Duwamish
The Duwamish are an American Indian tribe living in western Washington state . They speak a dialect of the southwestern coastal Salish , the Lushootseed , but they also share cultural characteristics with the inland tribes.
Today the Duwamish belong to two groups around Elliott Bay and Lake Washington . In estimating the membership of the tribe, the state authorities and the Duwamish follow different criteria. For the Duwamish evidence is sufficient as a descent, for the authorities are the criteria for recognition as a tribe ( tribe ) and the entry in a register. The Duwamish gave their number in 1991 as 400, in 2004 as 500.
The name means "the people from within (the bay)".
history
The Duwamish have probably lived in the greater Seattle area since the end of the last Ice Age . Finds at West Point in Discovery Park, and at Magnola go back to about 2000 BC. BC back. Settlements existed in today's industrial district of Seattle by the 6th century at the latest. There were four larger villages around Elliott Bay and on the lower Duwamish River .
There are 13 permanently inhabited villages within today's urban area. The people around Elliott Bay, the Duwamish, those on the Black and Cedar Rivers were known as "people of the interior", "of the inland". The people around Lake Washington, however, were referred to as "people from the lake".
The name of the city of Seattle is a corruption of the chief's name si'áb Si'a hl , which means something like "man of high standing Si'ahl", from which Chief Seattle became. Chief Seattle lived from 1784 to 1866.
The tribes that belong to the Duwamish today, like all tribes of the coastal Salish , were more of a group connected by language, kinship, tradition and common villages, which, however, was exceptionally fixed. Nevertheless, the boundaries to the neighboring tribes were rather fluid, like to the people of Lake Sammamish or the Snoqualmie, who were a little further away . They all counted themselves among the Suquamish .
Similar to some tribes in British Columbia , which were located in climatically favored regions (especially on Vancouver Island ), the Duwamish Camas , the onions of an agave species , also collected and traded extensively with them. The corresponding oak stands (Garry Oaks) can still be found in remnants in Seward Park and Martha Washington Park.
The Renton Historical Museum offers insights into the archaeological and cultural history of the Duwamish in small exhibitions.
Around 1850, the tribes known today as Duwamish inhabited 17 villages with at least 93 longhouses. The most important villages were at the exit of Washington Lake and the Duwamish River.
First contacts with fur traders
Even the fur trade of the late 18th century had the effect of a distant tremor, because even without direct contact, the economy changed, especially trade, but also the armament and the distribution of power in the greater area between California and Alaska. In 1792 George Vancouver came to what would later become Seattle.
Mighty tribes from the north, where the fur traders had exchanged numerous weapons for furs, came to the south on the hunt for slaves. The Yakima tribe east of the Cascade Range also robbed the Puget Sound and sold tribesmen to the Columbia River . The Suquamish chief Kitsap even led a campaign to Vancouver Island to deter the Cowichan from further attacks.
The Hudson's Bay Company built Fort Langley in 1827 and Fort Nisqually in 1833 near what is now Dupont . The first American settlements emerged in 1851 and 1852.
In 1850 the Ebey Shaw Society reached Elliot Bay and was greeted by Chief Seattle and his tribe. He wanted to trade with them. He agreed with Dr. David Swinson Maynard to set up a shop in his village near Alki Point. Maynard renamed the city Seattle. The armed conflict diminished, trade flourished, but that changed when the territory came to the United States in 1846, and especially with the new governor of Washington Territory , who arrived in Seattle on January 10, 1854.
The Point Elliott Treaty
The Treaty of Point Elliott , which was closed on 22 January 1855, ratified four years later, was of Chief Seattle (si'áb Si'ahl) and the Governor of the Territory Washington , Isaac Stevens , closed. But not only the Duwamish, but also numerous other tribes, such as the Suquamish , Snoqualmie , Snohomish , Lummi , Skagit and Swinomish were involved. In addition to the chief named, si'áb Ts'huahntl, Now-a-chais and Ha-seh-doo-an also signed for the Duwamish . The contract guaranteed the vital fishing rights and reservations. This is how the Port Madison Indian Reservation came into being , as well as the Tulalip , Swinomish and Lummi Reservations. However, reservations have never been established for the Skagit, Snohomish, Snoqualmie and Duwamish. In any case, they would have been just a transit station in the governor's sense, because they were supposed to live as peasants with schools and teachers, slavery was to be abolished (which continued in the south of the USA until 1865), they were to be "civilized" in a long process become. When this would be achieved, the reserves should be divided. Stevens claimed there were only 162 Duwamish, whether in ignorance or to put the "problem" into perspective is unclear. In any case, in 1856 there were 356, in 1910 only 20. These numbers are therefore not even indicative.
