'Acknowledgement that this is their home': Seattle's Alaskan Way gets honorary Lushootseed name

Seattle’s waterfront is undergoing a massive transformation following the rerouting of Route 99 from a now-demolished viaduct into a waterfront tunnel. That’s opened up space for a smaller surface road and a long, skinny 20-acre waterfront park.

There’s a smaller change that visitors may not notice, unless they look carefully at the street signs. Just below the official street name, you’ll notice Alaskan Way now has an honorary name: Dzidzilalich.

Dzidzilalich, also written as dᶻidᶻəlaĺič, translates to "a place to cross over" or "the little crossing over place," explained Donny Stevenson, Vice Chairman of the Muckleshoot Tribe.

"This is the name that it's been here for literally hundreds of generations and thousands of years," Stevenson said. "It was the common vernacular for the city of Seattle for our people up until about World War II."

Dzidzilalich was once an ancient footpath — the location of a spit of land, where people could cross the tidelands or walk to Lake Washington.

Stevenson noted there are plenty of other locations in the area that have traditional Lushootseed names — almost too many to count.

It's important for the names of these locations to be documented, and used, Stevenson said — both to respect the past, and bring hope to future generations.

"That's an acknowledgement that this is their home, that they belong here. That despite some traumatic history of the city's past, we have a place today."