First Peoples of the Duwamish

09/25/2007

Driving across the West Seattle Bridge, you get unobstructed views of industry – the smokestacks and container ships that line the Duwamish Waterway. But there is a forgotten history just beneath the surface. In today's segment of Life on the Duwamish, Jessica Partnow takes us to a former Native American village you might never know was there.

RASMUSSEN: "You're, you're on an, a village site. Right now."

THIS IS JAMES RASMUSSEN. HE'S A MEMBER OF THE DUWAMISH TRIBAL COUNCIL, REPRESENTING NATIVE PEOPLE WHO LIVED ALONG THE DUWAMISH RIVER FOR THOUSANDS OF YEARS.

RASMUSSEN: "Obviously container shipping is one of the things that people immediately see. Here."

WE'RE STANDING IN T–107, A GRASSY PARK STRETCHED BETWEEN WEST MARGINAL WAY AND THE RIVER, JUST SOUTH OF THE WEST SEATTLE BRIDGE.

RASMUSSEN: "Actually if you look right down here, you can see all the shell…well other than the condoms and the, the other stuff. Um, you will see the shell that and that's coming off the bank and down here. This is what's called a 'midden.'"

A MIDDEN IS A DUMP SITE FOR A NATIVE VILLAGE. AND THE WHITE CLAM SHELLS LINING THE MUDDY BANK HERE CAME FROM MILES AWAY. PEOPLE BROUGHT THEM HERE FROM ALL OVER PUGET SOUND. THESE SHELLS ARE EVIDENCE THAT THIS PLACE WAS INHABITED. IT WAS ONCE A NATIVE AMERICAN VILLAGE.

THE SITE'S SIGNIFICANCE HAS PROTECTED IT FROM INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT. TODAY THIS IS A RARE GREEN AREA SQUEEZED IN BETWEEN THE SHIPPING YARDS AND CEMENT FACTORIES THAT CROWD MOST OF THE WATERWAY. IT'S ALSO THE ONE STRETCH OF THE RIVER THAT'S STILL CURVY, THE WAY THE WHOLE THING WAS JUST 100 YEARS AGO.

KINGGEORGE: "You know the river back then was untamed it was very sinuous."

WARREN KINGGEORGE IS A MEMBER OF THE MUCKLESHOOT TRIBE. HE'S ALSO THEIR ORAL HISTORIAN.

KINGGEORGE: "And virtually every turn, every corner, uh, every riffle, every pool, had a place name and was significant to our ancestors."

HE SAYS THE TANGLED AND SWAMPY RIVER PLAYED A CRUCIAL ROLE IN THE LIVES OF NATIVE PEOPLE HERE.

KINGGEORGE: "It acted as the I-5 and the I-90 corridors act today. That was, that was how we traveled."

RASMUSSEN: "It was easy to get around by canoe. If you're trying to ride a horse, you gotta go all the way down past Tukwila, to be able to get on hard ground, to be able to come back up the other side. Whereas if you got a canoe you just paddle right across, it's easy."

BUT THE DUWAMISH RIVER BASIN HAS LONG BEEN A VICTIM OF PROGRESS. IN THE 1910S THE RIVER WAS DREDGED AND STRAIGHTENED, TRANSFORMED FROM WIDE MUD FLATS AND SALT MARSHES INTO A STRAIGHT, DEEP CHANNEL THAT INDUSTRY COULD USE FOR SHIPPING. THE SUDDEN LANDSCAPE CHANGE DESTROYED HABITAT FOR THE FISH AND WILDLIFE THAT HAD ALWAYS FLOURISHED ALONG THE RIVER.

COLL THRUSH IS AN ASSISTANT PROFESSOR OF HISTORY AT THE UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA. HE STUDIES AND TEACHES THE NATIVE HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST. HE SAYS THAT FOR SOME NATIVE PEOPLE HERE, THE ABRUPT CHANGES TO THE LANDSCAPE WERE FATAL.

COLL: "For example just you know, half a mile from here there were native people starving to death in 1920. Within sight of the Smith Tower. I mean you could have seen their houses on the river from the Smith Tower and they were starving to death."

EVEN THOUGH THEY'D LOST THEIR USUAL FOOD SOURCE, SOME NATIVE PEOPLE STAYED IN THE CITY BECAUSE THEY FELT A SPIRITUAL RESPONSIBILITY TO LAND THAT THEIR ANCESTORS HAD LIVED ON FOR THOUSANDS OF YEARS. BUT FOR CITY PLANNERS, PROGRESS AND INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT WERE MORE IMPORTANT THAN PROTECTING A TRADITIONAL WAY OF LIFE.

EFFORTS TO PUSH NATIVE PEOPLE OUT OF SEATTLE HAD STARTED DECADES EARLIER. NEW SETTLERS ARRIVING IN THE LATE 1800'S WERE SHOCKED AT WHAT THEY CALLED THE MONGRELIZATION OF SEATTLE.

COLL: "Wow this place is really more Indian than white,' you know. Everyone in town speaks Chinook jargon, half the kids are biracial. Um lots of people speak Lashootseed, the native language. This isn't what we thought it was gonna be. [laughs] You know this isn't what we expected at all. "

NATIVE PEOPLE WERE BARRED FROM ENTERING THE CITY LIMITS, UNLESS THEY WERE IN THE CARE OF A WHITE PERSON. SHIPLOADS OF WHITE WOMEN WERE BROUGHT IN TO REPLACE NATIVE WIVES. SETTLERS TOOK OVER NATIVE PEOPLE'S HOMES. AND NATIVE PEOPLE WERE PUSHED OUT TOWARDS THE RESERVATIONS. HERE'S JAMES RASMUSSEN AGAIN.

