood in east central Seattle, Washington, USA, named after the city park at the foot of E. Madison Street on the Lake Washington shore. It is bounded on the east by Lake Washington; on the south by the intersection of Lake Washington Boulevard E...
as a meeting hall and archive of pioneer records.
In the mid-1990s proposals were made in Congress to extinguish all further efforts by unrecognized tribes to gain recognition. These were defeated. Success or continued failure tends to drift with the national mood and leanings of Congress. Effectively, recognition turns upon the mood of Congress with respect to honoring treaties with Native Americans. Occasionally tribes succeed, in such as with the Boldt Decision in 1974.
The Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) denied recognition in 1996. The tribe then assembled additional evidence for its active existence through the decade in question. Evidence was assembled from Catholic church records, news reports, oral histories, and further tracing of bloodlines. Ken Tollefsen, a retired Pacific University
Pacific University
Pacific University is a private university located in Oregon, United States. The first campus began more than 160 years ago and is located about 38 km west of Portland in Forest Grove...
anthropologist, helped assemble the additional data. This new evidence prompted the Bureau of Indian Affairs to reverse its 1996 decision, and the tribe briefly won federal recognition in January 2001, in the waning days of the Clinton
Bill Clinton
William Jefferson "Bill" Clinton is an American politician who served as the 42nd President of the United States from 1993 to 2001. Inaugurated at age 46, he was the third-youngest president. He took office at the end of the Cold War, and was the first president of the baby boomer generation...
administration. However, the ruling was voided in 2002 by the Bush
George W. Bush
George Walker Bush is an American politician who served as the 43rd President of the United States, from 2001 to 2009. Before that, he was the 46th Governor of Texas, having served from 1995 to 2000....
administration, citing procedural errors.
The Tulalip
Tulalip
Tulalip is a group of Native American peoples from western Washington state in the United States. Today they are federally recognized as the Tulalip Tribes of the Tulalip Reservation.- History :...
s have opposed efforts by local unrecognized tribes, contending that the Tulalip tribe (a post-Treaty construct) are the heirs of an amalgam of unrecognized tribes. This is also the case where it comes to the Muckleshoot
Muckleshoot
The Muckleshoot are a Lushootseed Native American tribe, part of the Coast Salish peoples of the Pacific Northwest whose traditional territory and reservations is located in the area of Auburn, Washington, between Seattle and Tacoma...
s. Such potentially adversarial intentions notwithstanding, the Duwamish Tribe (as of November 2009) are currently continuing their litigation for the purpose of gaining tribal recognition in the ongoing case Hansen et al vs. Kempthorne et al, Case # 2:2008cv00717, Western Washington Federal District Court, King County, Washington, Judge John C. Coughenour presiding. The Duwamish Tribe continue to publicly request donations, and (as of November 2009) have raised some, but not all, of the requisite costs of this litigation, in order to be able to continue their long-standing efforts for their existence as a legitimate tribe to be formally acknowledged and recognized by the federal government.
Recent history
Unlike many other Northwest Coast indigenous groups, many Duwamish did not move to reservation lands, yet still retain much of their cultural heritage. In recent decades notable elders are recovering and younger members are further developing that heritage.Members of the Duwamish continue to be involved in Seattle's Urban Indian
Urban Indian
Urban Indians are Native Americans in the United States who live in urban areas. Urban Indians represent a growing proportion of the Native population in the United States...
culture, as represented in such institutions as United Indians of All Tribes
United Indians of All Tribes
United Indians of All Tribes is a non-profit foundation that provides social and educational services to Native Americans in the Seattle metropolitan area and aims to promote the well being of the Native American community of the area...
and the Seattle Indian Health Center.
While there had been few visible signs of traditional Native culture in Seattle since the early 20th century, in March 1970 local Indians burst back into visibility on the most unmistakable way. Bob Satiacum
Robert Satiacum
Robert Satiacum was a Puyallup tribal leader, convicted felon, and an advocate of native treaty fishing rights in the United States. He was convicted of attempted murder and other charges in 1982, but fled to Canada to avoid a prison term. He was later convicted of child molestation in Canada in...
(Puyallup), United Indians founder Bernie Whitebear
Bernie Whitebear
Bernie Whitebear , birth name Bernard Reyes, was an American Indian activist, a co-founder of the Seattle Indian Health Board , the United Indians of All Tribes Foundation, and the Daybreak Star Cultural Center....
