History & Culture

Suquamish is one of many Indian Tribes in the Pacific Northwest who thrived in their traditional life ways before the arrival of non-Indians. Taking their name from the traditional Lushootseed phrase for “people of the clear salt water” these expert fisherman, canoe builders and basket weavers have lived in harmony with the lands and waterways along Washington’s Central Puget Sound Region for thousands of years.

Timeline

Pre-Contact

The Suquamish and their ancestors have inhabited the Puget Sound area for thousands of years. Before European contact, the region was one of the most populated centers north of what is now Mexico City. Unlike the larger tribes of British Columbia, Alaska, the Plains and the Southwest, the Indians of the Puget Sound lived in relatively small, autonomous villages. Many tribes were affiliated through intermarriage, political agreement, trade, material culture and language.

The abundance of natural resources and efficient technology for harvesting and preserving food enabled them to develop a rich cultural and spiritual life. The yearly cycle of activities was divided between the harvesting of food from temporary camps in warm months, and communal life in substantial winter houses for social and religious observances and protection against cold weather.

Early Contact

It was in 1792, three hundred years after Columbus landed in the New World, that the original inhabitants of the Puget Sound region gained their first direct knowledge of Europeans. The American Revolution had just resulted in the birth of the United States, the French Revolution was in full swing, and the Industrial Revolution was beginning.

Rumors of strangers in odd sailing craft had been arriving for ten years from Indians further north and west toward the Pacific. Now, Captain George Vancouver and the men of the ship Discovery had come to map the Puget Sound in preparation to claim ownership. They recorded, over a two-week period, evidence of habitation from Whidbey Island south to what is now Olympia, WA. The various groups of Indians on Puget Sound treated the strangers in equal manner, trading them fresh venison, fish, native berries and roots for beads, cloth and iron.

Over the next fifty years, the Suquamish adapted to a changes brought on by the entry of non-natives into the Puget Sound. Fur traders and missionaries were the first and were then followed by permanent settlers traveling over the Oregon Trail. In 1841 the Unites States Exporling Expedition, led by Charles Wilkes, entered the Puget Sound, further documenting Suquamish culture. Settlement intensified in the 1850s after Congress passed the Oregon Donation Land Claim Act that opened Suquamish and other tribal lands to non-native settlement. Entrepreneurs also began building sawmills to harvest the vast stands of virgin timber on Suquamish lands, including mills at Port Madison, Port Gamble and Port Blakely. The Suquamish cut and delivered logs to the mills to support themselves.

Treaty of Point Elliott

In 1854, several years after European settlers began to establish themselves in the Puget Sound area, the United States government elected to make treaties with Tribes in what was then known as Washington Territory. The treaties were necessary to extinguish title to land in order to free it for white settlement. The treaties were legal contracts negotiated between equals: the sovereign Indian governments on the one hand and the Unites States on the other.

In the treaties, tribes relinquished claims to most of the land they occupied and at the same time reserved a number of smaller “reservations” near their winter village sites. Indians also reserved the right to continue to hunt, gather, and fish without interference in traditional areas off their reservations. In exchange for all of the ceded Indian lands, the federal government agreed to provide limited supplies, educational services, medical care and modest monetary compensation. The government also agreed to protect Indian rights and lands that were reserved to the tribes.

The Suquamish are one of more than twenty tribal groups that were parties to the Treaty of Point Elliott, signed near Mukilteo, on north Puget Sound, on January 22, 1855. This document was the second of five treaties which Territorial Governor Isaac Stevens negotiated with tribes in western Washington. Accompanying Stevens were lawyer/ethnologist George Gibbs, who was surveyor and Secretary for the Treaty Commission; Michael T. Simmons, Indian Agent for the Puget Sound District; Benjamin Shaw, the interpreter; and witnesses. Representing both the Suquamish and Duwamish tribes at the treaty signing was Chief Seattle, along with many subchiefs and leaders of other tribes. The Indians far outnumbered the Stevens entourage, just as the Indians outnumbered European settlers at the time. The Suquamish gave up title to their lands, which encompassed most of present Kitsap County, for acknowledgement and protection of their fishing and hunting rights, health care, education and a reservation at Port Madison.