JAMES: "Duwamish people around the turn of the century were burned out. The, the remaining village sites that were here um were actually burned. To the ground. Or torn down. "

THE DUWAMISH WERE SUPPOSED TO HAVE A RESERVATION, ON LAND THAT IS NOW PART OF SOUTH SEATTLE. BUT IT WAS NEVER CREATED, BLOCKED BY A PETITION SIGNED BY ALMOST EVERY WHITE MAN IN KING COUNTY. MANY DUWAMISH PEOPLE CHOSE TO MOVE TO OTHER TRIBES' RESERVATIONS. BUT FOR SOME, THAT MOVE WOULD HAVE MEANT DEFEAT.

RASMUSSEN: "My grandfather always taught me that you never want to go to a reservation. It's not a place to go live. You know and because during that time, if you were too old and couldn't survive, you went to the reservation to die."

NATIVE PEOPLE WHO STAYED IN THE CITY BECAME INVISIBLE. WITHOUT ACCESS TO TRADITIONAL WAYS OF LIFE, THEY WERE NO LONGER AUTHENTIC ENOUGH. THEY DIDN'T COUNT AS INDIANS.

UNLIKE THE DUWAMISH, THE MUCKLESHOOT DID GET A RESERVATION. IT'S ON LAND THAT WAS CONSIDERED UNDESIRABLE FOR FARMING AND SETTLEMENT, 30 MILES SOUTH OF SEATTLE, AND FAR FROM THE DUWAMISH RIVER. BUT IT GIVES THE MUCKLESHOOT OFFICIAL STATUS AS A FEDERALLY RECOGNIZED INDIAN TRIBE. THEY CAN OPEN CASINOS, AND RECEIVE FEDERAL BENEFITS TO SUPPORT TRIBAL MEMBERS. AND IT'S ON LANDS THAT WARREN KINGGEORGE'S ANCESTORS LIVED ON FOR GENERATIONS.

AS HE DROVE ME AROUND THE RESERVATION, WE STARTED TALKING ABOUT A PLANT HIS ANCESTORS HAD GROWN, CALLED CAMAS. HE WAS SHOCKED THAT I'D NEVER HEARD OF IT.

KINGGEORGE: "You've never seen a camas? "

WE DRIVE PAST A GRASSY PASTURE RINGED WITH DARK GREEN GARY OAK TREES.

KINGGEORGE: "You see those oak trees out there?"

WARREN SAYS THE TREES ARE AN INDICATOR OF BURNING, WHICH HIS ANCESTORS WOULD HAVE DONE EVERY FEW YEARS TO HELP THE CAMAS GROW.

KINGGEORGE: "This camas was one of our staple foods, it was our version of potatoes."

WARREN HAD THOUGHT THE PLANT WAS EXTINCT IN THIS AREA FOR YEARS, PUSHED OUT OF THE PRAIRIES BY NEW LAND DEVELOPMENT.

KINGGEORGE: "About 4 years ago, driving on this highway, hwy 164, I looked out in this field, this pasture here, and saw the blue camas growing out here."

IT TURNS OUT THE PLANT WASN'T EXTINCT, IT WAS JUST GETTING MOWED, LIKE A LAWN, BEFORE THE FLOWERS HAD A CHANCE TO BLOOM. WARREN WAS LUCKY TO HAPPEN BY DURING THE THREE WEEKS A YEAR YOU CAN SEE THE FLOWERS FROM THE ROAD.

FOR WARREN AND THE MUCKLESHOOT TRIBE, THINGS ARE GOING WELL. THE CASINO AND OTHER TRIBAL ENTERPRISES ARE MAKING MONEY, AND FOR THE FIRST TIME IN A CENTURY THE TRIBE IS ABLE TO PROVIDE ITS MEMBERS WITH WHAT THEY NEED TO LIVE.

BACK IN SEATTLE, THE DUWAMISH ARE BREAKING GROUND ON A NEW LONGHOUSE RIGHT ACROSS THE STREET FROM THEIR HISTORICAL VILLAGE SITE AT T–107.

CECILE: "...this symbolic ribbon cutting..."

THE LONGHOUSE IS THE TRADITIONAL STRUCTURE THAT NATIVE PEOPLE LIVED IN ALL OVER THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST. THIS ONE WILL FILL A TRADITIONAL AND CEREMONIAL ROLE, AND IT WILL BE A PLACE FOR PEOPLE TO LEARN ABOUT THE DUWAMISH TRIBE AND ITS HISTORY. JAMES ALSO HOPES IT WILL BRING GEOGRAPHICALLY SCATTERED TRIBAL MEMBERS CLOSER TOGETHER.

RASMUSSEN: "Everybody's not going to move back to Western Washington, or Western King County or all move right down here. But it will be a place for us to get back together again. It'll be the first time in over 150 years that a longhouse has existed in this area. And that is a significant thing. "

IN A WAY, NATIVE HISTORY IN SEATTLE IS LIKE THE MIDDEN AT T–107, OR THE CAMAS BULBS ON THE MUCKLESHOOT RESERVATION. CONVENTIONAL WISDOM SAYS THAT NATIVE PEOPLE DISAPPEARED WITH THE MOVE TO RESERVATIONS. BUT REALLY IT'S THEIR HISTORY THAT HAS BEEN HIDDEN FROM VIEW.

AT T–107, I'M JESSICA PARTNOW FOR KUOW 949 SEATTLE.

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