The Lushootsheed

The Lushootseed of Puget Sound

A summary of a paper written by Coll-Peter Thrush, in the University of Washington Digital Libraries collection: http://content.lib.washington.edu/aipnw/thrush/thrush.html, with supplemental sources listed at the end of the piece.

The Puget Sound region has a history rich in Native American culture. Native peoples have inhabited the woodlands, hills, and mountains of the Pacific Northwest for more than ten thousand years, according to archeologists. The Coast Salish Nation, or Lushootseed, which refers to refers to the common language made up of many local dialects that was spoken throughout the region, occupied the land and waterways of what is now southwestern British Columbia and the northwestern United States. Lushootseed comes from two words, one meaning "salt water" and the other meaning "language."

Prior to the coming of European-Americans in the late eighteenth century, there were thriving Lushootseed communities on both sides of what we now call Elliott Bay. Theirs was, and still is, a very spiritual life where objects, animals, places, and forces of nature are considered living beings with their own spirits, just like people. All Lushootseed learn through personal sacrifice to identify their own spirit power. These spirits provide special skills and knowledge that help the individual who claims them, and their communities, to live well and prosper.

For most of the year, the Lushootseed people traveled throughout the region to collect food and other resources for their communities. In spring men felled trees to carve canoes for the summer and hunted deer and elk. During the summer, steelhead, silver, and king salmon filled the rivers and were caught by the thousands. In the fall aerial nets were stretched between tall poles to snare ducks. The resources of the land were plentiful, but the Lushootseed were mindful of their responsibility to care for it.

Unlike other Native American groups, the Lushootseed people did not live in tribes. They organized themselves into self-governing towns that formed relationships with other communities in the region through trade and marriage. Families marked important occasions and competed for social status through public displays of generosity known as potlatch. No one was neglected or excluded - everyone felt a responsibility to care for everyone else.

Cedar longhouses, some reaching five hundred feet in length housed several families, each with their own fire pit and hole in the roof to release smoke. These houses provided shelter, but were symbolic of something even greater. People saw their house as a body on its hands and knees and called the front of the house its face. The center ridge of the roof symbolized the spine of the body or the spine of the universe, the Milky Way. The power spirits of the leading family were intricately painted and carved onto houseposts that held up the roof. These posts were the arms and legs of the body, as well as columns holding up the sky.

Chief Seattle and the Arrival of the Europeans
The Lushootseed leader whose name was given to Puget Sound's largest city was born on the Kitsap peninsula some time in the 1780s. His native name was Si'alh, which has been translated with fair accuracy into English as Seattle.

As a boy, Si'alh was among the first Native Americans to greet British explorer George Vancouver in 1792. Vancouver's arrival paved the way for European fur traders and settlers over the next several decades. The newcomers traded numerous goods that soon became staples in Lushootseed life. They also brought diseases like smallpox and measles that decimated nearly half the native population.

As Si'alh matured, the Lushootseed communities surrounding Puget Sound increasingly recognized his intelligence, courage, and ability to lead. Si'alh saw that even though whites were encroaching on his people's way of life, they had to work together. He became known among both groups as a great diplomat and orator. Si'alh commanded so much attention when he spoke, it was believed that one of his spirit powers was thunder.

By 1854-55 the white settlers had devised treaties forcing the Lushootseed to relinquish much of their land. In exchange, the treaties set aside tracts of land (reservations) to remain in Native American ownership. The U.S. government promised to provide benefits such as schools, health care, money, and other services. Realizing there was no alternative, Si'alh - along with other tribal leaders in the region - placed his mark on a document which transferred ownership of most of the Puget Sound basin.

Because the Lushootseed were not organized by tribe, with a formal leader representing each distinct community, some Lushootseed towns were left out of the treaty negotiations. Those that were recognized soon found that expected exchanges were ignored. Though Si'alh denounced it, some Lushootseed people reacted violently towards the settlers, thus beginning the "Treaty War" of 1856. Settlers, in turn, burned many Lushootseed towns and forced their residents to move to reservations. On these reservations, individual Lushootseed towns eventually formed tribes with collective rights based on the treaties.

Seattle soon attracted more settlers, and few paid attention to Si'alh or his people. Si'alh spent his final days on a reservation near Port Madison helping his people adjust to the new way of life that had been imposed on them.

Lushootseed in the Modern Age
The Lushootseed people suffered tremendously under the new American laws. During the late 19th and early 20th centuries more and more of their rights were stripped away. Access to resources was made difficult or impossible. Many of their rituals and ceremonies were outlawed, and Lushootseed children were forced to go to boarding schools were they were trained to forget their culture.

Still, many became part of the region's growing economy, engaging in traditional forms of work such as fishing, logging, carpentry, agriculture, and basket making to earn a living for their families.

Today there are eight federally recognized reservations in the Puget Sound region - the Squaxin, Nisqually, Muckleshoot, Suquamish, Stillaguamish, Tulalip, Swinomish, and Upper Skagit. Three additional tribes, the Snoqualmie, Samish, and Skykomish, recently received recognition from the federal government, but do not have reservations. Two more tribes, the Duwamish and Steilacoom, are still working for the federal recognition that would give them access to treaty rights.

Many of these tribes have benefited from tribe-owned casinos and fish hatcheries - business ventures that have helped them become more self-sufficient. Efforts are also being made to awaken an interest in the Lushootseed language and cultural traditions in younger generations. By reclaiming aspects of the past and integrating them with the day-to-day activities of modern-day American society, the Lushootseed are rebuilding their culture and creating new traditions that will hopefully survive for another ten thousand years.

Additional Sources:
Clarence Bagley, History of Seattle (Chicago: S.J. Clarke Publishing Company, 1916) and History of King County, Washington (Chicago: S.J. Clarke Publishing Company, 1929); David Buerge "Seattle Before Seattle," Seattle Weekly, December 17, 1980; West Side Story, ed. by Clay Eals, et al. (Seattle: Robinson Newspapers, 1987); J. A. Eckrom, Remembered Drums: A History of the Puget Sound Indian War (Walla Walla, WA: Pioneer Press Books: 1989); Vi taqSeblu Hilbert, "When Chief Seattle (Si'al) Spoke," A Time of Gathering (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1991); Warren Snyder, unpublished field notes from Suquamish elders, 1952; Kenneth G. Watson, A Change of Worlds exhibit gallery guide, Museum of History and Industry, 1999.