The negotiations were conducted in Chinook, a limited trade jargon taken from French, English, and Indian languages. Many Puget Sound people did not speak the concrete shorthand language of a few hundred words, which was adequate for trading goods but not for legal negotiations. Therefore, the treaty was first read in English, translated into Chinook jargon, and then into two languages of the Coast Salish stock- Lushootseed and Straits Salish. Given the limitations of the jargon and the fact that the concept of land alienation was unknown to the Indians, the language problem produced difficulties in translation. Also, the treaties were made in great haste because Governor Stevens was anxious to negotiate all of the treaties as soon as possible. Together these circumstances created misunderstandings which persist to this day.

The Port Madison Indian Reservation reserved in the Treaty of Point Elliott and was intended primarily for the use of Suquamish and Duwamish peoples. Most of the Suquamish agreed to move to the reservation, which was located within their own territory. However, a number of Suquamish families chose to remain in villages at nearby locations such as those at Elwood, Erland’s Point, Colby, Chico, Phinney Bay, and Bainbridge Island.

While some Duwamish people moved to the Port Madison Reservation, many others declined to relocate and asked that a separate reservation be set aside in their own homeland, located where the Black and Cedar rivers joined, near the present city of Seattle. The Muckleshoot Reservation was enlarged in hopes that the Duwamish would move to that area, and many did so.

The treaties were not ratified by Congress until four years following negotiations, during which time many of their provisions were being violated. Disputes over land ownership, reservation rights and boundaries, and fishing rights have arisen frequently since then. Seven times the United Supreme Court has addressed issues involving the reserved right to fish in off-reservation waters. Each time the Court has substantially affirmed the tribes’ treaty rights.

Assimilation Period

The Suquamish have persevered despite attempts by the federal government to assimilate them through land policy; specifically the allotment of the reservation into separate parcels assigned to individual family heads. One of the most significant events during this period was the destruction of Old Man House in 1870. The Suquamish, who lived communally in the house for many years before its destruction, continued to live on the grounds where it once stood until being forced onto individual family allotments in 1904. The destruction of the house and the scattering of the tribal settlement changed the communal living structure vital to the Suquamish way of life. The subsequent mandates for Suquamish children to attend Indian Boarding Schools from 1900-1920 further worked to assimilate Suquamish people and distance them from their traditional life ways.

Change in Land Ownership

Although the Treaty of Point Elliot provided that the Port Madison Indian Reservation be held “in trust” for the tribe by the federal government, pressure rapidly increased for sale of these lands. Logging companies were interested in the timber, and entrepreneurs looking for investment property were attracted to the reservation’s proximity to Seattle and pleasant surroundings. Therefore, almost immediately after land was allotted, the Indian owned property began to diminish. Although some Indian chose to sell their land, much was sold without the owner’s consent by federal agents who deemed the Indian owner “non-competent.” Based on a federal act of 1907, agents were empowered to declare Indians “non-competent” if, for example, they could not speak English or lacked a monetary income. Three years later, legislation was passed granting agents the power to give “certificates of competency” to Indians, which resulted in the removal of land from federal trust status. Relying on a fishing and hunting subsistence, many tribal members were unable to pay the state taxes subsequently imposed on their land, and were forced to relinquish their property. Today, a large percentage of reservation lands are owned by non-Indian residents. A major goal for the tribe has been to purchase land on the Port Madison Indian Reservation for the benefit of the Suquamish community. The establishment of tribal housing developments has enabled many Suquamish people, who have otherwise not be able to do so, to move back to the reservation.

