Snohomish (people)
The Snohomish (also Snahomish or Sneomus ) are an Native American tribe in the US state of Washington who live near the Canadian border. Today, however, he is not recognized by the government as an Indian tribe, although he has had a treaty since 1855 . According to the company, the tribe has around 1,700 members.
The home of the Snohomish is what is now Snohomish County north of Marysville . They lived on the banks of Puget Sound from Warm Beach to Richmond Beach and along the Snohomish River to Monroe . In a broader sense, the Sdohobcs were also among them. These lived on the south end of Camano Island and on Whidbey Island . Another subdivision was formed by the Sdocohobcs on the Snohomish between Snohomish and Monroe. Other subdivisions were the N'Quentlamamish or Kwehtlamamish on the Pilchuck River.
The Snohomish are culturally part of the coastal Salish . The meaning of the name is controversial. According to Ruby / Brown, it means "a large number of people". They speak a dialect of the northern Lushootseed .
history
Like all coastal Salish , the Snohomish lived mainly from fish, but also from game and the income from collecting. Seasonal migrations depending on salmon , game and vegetation cycles meant that permanent houses, known as plank houses, were only moved into in winter.
With their canoes they operated a wide-ranging trade as far as Puget Sound and the Fraser River . In 1844 it was counted 322 Snohomish, in 1854 350. These numbers indicate that they were not affected by the smallpox epidemic of those years.
The tribe was often at war with the Klallam and Cowichan .
First contacts with Europeans
John Work (about 1792–1861), an employee of the Hudson's Bay Company , met the Snohomish in 1824, when one of the warriors showed him how he would kill the Cowichan if attacked. When Fort Nisqually was built as a trading post in 1833, trading partners included the Snohomish.
In the 1840s, the region's tribes came under the influence of Roman Catholic missionaries. By this time at the latest, a chieftainship spanning several villages had developed.
After Great Britain and the USA had agreed on the 49th parallel as the border in 1846, increasing immigration into the region began.
The Point Elliott Treaty
22 tribes signed a treaty with the Washington Territory in 1855, from which they hoped for protection. The Treaty of Point Elliott , signed January 22, 1855 and ratified four years later, provided for the establishment of a reservation for the Tulalip and other tribes , but not for the Snohomish - although nine of their headmen had signed the document, and the contract was concluded in their area near Mukilteo . The contract was signed on the one hand by Chief Putkanim , who acted as a kind of "chief chief", plus the eight S'hootst-hoot, Snah-talc or Bonaparte, He-uch-ka-nam, named in the contract as "sub-chiefs" or George Bonaparte, Tse-nah-talc or Joseph Bonaparte, Ns'ski-oos or Jackson, Wats-ka-lah-tchie or John Hobtsthoot, S'heht-soolt or Peter, S'ah-an-hu or Hallam, plus a John Taylor (no further name). Putkanim, who understood the superiority of the Americans, supported them in the wars that followed.
Part of the Snohomish remained neutral and therefore moved to the Tulalip Reservation, which still exists today, which at that time was still called the Snohomish Reservation . One of the Indian agents complained about the tribe's neutrality, and Governor Isaac Stevens withdrew their recognition.
Chief Patkanim
Patkanim (also written Pat-ka-nam or Pat Kanim) was the chief of the Snoqualmoo ( Snoqualmie ) and the Snohomish. At the confluence of the Snoqualmie and Tolt Rivers, he lived in a place called Yelhw (now Fall City ), which consisted of 16 plank houses. Its territory stretched on both sides of the US-Canada border, between Whidbey Island and Snoqualmie Pass . With the disposal of this passport, the two tribes controlled the trade. Two years after the border was drawn, Patkanim organized a gathering of around 8,000 Indians from the Puget Sound area on Whidbey Island . The next year he attempted an attack on Fort Nisqually owned by the Hudson's Bay Company , in which two whites were killed.
