Duwamish (tribe)

Duwamish ("the People of the Inside")Lakw’alas (Speer) is a Native American tribe in western Washington, and the indigenous people of metropolitan Seattle. Chief Seattle Lushootseed (Skagit-Nisqually) Coast Salish did not have political chiefs in a European sense. [Lakw’alas" target="_blank" >^* was a member of both the Duwamish and Suquamish tribes.

Some members of the tribe joined and moved onto other reservations after the signing of the Point Elliott Treaty (1855).A Dkh^w’Duw’Absh reservation was blocked in 1866. The commitments made by the United States government in the Point Elliott Treaty have not yet been met.
(1)Lakw’alas
(2) Wilma (24 January 2001) 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.(0) Summaries of some representative people needed, with Cite your sources#What sources to cite. Green is one starting point.
(1) Green
(2)

Like many Northwest Coast natives, the Duwamish relied heavily on fishing for their well-being and their livelihood. (The Pacific Northwest fisheries was once one of the richest in the world, second only to the Grand Banks.) Remnants of Duwamish fishing gear were found near the abundant tidepools of sbuh-KWAH-buks ("shaped like a bear's head"), where dense trees provide habitat for many birds, including screech owls. The site is in what is now called Me-Kwa-Mooks Park,(1) for archeological find.
(2)

about 1 mi. (1.6 km) west of what is now Camp Long in the south of the Alki neighborhood of West Seattle (map).

The Duwamish language belongs to the Salishan family. The tribe is Lushootseed (Whulshootseed) (Skagit-Nisqually) Coast Salish.

The Lushootseed (IPA pronunciation: ) word for the Duwamish people is IPA pronunciation: or IPA pronunciation: , or less accurately, Dkhw’Duw’Absh. (1) The '?' is a glottal stop. The schwa is an inverted "e" (rotated 180 degrees).
(2) IPA prounciations are conventionally enclosed in square brackets to signify. Non-English words in the article are italicized, except names of people other than the first instance of si'áb Si'ahl, since he is namesake for the city of today.
(3.1) for ^*x^wl^*?ucid]" target="_blank" >and [x^wduʔabš.
(3.2) Dkh^w’Duw’Absh per Lakw’alas.
(4) International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) pronunciation is provided for these most common names in the article. For most of the rest of the article, approximate pronounciation is provided in a common form for native English speakers. English does not have equivalents.for half of all the sounds in the language.Green For the rest of this article, Dkhw’Duw’Absh will be used as the better approximation in English than Duwamish for reference to the tribe or people.

People

The role of the most famous Dkh^w’Duw’Absh, (IPA pronunciation: ) Chief Seattle (b. c. 1784, d. 1866), is complex and enigmatic.Buerge

History

What is now Seattle has been inhabited since the end of the last glacial period (c. 8,000 B.C.E.—10,000 years ago). tohl-AHL-too ("herring house") and later hah-AH-poos ("where there are horse clams") at the then-mouth of the Duwamish River in what is now the Industrial District had been inhabited since the 6th entury C.E.Dailey (map with village 33, referencing his footnotes 2, 9, and 10) The Lushootseed (Skagit-Nisqually) Salish occupied at least 17 villages in the mid-1850s,After historical epidemiology 62% losses due to introduced diseases. longhouses ([khwaac'ál'al" target="_blank" >^*, cohousing condos) along Elliott Bay, Salmon Bay, Portage Bay, Lake Washington, Lake Sammamish, and the Duwamish, Black, and Cedar Rivers.(1) Anderson & Green
(2) Lange
(3) Dailey
(4)
(5) Boyd

The name “Seattle” is an Anglicization of Si'ahl the Dkhw’Duw’Absh chief ([si'áb, high status man). Si’ahl's mother Sholeetsa was Dkhw’Duw’Absh and his father Shweabe was si'ab of the Dkhw’Suqw'Absh (Suquamish Tribe).

