Skykomish
The Skykomish are an American Indian tribe living in Washington state . The Skykomish, formerly also called Skai-whamish , live along the Skykomish River , between today's Sultan and north of Index , in northwestern King County . Their traditional area was just under 950,000 acres .
They speak a dialect of the southwest coastal Salish , the Lushootseed . The Skykomish dialect was close to that of the Snohomish and Skagit speaking groups, while the Snoqualmie was closer to that of Nisqually, who lived further south . Nevertheless, the Skykomish were considered a subdivision of the Snoqualmie.
Her name means people or people of the inland (Skaikh: inland, mish: people, people). Today's Skykomish received the name of the tribe in 1893.
history
The tribe's residential area was on the Skykomish River, while the winter villages were further downstream at the present-day towns of Monroe , Index and Gold Bar .
Like all coastal salish , the Skykomish conducted seasonal migrations depending on salmon , game and vegetation cycles. This meant that permanent houses, known as plank houses, were only moved into in winter. For example, they used the area around today's city of Skykomish as a temporary storage site during the hunting and collecting season. Overall, however, their orientation was more on land than on the coast. From there they obtained dog hair, which they used for their goat hair, grass and feathers blankets.
They traded their canoes in Puget Sound and as far as the Fraser River . But through this trade they also brought in European diseases, such as smallpox . Only a few hundred tribe members survived the epidemics. In addition, there were also armed conflicts with Klickitat and Klallam .
Trade with Europeans
George Vancouver landed in Puget Sound south of Hebolb on June 4, 1792. He claimed the sound in the name of King George III. and gave the sound the name "Puget" and named Port Gardner Bay and Port Susan Bay.
Similar to the Snoqualmie, the Skykomish acted with the employees of the Hudson's Bay Company in Fort Nisqually, founded in 1833 . They also attacked it along with them in 1849.
In 1849, Superintendent Joseph Lane estimated their number at 450, the same number that the 1855 estimate came to. During the Puget Sound War , they remained neutral under their chief Patkanim .
The Point Elliott Treaty
In the negotiations for the Treaty of Point Elliott , the Snoqualmie chief Patkanim (circa 1808-1858) represented the Snohomish , Snoqualmie and Skykomish. In order to suppress the expected unrest if necessary, troops were brought in.
Company I, the First Regiment of the Washington Territory Volunteers under Colonel Isaac Ebey (1818-1857) was to build a fort on the Snohomish River. In November 1855, a schooner took the men to a small island on what would later be called Ebey Slough, a mile southeast of Lowell , where a primitive fortress called Fort Ebey was built. However, it was given up again after the following winter.
Although the Skykomish were among the tribes who signed the Treaty of Point Elliott (now Mukilteo ) in 1855 and were to move to the Tulalip Reservation on Puget Sound, there was still a Skykomish village of 240 people at Gold Bar around 1900. 1871 is the year the last statistical record of a group called Skykomish. They no longer mention land grants, housing programs and the like. Some of them will have married non-tribesmen or whites.
Nevertheless, the Treaty of Point Elliott was of central importance in its protective provisions and in its power of definition for the 22 tribes involved. Compliance with it was repeatedly demanded and the recognition of the signatory tribes demanded. However, until 1934 the government had a program of dissolving the tribes into individuals. In contrast, the strains of a now incurred public media fought, under increasing participation (see. Snoqualmie (People) #The big meeting of 1933 ).
The struggle for recognition and land rights
In 1960 the Skykomish's land claim was rejected with the information that they no longer lived in their traditional area. But in 1965 it was first recognized that they were a separate tribe and did not belong to the Snoqualmie.
On September 23, 1968, the Indian Claims Commission passed a verdict in favor of the Snoqualmie (who made the necessary applications for the former "sub tribe") and Skykomish and offered a small amount of compensation for the lost land.
In 1974 they were granted these rights through the Boldt decision , which only guaranteed the recognized tribes their contractual fishing rights - in contrast to the Samish , Duwamish , Snohomish and Steilacoom . They were not recognized tribes at the time.
Current situation
Due to the privatization policy and the connection with members of other tribes, the Skykomish are practically no longer recognizable as a separate tribe.
See also
literature
- Robert H. Ruby / John A. Brown: A Guide to the Indian Tribes of the Pacific Northwest , University of Oklahoma Press 1992, pp. 211f.
- Wayne Suttles (Ed.): Handbook of North American Indians . Volume 7: Northwest Coast. Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington DC 1990. ISBN 0-87474-187-4