Self Determination

After the enactment of the American Indian Reorganization Act, the Suquamish spent the last half of the twentieth century formalizing and building government-to-government relationships with Federal, State and local agencies through the process of self-determination. The Suquamish Tribe enacted a formal constitution in 1965, establishing Tribal Council and became a voting member of the National Congress of American Indians soon afterward. Suquamish was also recognized in the historic 1974 Boldt Decision, establishing Washington Treaty Tribes as co-managers of the region’s fishery alongside State and Federal regulators. In 1989 the Suquamish also formalized their relationship with Washington State through the Centennial Accord.

Traditional Villages

Winter

Summer

The Indians of the Puget Sound lived in permanent villages along the shore near rivers and streams, with rectangular houses facing the water. These villages consisted of large wooden houses, called longhouses or winter houses, which were often shared by many families. The houses were made of cedar planks and logs, and had shed or gabled roofs. They varied in size with some of the larger structures ranging from two hundred to six hundred feet long. They were divided into individual rooms, which opened to the outside.

The Suquamish had winter villages at Suquamish, Point Bolin, Poulsbo, Silverdale, Chico, Colby, Olalla, Point White, Lynwood Center, Eagle Harbor, Port Madison and Battle Point. The best known winter village was Old Man House , the home of Chief Seattle and Chief Kitsap.

Traditionally, Suquamish periodically left their winter residences in the spring, summer and early fall in family canoes to travel to temporary camps at fishing, hunting and gathering grounds. The seasonal camps consisted of portable frames made of tree saplings covered with woven cattail mats.

Today, the Suquamish continue to work cooperatively to provide housing for Tribal Members on the Port Madison Indian Reservation with the creation of a comprehensive Tribal Housing program.

Historical Village Locations

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Language

The traditional language of the Suquamish People is Lushootseed, a member of the Coast Salish language group spoken by first peoples from throughout the Northwest including the areas surrounding the Puget Sound in Washington State and the Strait of Georgia in British Columbia.

“When I was small, I heard very little English. About the only time you heard any English spoken was when old Bartow, the Subagent, would come and give a speech or ask questions. The Indians would give him his answers in English, but as soon as he left everybody was talking Indian again.” – Lawrence Webster, Suquamish 1899-1991

Failed Federal assimilation policies of the late 19th and early 20th centuries resulted in the near loss of the language. However, a dedicated group of Suquamish have been diligently working to revive the language. Today, the Suquamish have a Traditional Language Program that teaches Lushootseed to both school children and community members.

Spiritual Life

In the very beginning, there was a wonderful world here long before human beings arrived. It was a world where everything had the power and ability to take any form or do anything. A world inhabited by beings who might appear as animals, plants, in human or inhuman form, or as aspects of the landscape, always shimmering between these and other shapes. Finally, a firm order was imposed on this world by The Changer, enabling human beings to take their place in the world.

As a result, the beings have been changed into the shapes of trees, plants, animals, fish, rocks, springs, and so forth, while their spirits retain their original abilities. In these forms, they have retained their full intelligence and emotions, and many have entered into partnerships with particular individuals to grant them abilities and careers.

As the most recent inhabitants of this world, human beings are believed to have the most to learn. Yet, such an education is possible because all life is related, forming a functioning whole. Special powers and abilities can be approached through fasting, prayer, meditation, and rituals. Many parts of the old religion are still important in the lives of those who have incorporated Catholicism, Shakerism, and varieties of Christianity into their religious beliefs.

Traditional teachings still play an important role in the modern world. While participating in many of the same denominations as the rest of America and Europe, native peoples have nonetheless also maintained their special relationship with the land and with its sacred aspects. The Suquamish maintain a strong connection to the ancestral world and hold a great reverence for their departed relatives. As the larger population becomes more aware of the virtues of being ecumenical, ecologically aware, and respectful of the limitations of our planet, the virtues of traditional respect for nature are becoming better appreciated, understood and encouraged.