Recent history

Led by 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 (March, 1970). The base had been declared suplus by the Deparment of Defense. By the Point Elliott Treaty, 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-acre site adjacent to the new Discovery Park after the decomissioning of most of the base. Daybreak Star (1977) is the main lodge of the Indian Cultural Center, an urban base for Native Americans in the Seattle area.(1) Barber
(2) McRoberts & Oldham

The Dkhw’Duw’Absh tribe won federal recognition in 2001, success in that struggle since the 1970s, and a step toward implementation of treaty rights pending for 150 years.Castro & Barber The ruling was voided in 2002, citing procedural errors.(1) Eskenazi
(2) Shukovsky

As part of identity and heritage, fundraising has been ongoing for the Dkhw’Duw’Absh Tribe longhouse cultural center to be built on purchased land across the way from Terminal 107 Park, site of a venerable former village called yee-LEH-khood, (below).(1) Nodell
(2) Kamb
(3)

The new cultural center and grounds will be along Marginal Way SW, east of Puget Park, and west of the north tip of what is now called Kellogg Island (map).

Society

Dkhw’Duw’Absh people, like other Salish, were more a collection of villages linked by language and family ties than like a European model.Anderson & Green Traditionally there was no recognized permanent political leadership.

Trading relationships and privileges were extensive between peoples of the entire Cascadia region, including over the passes to what is now Eastern Washington. Relationships and trade were often cemented with the world-wide practice of intermarriage. While each extended family village might have their own customs, there are enough commonalities, particularly in language but also incuding philosophical beliefs, economic conditions, and ceremonial practices to link them together.

The ^* (Salish Sea)(1) The Whulge (Salish Sea) is the large, dilute, estuarial inland sea now called Puget Sound, the Strait of Georgia, and the Strait of Juan de Fuca. The central and southern part was the primary waterway connecting the greater Whulshootseed (Skagit-Nisqually) Coast Salish Nations.
(1.1) environment was so abundant that the Skagit-Nisqually Salish had one of the only sedentary hunter-gatherer societies in the world. 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 so maddening to Europeans that the potlatch was widely banned, the ^* suppressed.(1)Beck
(2) Cole & Chaikin Villages were linked to others through intermarriage; the wife usually went to live at the husband’s village. Society was divided into upper class, lower class, and slaves, all largely hereditary. There was little political organization that was understood by Europeans. The highest-ranking male would assume the role of ceremonial leader, but rank could be variable and was determined by different standards.

There were numerous villages in just the Seattle metro area as well as the Snoqualmie River valley.Dailey Villages were diffuse, people dispersed in the spring, congregated for the salmon in the summer, and wintered in village longhouses. Each village had one or more cedar plank longhouses containing extended families in a social structure that foreshadowed cohousing condominiums of today. The entry and beam architecture of the Salmon House Restaurant (1969, restaurateur Ivar Haglund) beside Lake Union in Northlake is as authentically accurate as building codes allowed.Dorpat (23 March 2005 May 2005, Essay 2499) Another example is actual, on the north face of the Burke Museum, University of Washington.

Seattle before the City of Seattle

Thirteen prominent villages were in what is now the City of Seattle. All the people living around Elliott Bay, the Duwamish, Black and Cedar Rivers were collectively known as the doo-AHBSH, People of the Doo ("Inside"). On what is now Elliott Bay and the then-estuarial lower Duwamish River were four prominent villages. Before civil engineering, the area had extensive tidelands, abundantly rich in seafoods.Speidel (1967)

Prairie or tall grassland areas were maintained in what is now Belltown, South Lake Union, Brooklyn in the University District (map), along what is now Sand Point Way NE (map), Georgetown, and likely Alki, among others.Anderson & Green The Liq'tid (LEEK-teed) or Licton Springs area was used as a spiritual health spa. Cranberries were harvested from the Slo’q `qed (SLOQ-qed, bald head) 85 acre marsh and bog at what is now the North Seattle Community College car park, Interstate 5 interchange, and Northgate Mall of Northgate. the headwaters of the south fork of Thornton Creek. Open areas for game habitat were maintained by selective burning every few years (anthropogenic grasslands).Sheridan & Tobin; Wilma, ed.