(Colville Confederated Tribes) and other Native Americans invaded and occupied then-active Fort Lawton
Fort Lawton
Fort Lawton is a United States Army fort located in the Magnolia neighborhood of Seattle, Washington. The fort was included in the 2005 Base Realignment and Closure list.-History:...
, which was originally Indian land, by scaling fences and by scaling the bluffs from the beach. The base had been declared surplus by the Department of Defense
United States Department of Defense
The United States Department of Defense is the U.S...
. Under Treaty of Point Elliott, the United Indians of All Tribes presented a claim to all lands that might be declared surplus. After worldwide interest, long negotiations and congressional intervention, an eventual result was construction and a 99-year renewable lease with the City of Seattle for a 17 acres (68,796.6 m²) site adjacent to the new Discovery Park
Discovery Park (Seattle)
Discovery Park is a 534 acre park in the peninsular Magnolia neighborhood of Seattle, Washington. It is the city's largest public park and contains 11.81 miles of walking trails. United Indians of All Tribes' Daybreak Star Cultural Center is within the park's boundaries...
after the decommissioning of most of the base. The result was Daybreak Star Cultural Center
Daybreak Star Cultural Center
The Daybreak Star Cultural Center is a Native American cultural center in Seattle, Washington, described by its parent organization United Indians of All Tribes as "an urban base for Native Americans in the Seattle area." Located on 20 acres in Seattle's Discovery Park in the Magnolia...
(1977), an urban base for Native Americans in the Seattle area.
Cecile Hansen, great great grandniece of Chief Sealth, has been the elected chair of the Duwamish Tribe since 1975, as well as a founder and the current president of Duwamish Tribal Services. In line with the re-asserted Native presence in Seattle, the Tribe established Duwamish Tribal Services in 1983 as a non-profit 501[c]3 organization to provide social and cultural services to the Duwamish Tribal community. Hansen has also dedicated herself to gaining treaty rights for the Duwamish.
James Rasmussen of the Duwamish Tribe has been a leader since 1980 in efforts to restore the Duwamish River, working with citizens groups and other tribe members. Accomplishments include gaining federal Superfund
Superfund
Superfund is the common name for the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act of 1980 , a United States federal law designed to clean up sites contaminated with hazardous substances...
Site status for the last 5 miles (8 km) of the river from Turning Basin and Herring House Park to the mouth. The lower Duwamish was the former concentration of Duwamish villages before substantial European contact. The most contaminated spots are being dredged and capped, largely c. 2007, overseen by the Port of Seattle
Port of Seattle
The Port of Seattle is a port district that runs Seattle's seaport and airport. Its creation was approved by the voters of King County, Washington, on September 5, 1911, authorized by the Port District Act. It is run by a five-member commission. The commissioners' terms run four years...
and the United States Environmental Protection Agency—and watchdogged. Complications ensue from the difficulties in tracing those responsible. Riparian cleanup and habitat restoration continues with citizens groups together with the Port.
These salmon and critters here are my brothers and my cousins. I care about them that much. And our ancestors are still here. They see what's going on, and they hold you responsible.
- James Rasmussen
The Renton History Museum (Renton, Washington) has a small exhibit on the archaeological and cultural history of the Duwamish Tribe.
Names
In the era since contact with people of European descent, names have changed along with tribal societies.The present-day name Duwamish is an anglicization of Dxʷ'Dəw?Abš or Dkhʷ'Duw'Absh, "the People of the Inside", or more literally "the People Inside the Bay". This tribal designation also includes the historic "People of the Large Lake" (Xacuabš, Xachua'bsh, hah-choo-AHBSH or hah-chu-AHBSH, People of HAH-choo or Xachu, "People of a Large Lake", "Lake People").
The identical anglicization Duwamish has also come to designate the Duwamish River
Duwamish River
The Duwamish River is the name of the lower of Washington state's Green River. Its industrialized estuary is known as the Duwamish Waterway.- History :...
, which, since its straightening in the early 20th century, has been officially known as the Duwamish Waterway. The People of the Inside called the river, including what is today known as the Cedar River
Cedar River (Washington)
The Cedar River is a river in the U.S. state of Washington. About long, it originates in the Cascade Range and flows generally west and northwest, emptying into the southern end of Lake Washington...