The Duwamish, who had to give up an area of 221.7 km² without any compensation, went partly to the Port Madison Indian Reservation , some to the Reservations of the Tulalip or the Muckleshoot Reservation.
Some Duwamish left or were forced to leave the area. However, many refused to leave or returned after a few months. In 1865, however, there was a violent eviction, in 1893 a settler burned what was probably the last eight houses, the residents fled to the ballast island in Seattle, and in 1910 houses went up in flames. After that, Indians had practically disappeared from the cityscape. There was only one Duwamish village left near Foster, south of Seattle.
Soon the Superintendent of Indian Affairs proposed the establishment of a Duwamish Indian Reservation along the White and Green Rivers. In 1866 over 150 settlers fought against this reserve - with success. A reservation was never established around Renton and Tukwila, and the Bureau of Indian Affairs withdrew its proposal.
When Kamiakim, chief of the Yakama , declared war on the whites, he threatened the Duwamish, if they did not join, that they would treat them the same as the whites. On January 26, 1856, several Indians attacked the Seattle settlement, but achieved little. The hostility to the settlers intensified, and the governor even offered prize money on the scalps "bad Indians".
The Duwamish were now working in the hop fields , but in the 1880s these farms experienced an economic decline. The Indians tried the timber and fish industries. They were allowed to live on Ballast Island during these times.
The struggle for land rights
The Duwamish never lost their sense of togetherness. So in 1925 they established a constitution and an internal structure. As early as the 1920s, they approached the courts demanding recognition and land. So they demanded $ 900 in compensation for each of the 56 longhouses destroyed. In 1946 they sued for recognition of their area of 54,790 acres (as of March 8, 1859). Initially, the Duwamish received $ 12,000, and on July 20, 1962, another $ 62,000. This put the price per acre of land, which now constitutes the core of Seattle, at $ 1.35. The Court of Claims rejected the Duwamish's objection in 1963.
But it was not until 1974, when the Boldt Decision recognized the basic land rights that the Indians had in the USA, that the prospects of success improved.
Together with the Snohomish and the Steilacoom ( Chillacum ), they sued for recognition in 1977 - a process that had not been completed for three decades. In the mid-1980s, the Bureau of Indian Affairs rejected recognition on the grounds that the tribe had no land. Nevertheless, many individuals have now succeeded in being recognized as members of the Duwamish. In 1988 the tribe received support from 72 descendants of the early settlers who were members of the Pioneer Association of the State of Washington .
Since the Duwamish, in the opinion of the district judge George Boldt, are not continuously available as an organized tribe - allegedly there was a gap between 1915 and 1925 - he also denied them the fishing rights provided for in the Treaty of 1855 in 1979. In 1996 the Bureau of Indian Affairs also declined recognition. Although the tribe was recognized in January 2001, the decision was reversed in May 2002 because the government believed there were formal errors.
Current situation
In addition to efforts to gain recognition, land and fish rights, the Duwamish also fight culturally for survival. Interviews have been held for a long time and the language researched and taught. It was not until 1906 that archaeological sites were placed under protection, but only on state land.
Led by the Puyallup Bob Satiacum, co-founder of the United Indians , Bernie Whitebear of the Colville Confederated Tribes and others, occupied Fort Lawton in March 1970 . After difficult negotiations, the group was leased the land (around 70 hectares) near Discovery Park for 99 years. The Indian Cultural Center was built there from 1977.
Since 1980, James Rasmussen was the Duwamish leader in the struggle to restore the Duwamish River, with strong support in the city. The last eight kilometers of the river between Turning Basin and Herring House Park are now under protection. The sites on the lower Duwamish should also be protected.
In January 2009, the Duwamish were able to inaugurate their new Duwamish Longhouse and Cultural Center , which in addition to the tribal office houses an exhibition room and a permanent historical exhibition.
See also
literature
- Robert H. Ruby and John A. Brown: A Guide to the Indian Tribes of the Pacific Northwest , University of Oklahoma Press, 2nd Ed. 1992, pp. 72-74, ISBN 0-8061-2479-2
- William C. Sturtevant (Ed.): Handbook of North American Indians . Volume 7: Wayne Suttles (Ed.): Northwest Coast . Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington DC 1990, ISBN 0-87474-187-4 .
Web links
- Coast Salish Villages of Puget Sound Overview of the Coastal Salish Tribes
- "The Lushootseed Peoples of Puget Sound Country" , University of Washington Libraries: Essay on the Indians in the Seattle area (English)
- Speech by Chief Seattle in 1854
Remarks
- ↑ Vol. I, plate III from: "A Voyage of Discovery to the North Pacific Ocean and Round the World" by George Vancouver
- ↑ Seattle's Duwamish Tribe celebrates new Longhouse and Cultural Center on January 3, 2009.