Downtown and lower Duwamish River

dzee-dzee-LAH-letch was the most important village on what is now called Elliott Bay, with some 200 people c. 1800.Northwest Coast native populations crashed 1774-1874. Chief Seattle [si'áb Si'ahl lived here for some time. The village had eight large longhouses (60 ft by 120 ft, 18 m x 37 m) plus a large potlatch house, where people from all over the area gathered. dzee-dzee-LAH-letch ("little crossing-over place") was appropriately located near the trail, and where the King Street Station was later built. Before the extensive tidelands were filled there was a spit here, separating Elliott Bay from a lagoon known for flounder.

tohl-AHL-too ("herring house") and later hah-AH-poos ("where there are horse clams") was on the west bank of the Duwamish River near its former estuarial mouth on Elliott Bay that was located around what is now south Harbor Island. This is the original village site that had been inhabited since the 6th century.Or for at least 1,400 years, McDonald It was abandoned sometime before 1800, but there were reports from elders that the village had seven (60 ft by 120 ft, 18 m x 37 m) longhouses plus a large (60 ft by 360 ft, 18 m x 110 m) potlatch house. At the successor village nearby there were three longhouses occupied by 75-100 people.

The Duwamish was a bountiful estuary, a powerful meandering river with extensive tidal flats and wildlife when pioneer John Pike officially bought the land from the U.S. government in 1860, soon after the Point Elliott Treaty of 1855. Local shipyards built fishing boats for European immigrants until the resource was diminished. The site was being cleared of buildings to construct a marine terminal when archaeological discoveries in 1977 halted further development.McDonald The site is in what is now Herring House Park (Herring's House Park), just north of Terminal 107 (map). The site overlooks the last natural turn of the Duwamish, what is now called Turning Basin, where tugs and barges have the room to come about for returning downriver. The 17-acre park contains a natural intertidal basin at the shoreline, and areas of marsh, meadow and forest in the upland portion. In season, the park has hundreds of juvenile fish, and migrating salmon attracting harbor seals, ospreys, and bald eagles, as well as providing habitat for cormorants, great blue herons, purple martins, and other native waterfowl.(1) Bounds (2) Ith Overlooking the park is the site of the planned Duwamish Tribes cultural center (above). Above the contemporary Duwamish Center in turn is the restored and partially daylighted watershed of to-AH-wee (trout),

now called Longfellow Creek, just over the ridge that is now called Delridge. Puget Creek was the freshwater resource (and a fishery, in season) for the village. Much of Puget Park is now a Natural Area, along with others nearby. Eventually, with ongoing volunteer effort, the suroundings will have restored areas and views.

too-PAHLH-tehb was at the mouth of the easternmost estuary of the Duwamish River, approximately 1st Avenue at Spokane Street.

yee-LEH-khood ("basket cap" like those worn by the Yakama people) was a particularly long-established village on the then-west bank of a bend in the Duwamish River, in what is now Terminal 107 Park, the higher ground of the Port of Seattle terminal.

The kehl-kah-KWEH-yah ("proud people") had their village at too-KWHEHL-teed ("a large open space") farther upstream at a former bend of the Duwamish, in what is now south Georgetown. The large open space was likely artificially maintained.

North of Downtown

The people called shill-shohl-AHBSH had the village of shill-SHOHL ("threading a needle", apparently for the narrow opening out to Puget Sound) on the north shore of what is now named Salmon Bay, where the Ballard Locks were built. (See also SWAH-tsoo-gweel village, just below.)

Along Lake Washington

All the people living around Lake Washington were collectively known as hah-choo-AHBSH, People of HAH-choo, "a large lake".

