Duwamish
The Duwamish are a Native American tribe indigenous to the northwest region of Washington state, particularly around present-day Seattle. They refer to themselves as Dkhw'Duw'Absh, meaning "The People of the Inside," and are historically linked to the Coast Salish peoples, speaking the Lushootseed language. The Duwamish were traditionally a maritime society, relying heavily on fish, shellfish, and various plant and animal foods for sustenance. Their society was characterized by distinct territorial groups and traditional forms of wealth, including dentalia and canoes.
The tribe first encountered European Americans in 1792, with significant interactions led by notable figures like Chief Seattle, who played a crucial role in maintaining relations with settlers despite the devastating impacts of disease on the indigenous population. Treaties in the mid-19th century promised land and rights to the Duwamish, but these were largely unfulfilled, leading to their displacement as Seattle developed. The Duwamish faced numerous challenges in their quest for federal recognition, which has been an ongoing struggle since the 1970s. Despite these challenges, the tribe continues to advocate for their rights and work towards preserving their cultural heritage, opening a traditional longhouse and cultural center in 2009 as part of their revitalization efforts. As of March 2023, the Duwamish are still seeking federal recognition.
On this Page
Subject Terms
Duwamish
Category: Tribe
Culture area:Northwest Coast
Language group: Salishan (Nisqually)
Primary location: Seattle
Population size: Approximately 600 (2022 NPR interview with Elder Ken Workman)
The Duwamish are an American Indian tribe native to the modern region of northwest Washington state, specifically the area of present-day Seattle, Washington, where archaeological evidence indicates they have lived since at least the sixth century. They self-identify as Dkhw’Duw’Absh, or "The People of the Inside." Historically they were divided into five different territorial groups, while overall the tribe was one of the many Coast Salish peoples connected through their use of mutually-intelligible Salishan languages. The Puget Sound Salish language used by the Duwamish is known as Lushootseed.
Though they were traditionally a maritime people and fish was a staple, the Duwamish also depended on vegetable foods and land animals. Numerous types of waterfowl were caught, and tidal foods were abundant, particularly shellfish. Traditional forms of wealth were dentalia, enslaved people, canoes, blankets made of dog and mountain goat wool, fur robes, and clamshell disk beads.
The first European American contact with the Duwamish was in 1792 when George Vancouver explored Puget Sound. One Indian who witnessed the meeting was Si'ahl, who would later become the most famous Duwamish chief. Si'ahl maintained friendly relations with European explorers and settlers, even as diseases brought by the newcomers devastated the native population of the Pacific Northwest, and the Anglicized version of his name, "Seattle," was eventually used for the major settlement in the region. John Work of the Hudson’s Bay Company explored the region in 1824. In 1833, the company established Fort Nisqually as a trading post, which brought many changes through increased trade. In 1854 and 1855, the Treaties of Medicine Creek and Point No Point reserved land for some tribes. By the 1880s, the Indian Shaker Church had spread through the area.
In 1855, several Native American tribes in the area signed the Point Elliott Treaty, with Chief Si'ahl given a prominent position in the document. The treaty, ratified by the US Senate in 1859, promised relations on equal footing between the Duwamish and the United States. All the signing tribes were granted reservations and official rights for fishing and hunting, and in return large portions of their traditional homelands were given to the US government. However, the treaty was violated by a growing number of European-American settlers, sparking an Indian rebellion known as the Puget Sound War. Though Chief Si'ahl helped protect settlers from other tribes, the Duwamish were not granted the reservation they had been promised.
As the city of Seattle grew further, many Duwamish were forced from their homes, and the US Army even destroyed traditional longhouses to prevent tribe members from returning. In 1865, a law by the Seattle city council banned the Duwamish from living in the city. Many of the displaced people refused to leave their homeland for distant reservations with other tribes; some settled on Ballast Island, a man-made island with no resources, from where they could continue to work in the area. However, eventually, land around Seattle became so valuable that the Duwamish were evicted from even this barren place, and by 1917, the makeshift Duwamish camp on the island was gone.
The twentieth and early-twenty-first centuries saw the Duwamish struggle to win the recognition promised by the Point Elliott Treaty. They were listed as an existing tribe in the Termination Resolution of 1953, but by the end of the 1960s, the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) had removed the official record of the tribe. In 1976, the tribe formally petitioned the US government for federal recognition, but it would take decades for further action to take place. The final Judge George Boldt decision in United States v. Washington in 1979 denied the non-reservation Duwamish their fishing rights. In 1988, another petition for recognition by the Duwamish and other landless tribes of western Washington was drawn up and circulated. The Duwamish petition was approved by the Clinton administration in early 2001, but upon taking office, the Bush administration overturned the decision.
In 2009, after purchasing land near the former site of an ancestral village, members of the Duwamish Tribe opened a traditional longhouse—the first in Seattle in 115 years—and a cultural center to serve as a focal point for the tribe and to educate visitors about their heritage. In 2010, the Descendants Committee of Seattle presented a formal apology to the Duwamish for the discrimination faced by the tribe since the founding of Seattle. A federal court ruled in 2013 that the petition for federal recognition must be reconsidered, as it had been denied according to obsolete guidelines, but the US Department of the Interior denied it again in 2015. Many Duwamish vowed to continue to fight for recognition and to continue to work to preserve their heritage while remaining a vibrant, evolving, modern culture. Despite these efforts, the tribe was still not federally recognized as of March 2023.
Bibliography
"American Indian and Alaska Native Tribes in the United States and Puerto Rico: 2010." United States Census Bureau. 8 Oct. 2021, www.census.gov/data/tables/time-series/dec/cph-series/cph-t/cph-t-6.html. Accessed 29 Mar. 2023.
Duwamish Tribe, www.duwamishtribe.org/. Accessed 29 Mar. 2023.
"Duwamish Tribe History." All About South Park. South Park Neighborhood Assoc., Accessed 29 Mar. 2023.
Riddle, Katia. “This tribe has fought for years to get federal recognition. It's about their identity.” NPR, 6 Mar. 2022, www.npr.org/2022/03/06/1083221946/duwamish-tribe--federal-recognition. Accessed 29 Mar. 2023.
Tollefson, Kenneth Dean, et al. "Tribal Trio of the Northwest Coast." Journal of Northwest Anthropology, 2015.
Tu, Janet I. "Duwamish Tribe Denied Federal Recognition." Seattle Times, 3 July 2015. www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/puget-sound/duwamish-tribe-denied-federal-recognition/. Accessed 29 Mar. 2023.
Walker, Richard. "10 Things You Should Know about the Duwamish Tribe." Indian Country Today Media Network, 16 July 2015. indiancountrytoday.com/archive/10-things-you-should-know-about-the-duwamish-tribe. Accessed 29 Mar. 2023.