It seems that afterwards he preferred to keep peace. He even extradited his brother for participating in the robbery for $ 500 . In 1854 he assisted George McCellan with his land survey work in connection with the Pacific Railroad , and on January 22, 1855 signed the Treaty of Point Elliott. A reserve was to be created near Tulalip. He also supported the residents of Seattle , sided with the United States in the Puget Sound War , helped build forts and covered the Snoqualmie Pass with 100 of his people.
After the Battle of Seattle (1856), Governor Isaac Ingalls Stevens put a bounty on robbers , whereupon the chief handed him numerous prisoners against payment of $ 20 for ordinary warriors and $ 80 for chiefs - the status of the latter is unlikely to have been verifiable.
Around 1915 a bas-relief was erected for him because it is thanks to him that the area came to the USA and that he fought on the side of the (s) "white people".
Emigration, privatization of the land, land claims
The Tulalip reservation was too small for the Snohomish economy, so that by the end of the 1850s, but especially between 1870 and 1901, numerous Indians left the area. From 1863 to 1901 the land was privatized in the so-called allotment phase. From the 1920s the tribe built a system of government that was recognized in 1927. A constitution followed in 1934.
Although the US recognizes the tribe as a continuous political entity, it is denied recognition as a tribe. In 1977 he developed a plan aimed at reclaiming the traditional area. This includes the southern ends of Camano and Whidbey Island , Gedney Hat Island, and on the mainland an area between Puget Sound, Mukilteo and Warm Beach . The eastern border runs between Granite City and the confluence of the Snohomish , Snoqualmie and Skykomish Rivers.
George Boldt, district judge, stated shortly before his resignation that five tribes, including the Snohomish, had become extinct, which immediately meant that they lost all rights, including fishing.
An important role is played by the Elder Jack Kidder, in his language Wha Da Pa or “very bad man”. Born in 1924, he was a long historian of the tribe. He is the great-great-great-grandson of Snah-talc, also known as Bonaparte, sub-chief of the Snohomish, one of the signatories of the Treaty of Point Elliott. He believes that while many Snohomish went to the Tulalip reservation, some could not live there. Of the 1,500 people, only 165 were given land, he noted in 1977. He thus became one of the driving forces behind the 1979 application for recognition, which was rejected in 1983.
Bill Matheson has been chairman of the tribe since 1986 . He wants to keep fighting for recognition. The headquarters of the tribe is Edmont.
Current situation
At the end of 2003, the government refused recognition as a tribe, as it did in 1983. This is due to the fact that the neighboring Tulalip have included part of the Snohomish in their reservation and see themselves as legitimate Snohomish. Those who did not go to the Tulalip reservation after 1905 forfeited their tribal membership, so the Tulalip's opinion, who even carried out their own research to prove it. It is not just about membership issues, but also about state funds for support, but above all about the right reserved for Indian tribes to operate a casino . Therefore, the Tulalip oppose any attempts by the Snohomish to be recognized as a tribe.
According to their information, 1,700 people are Snohomish. The Tulalip, however, assume that many of the tribesmen on their list have been included. Of the seven criteria for recognition (identification as an American Indian entity since 1900; the majority of the applicant group belongs to this unit and exists without interruption; the applicant has uninterrupted influence or authority within the group; a government document provides corresponding criteria; the members lead predominantly back to a closed tribal unit; the majority must not belong to recognized other tribes; they do not fall under a law that prohibits federal relations) the Snohomish would not satisfy four alone.
literature
- Robert H. Ruby / John A. Brown: A Guide to the Indian Tribes of the Pacific Northwest , University of Oklahoma Press 1992, pp. 212-214.
- Wayne Suttles (Ed.): Handbook of North American Indians . Volume 7: Northwest Coast. Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington DC 1990. ISBN 0-87474-187-4
See also
Web links
Remarks
- ↑ Washington State History Museum, Treaty of Point Elliott ( Memento of the original of September 27, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF, 31 kB).
- ↑ Collection of the University of Washington: there ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. also more photos.
- ↑ See Whyatt Buchanan: Snohomish Tribe turned down in new bid for federal recognition , in: Seattle Post, December 2, 2003 .