Fishing, Gathering & Hunting

Gathering

Fishing

The Suquamish depended on salmon, cod and other bottom fish, clams and other shellfish, berries, roots, ducks and other waterfowl, deer, elk and other land game for food for family and community use, ceremonial feasts, and for trade. Traditionally, fishing was the most important source of food for the Indians of the Puget Sound. Today fishing remains an important livelihood for many tribes. The Suquamish fished widely throughout Puget Sound, and continue to do so today. The absence of a major river with large runs of salmon required the Suquamish tor travel widely on the marine waters of the Salish Sea to catch their supply of salmon. A great deal of skill and knowledge was and is needed to determine when and where various kinds of fish can be caught. The state of the tide, concentrations of birds and seals, the level of water in streams, the weather and other more subtle signs in the environment when planning their harvests. Historically, success in trade and sophisticated food preservation techniques permitted Puget Sound Indians to devote winter months to social gatherings and other activities.

The Suquamish produced a variety of ingenious tools and other devices to efficiently harvest fish and gather other foods. The Suquamish caught salmon with nets, traps, weirs, hook and line, and netting from canoes. Chinook, Coho and Chum were the salmon most frequently caught in local water. In addition, several kinds of trout were caught by these methods; while other fish were caught with lures or speared. Lines and nets were often made from nettle stems and roots.

Weaving

Cedar

Weaving

The Suquamish Tribe is well known for making traditional basketry. The “hard baskets” made from coiled cedar roots were traditionally used for gathering berries, but were also watertight, which made them ideal for carrying water and also for cooking. Generations of Suquamish would heat stones in a fire and drop them into the water-filled baskets to make soups from smoked salmon and wild potatoes. Berry baskets are decorated by imbricating colored barks in various designs. Traditional Suquamish baskets are showcased in the Suquamish Museum. Today, the art of weaving is being revived in Suquamish, with several Tribal Members specializing in traditional design, teaching and hosting workshops on cedar and wool weaving.

The Suquamish, like other Puget Sound Indians, also wove cattail mats for cushions, protective covers in canoes, to line walls, for sleeping, to serve meals on, and for summer housing. They also wove wool on looms to create Salish blankets. The blankets were used for warm coverings, and also as special symbols in ceremonies. Wool blankets were traditionally considered valuable trade or gift items. A wealthy person gave numerous blankets away during potlatch. The abundance or scarcity of weaving materials were factors in determining the special versus ordinary blankets. Some traditional spinning materials were mountain goat wool, wool from special dogs, and the down or feathers of the eagle, duck or goose.

Canoes

Ceremony

Travel

The dugout canoe was an integral part of Suquamish culture. This craft was the major form of transportation. The heavily forested land made efficient foot travel difficult. The canoe was essential to the collection of subsistence resources such as salmon and other fish, berries, roots, wild potatoes and sea grasses. These foods were seasonal and regional, and the Suquamish needed to be in particular places at specific times of the year in order to harvest them. The canoe allowed them to travel long distances in a relatively short time, assuring quantities of food, establishment and renewal of tribal alliances and the preservation of social and ceremonial contacts, which in turn permitted the culture to flourish beyond mere survival.
A good canoe, made in the traditional manner usually took one year to complete. The canoe maker was trained in the art from an early age, usually with much practice in producing models and small one-person craft. Most men were capable of making a simple canoe, but only the masters were able to make the larger versions successfully. The first step was to select the proper tree. It had to be straight and tall, have few branches, be near the water, free of rot and have a soft place to fall. Western Red Cedar and Yellow Cedar were to two suitable species: both are lightweight, hard, and preserve well due to their oiliness. The tree was felled by either carving a notch at the base and burning the wood the rest of the way through, or by chiseling the base completely through. Next the log was roughly shaped enough to allow transport to the beach near the village where detailed work took place. This was done with chisels and wedges struck with hand mauls. The canoe was turned upside down and the hull was carved to perfection then turned over and hollowed out. Then it was filled halfway with water and hot stones in order to create steam to spread the sides. Cross sticks were used to keep them spread. Some tribes attached separate bow and stern pieces with cedar pegs, completing the fine line and adding character to the finished canoe.