East of Downtown on Lake Washington were two villages whose names are not known. The possible village site of the skah-TEHLB-shahbsh was around what was later named Wetmore Slough, now the filled Genesee Park in Columbia City. (1) This is indeterminate. Dailey cites Buerge (1-7 August 1984). Wilma (28 March 2001) cites Buerge and other sources, please see Bibligraphy for complete list.
(2) That some names and locations are unknown is partly because nearly all the remaining native longhouses had been subject to non-native arson by 1910. ^* A second village of the skah-TEHLB-shahbsh was at what is now Leschi Park.

What is now Rainier Beach is the possible site of the skah-TEHLB-shahbsh, though the village name is not known.

The prominent and principal village of the hloo-weelh-AHBSH was around what is now Brooklyn Avenue at a then- much larger Portage Bay,(1)
(2) Dorpat (May 2005, Essay 3380) and SWAH-tsoo-gweel ("portage") on the north shores of a Union Bay nearly a mile farther than today, near what is now the Burke-Gilman Trail and the southeast corner of Ravenna Park. (What is now the Burke-Gilman Trail was built along the shoreline c. 1886 by the Seattle, Lake Shore and Eastern Railroad.) Five longhouses were located on the north of the bay. Other longhouses were near the present University of Washington (UW) steam plant (west of the UW IMA Building, and between what is now the Center for Urban Horticulture and present-day Children's Hospital. For this village, their backyard was the neighborhoods of the Ravenna Creek watershed today. In summer, the village largely moved to Sahlouwil, what is now southeast Laurelhurst on Lake Washington.Rochester

The village of hehs-KWEE-kweel ("skate") was of the hloo-weelh-AHBSH (from s’hloo-WEELH, "a tiny hole drilled to measure the thickness of a canoe"), for the narrow passage through then-large and resource-rich Union Bay marsh. Traces of the marsh survive as the Union Bay Natural Area and the Foster Island area of north Washington Park Arboretum. The trees of Foster Island was their ceremonial burial ground. The village was at the northeast tip of what is now Madison Park. One longhouse may have been used as a potlatch house.

TLEHLS ("minnows" or "shiners") was on the shores of what is now called Wolf Bay, Lake Washington, immediately south of SqWsEb, now called Sand Point Magnuson Park, with BEbqwa'bEks (small prairie) near what is now Windermere. One or three longhouses have been documented. Village size appears indeterminate. Since native populations in the region crashed 1774-1874 ^*, the discrepancy may simply be when in as little as a few decades.
(1) Dailey reports one longhouse, citing
(1.1) Buerge, David (1-7 August 1984). "Indian Lake Washington". Seattle Weekly. and
(1.2) Waterman, T. T. (n.d.). "Puget Sound Geography". Washington, DC: National Anthropological Archives, mss.
(2)
Page reports place names and three longhouses, but cites no sources. These people may have been associated with the hloo-weelh-AHBSH of Union Bay.

The village of too-HOO-beed was of the too-oh-beh-DAHBSH extended family and was near what is now called Thornton Creek in what is now Matthews Beach, with Meadowbrook their back yard. Source for detail of the entire section with the heading of "Seattle before the City of Seattle" is per Dailey, plus additional individual references noted above.

UW: Digital Collections

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.

Excerpt from Native Americans of the Pacific Northwest: An Introduction by David M. Buerge, at the American Indians of the Pacific Northwest Collection, University of Washington Libraries: Digital Collections.