, Dxʷdəw. The names all originate with dəkʷ or dəgʷ from dəw for "inside something relatively small" (in this case Elliott Bay with respect to Puget Sound).
The name Seattle is also of Lushootseed origin. The famous Duwamish leader from whom the city name derives is now best known as Chief Seattle
Chief Seattle
Chief Seattle , was a Dkhw’Duw’Absh chief, also known as Sealth, Seathle, Seathl, or See-ahth. A prominent figure among his people, he pursued a path of accommodation to white settlers, forming a personal relationship with David Swinson "Doc" Maynard. Seattle, Washington was named after him...
, from si'áb Si'ahl, "high status man Si'ahl". The form Sealth is also used, as in the name of Chief Sealth High School
Chief Sealth High School
Chief Sealth International High School is a public high school in the Seattle Public Schools district of Seattle, Washington. Opened in 1957 in southern West Seattle, Chief Sealth students comprise one of the most ethnically and culturally diverse student bodies in Washington State...
. His gravestone gives his name as a baptized
Baptism
In Christianity, baptism is for the majority the rite of admission , almost invariably with the use of water, into the Christian Church generally and also membership of a particular church tradition...
Roman Catholic: Noah Sealth. Another transcription of the name Si'ahl is see-YAHTLH. Lushootseed (Skagit-Nisqually)
Lushootseed
Lushootseed is the language or dialect continuum of several SalishNative American groups of modern-day Washington state...
Coast Salish
Coast Salish
Coast Salish languages are a subgroup of the Salishan language family. These languages are spoken by First Nations or Native American peoples inhabiting the territory that is now the southwest coast of British Columbia around the Strait of Georgia and Washington state around Puget Sound...
did not have political chiefs in a European sense, so "chief" is also rather arbitrary. Chief Seattle was prominent in both the Duwamish tribe and the Suquamish
Suquamish
The Suquamish are a Lushootseed-speaking Native American Tribe, located in present-day Washington in the United States.The Suquamish are a southern Coast Salish people; they spoke a dialect of Lushootseed, which belongs to the Salishan language family. Like many Northwest Coast natives, the...
tribes(Suquamish is an anglicization of Dkhʷ'Suqw'Absh; this has no English translation beyond "People of Suq'ʷ." Suquamish is also found as xʷsəqʷəb, [suqʼʷábʃ], [ʔítakʷbixʷ], [ʔitakʷbixʷ]).
The name Seattle for the city dates from as early as 1853; the naming is attributed to David Swinson 'Doc' Maynard
David Swinson Maynard
David Swinson "Doc" Maynard was an American pioneer and doctor, and one of Seattle's primary founders. He was an effective civic booster and, compared to other white settlers, a relative advocate of Native American rights...
.
The Duwamish language, Southern Lushootseed, belongs to the Salishan family. The tribe is Lushootseed (Whulshootseed) (Skagit-Nisqually)
Lushootseed
Lushootseed is the language or dialect continuum of several SalishNative American groups of modern-day Washington state...
Coast Salish
Coast Salish
Coast Salish languages are a subgroup of the Salishan language family. These languages are spoken by First Nations or Native American peoples inhabiting the territory that is now the southwest coast of British Columbia around the Strait of Georgia and Washington state around Puget Sound...
. The Lushootseed pronunciation of the people of the Duwamish Tribe is [dxʷdɐwʔabʃ] or Dkhʷ'Duw'Absh, or less accurately, Dkhw'Duw'Absh (see the footnote for a pronunciation brief). English does not have equivalents for half of the sounds in the language.
Further reading
- "Coast Salish Villages of Puget Sound". Particularly useful
- "Duwamish Tribe" homepage
- "Duwamish history and culture", Duwamish Tribe
- "The Lushootseed Peoples of Puget Sound Country", University of Washington Libraries: Digital Collection
- "Lushootseed Salish (Whulshootseed, Puget Sound Salish)". Retrieved 21 April 2006.
Vocabulary, pronunciation, orthography, place names, demography, tribes. - University of Washington Libraries: Digital Collections:
- Jay Miller, "Salmon, the Lifegiving Gift"
- David M. Buerge, Native Americans of the Pacific Northwest: An Introduction
- Series: Urban Indian Experience, four-part radio series on the Duwamish produced by KUOW for PRX, 2004–2005. Total running time approximately 36 minutes.