Notes and references

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Bibliography

and
Map is NE Seattle around Sand Point Magnuson Park, for which theri is no common name.
A periodic electronic newsletter
and Seattle: University of Washington Press
Page links to Village Descriptions Duwamish-Seattle section.
Dailey referenced "Puget Sound Geography" by T. T. Waterman. Washington DC: National Anthropological Archives, mss. [ref. 2;
Duwamish et al vs. United States of America, F-275. Washington DC: US Court of Claims, 1927. 5;
"Indian Lake Washington" by David Buerge in the Seattle Weekly, 1-7 August 1984 8;
"Seattle Before Seattle" by David Buerge in the Seattle Weekly, 17-23 December 1980. 9;
The Puyallup-Nisqually by Marian W. Smith. New York: Columbia University Press, 1940. 10.
Recommended start is "Coast Salish Villages of Puget Sound"
Dorpat referenced Dorpat, Seattle: Now and Then Vols. 1, 2, and 3. Seattle: Tartu Publications, 1984, 1988);
Walt Crowley and Paul Dorpat, "The Ave: Streetcars to Street Fairs", typescript dated 1995 in possession of Walt Crowley and Paul Dorpat, Seattle, Washington;
Walt Crowley, Rites of Passage. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1995;
Cal McCune, From Romance to Riot: A Seattle Memoir. Seattle: Cal McCune, 1996;
Roy Nielsen, UniverCity: The City Within City: The Story of the University District Seattle: University Lions Foundation, ca. 1986;
Clark Humphrey, Loser: the Real Seattle Music Story. Portland, OR: Feral House, 1995.
Maps "NN-1120S", "NN-1130S", "NN-1140S".Jpg ^* dated 13 June; "NN-1030S", "NN-1040S".jpg dated 17 June 2002.
Includes bibliography.
Rochester referenced Christine Barrett, A History of Laurelhurst (Seattle, WA: Laurelhurst Community Club, 1981, revised 1989);
Paul Dorpat, Seattle: Now & Then, Vols. II and III (Seattle, WA: Tartu Publications, 1984 and 1989);
Lucile McDonald, The Lake Washington Story, (Seattle, WA: Superior Publishing Co., 1979);
Brandt Morgan, Enjoying Seattle's Parks (Seattle, WA: Greenwood Publications, 1979);
Harry W. Higman and Earl J. Larrison, Union Bay: The Life of a City Marsh, (Seattle, WA: University of Washington Press, 1951);
J. Willis Sayre, This City of Ours (Seattle, WA: Seattle School District No. 1, 1936);
Sophie Frye Bass, Pig-Tail Days in Old Seattle (Portland, OR: Binfords & Mort, 1937);
Roger Sale, Seattle: Past to Present (Seattle, WA: University of Washington Press, 1976).
Authors referenced an extensive list, most of them primary sources. See the Bibliography at Licton Springs or Northgate for a complete reference.
Speidel provides a substantial bibliography with extensive primary sources.
Wilma referenced "Lakewood Community Club", brochure, 1948, Rainier Valley Historical Society, Seattle;
David Buerge, "Indian Lake Washington", The Weekly, August 1, 1984, pp. 29-33;
Don Sherwood, "Seward Park - Graham Peninsula", "Interpretive Essays on the History of Seattle Parks", handwritten bound manuscript dated 1977, Seattle Room, Seattle Public Library;
Don Sherwood, "Genessee P.F., Wetmore Slough", Ibid.;
Don Sherwood, "Stanley S. Sayres Memorial Park", Ibid.;
"Cougar captured near Lake Washington about February 23, 1870", Timeline Library, (www.Historylink.org);
Paul Dorpat, Seattle Now and Then, (Seattle: Tartu Publications, 1984), 82;
Lucile B. McDonald, The Lake Washington Story, (Seattle: Superior Publishing Co., 1979), 23, 87, 88;
Redick H. McKee, Road Map of Seattle and Vicinity, 1890, Seattle Public Library;
"Guide Map of the City of Seattle, Washington Territory", ca. 1888, brochure, Seattle Public Library;
David Wilma Interview with Grover Haynes, president, Lakewood-Seward Park Community Club, March 31, 2001, Seattle, Washington.
Wilma referenced "Petition: To the Honorable Arthur A. Denny, Delegate to Congress from Washington Territory," n.d., National Archives Roll 909, "Letters Received by the Office of Indian Affairs, 1824-81";
Pioneer Association of the State of Washington, "A Petition to Support Recognition of The Duwamish Indians as a 'Tribe', June 18, 1988, in possession of Ken Tollefson, Seattle, Washington.

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