Southern Coast Salish refers to over 50 named, autonomous Indian groups or tribes inhabiting the Puget Sound region and speaking one of two languages. The component groups included (but were not limited to) Swinomish, Skagit (Lower Skagit or Whidby Island Skagits), Upper Skagit, Stillaguamish, Skykomish (perhaps once a subdivision of the Snoqualmie), and Snohomish (speakers of Northern Lushootseed); Steilacoom, Snoqualmie, Suquamish, Duwamish, Puyallup, Nisqually, and Squaxin (speakers of Southern Lushootseed); and Quilcene, Skokomish, and Duhlelip (speakers of Twana). Many of these groups themselves consisted of autonomous subdivisions. Little is known of these Indians’ lives before their contact with non-natives.
Location Southern Coast Salish people lived in and around the Puget Sound Basin in Washington. The climate is generally wet and moderate, with the northern areas somewhat drier. Although most of the land was timbered, some was kept open by regular burning practices. Most contemporary Southern Coast Salish Indians live on local reservations or in nearby cities and towns.
Population The precontact population was estimated to be around 12,600. In 1990 there were probably over 20,000 self-identified Southern Coast Salish Indians. See individual entries under "Government/Reservations" under "Contempory Information" for 1990 reservation populations.
Language Southern Coast Salish, which includes the Lushootseed (Northern and Southern dialects) and Twana languages, is a member of the Central division of the Salishan language family.
Historical Information
History The basic Southern Coast Salish culture was in place at least 2,000 years ago. George Vancouver visited the region in 1792. By that time, evidence of metal and smallpox suggested that the Southern Coast Salish might already have encountered Europeans indirectly. Owing primarily to the lack of sea otters in their region, the Salish experienced little further contact for the next 30 years or so.
At least after 1827 and the establishment of the Hudson’s Bay Company post on the Fraser River, the Southern Coast Salish were in regular contact with non-native traders. Fort Nisqually was founded in 1833. Among the cultural changes the Indians experienced were the introduction of firearms, the move away from traditional forms of dress, and the beginning of the potato crop. They also experienced new native ideas from remote places, such as the Plateau Prophet Dance.
Catholic missionaries arrived around 1840. The first U.S. settlers followed shortly thereafter, especially after the United States took control of the region by the Treaty of Washington (1846). In 1850, the Donation Land Act of Oregon allowed settlers to invade and claim Indian land. Washington Territory was officially established in 1853.
In 1854 and 1855, Southern Coast Salish Indians signed a number of treaties (Medicine Creek, Point Elliot, and Point No Point) ceding land and creating seven future reservations (Squaxin, Nisqually, Puyallup, Port Madison, Tulalip, Swinomish, and Skokomish). Notable chiefs who signed included Sealth (Suquamish/Duwamish, after whom the city of Seattle was named), Goliah (Skagit), and Patkanin (Snoqualmie). The Nisqually chief Leschi opposed the Medicine Creek Treaty, arguing that his people should settle near the mouth of the Nisqually River and other traditional subsistence areas. He was hanged by the Americans in 1858.
The Steilacooms were denied a reservation because of the planned development of the town of Steilacoom. Most joined other local reservations or remained in their homeland, becoming the ancestors of the modern tribe. Upper Skagits were left landless by the Point Elliot treaty; they later received and then lost several individual allotments.
In 1857, an executive order established the Muckleshoot Reservation (the Muckleshoots were an amalgam of several inland tribes and groups). During subsequent years these lands were whittled away by the Dawes Act and other legal and extralegal coercions (such as the unofficial toleration of illegal whiskey peddlers). Indians rebelled against unfair and dishonest treaty negotiations by engaging in the 1855-1856 Indian war and by refusing to move onto reservations.
However, by the 1850s, most Southern Coast Salish were heavily involved in the non-native economy; most sold their labor, furs, and other resources to non-Indians. Important and growing industries included logging, commercial fishing and canning, and hopyards. Seattle was founded in and grew out of a Duwamish winter village (in 1962, the government paid the members of the Duwamish tribe $1.35 an acre for land that had become the city of Seattle). The Duwamishes moved around the region, refusing to settle on reservations, until some joined the Muckleshoot and Tulalip Reservations. Whites burned them out of their homes in West Seattle in 1893. In 1925, though landless, they adopted a constitution and formed a government. Furthermore, most tribes came under the control of the rigidly assimilationist Bureau of Indian Affairs.
In 1917, the government commandeered most of the 4,700-acre Nisqually Reservation for Camp (later Fort) Lewis. Displaced Nisquallis scattered to various reservations and lands. During the 1960s, clashes between Indians and non-natives over fishing rights sometimes became violent; they were settled in the Indians’ favor, however, in the 1970s. Contrary to government desires, they did not farm but maintained their hunting and fishing traditions.
The Puyallups did turn to agriculture during the 1870s. For that reason, they were seen by whites as having made great progress toward civilization. The growth of the adjacent city of Tacoma fueled pressure for the sale of unallotted lands; most of the reservation had been lost by the early twentieth century. The Puyallup were at the forefront of the fishing wars of the 1960s and 1970s. Many Snohomishes left their reservation during the last years of the nineteenth century as a result of overcrowding and oppressive government policies. These Indians, plus those who never moved to the Tulalip Reservation, became the historic Snohomish tribe.
The Tulalip tribes were created in 1855, as was the Tulalip Reservation, which was intended for the Snohomish, Snoqualmie, Stillaguamish, Skykomish, and others. The word "Tulalip" comes from a Snohomish word meaning "a bay shaped like a purse." Many of these Indians refused to settle on the reservation, however, and ended up landless.
By the 1860s, the Squaxins had abandoned their traditional dress but maintained other aspects of their culture. In 1874, about 30 Squaxins went to live at and became assimilated into the Twana community. Some Squaxins also owned allotments on the Quinault Reservation. In 1882, a Squaxin Indian, John Slocum, began the Indian Shaker Church, which emphasizes morality, sobriety, and honesty. This religion soon spread far and wide and continues today. The Snoqualmies were removed to the Tulalip
Reservation after the Indian wars; they slowly assimilated into that and nearby white communities.
Religion According to the Twana, people were possessed of life souls and heart souls. Illness occurred if the former left the body. At death, life souls went to the land of the dead and were eventually reborn, whereas heart souls just disappeared. The people prayed to the sun and the earth, deities concerned with ethics. They also regarded salmon and other animal species as "people in their own country," complete with chiefs and other such conventions.
A mythological age ended when a transformer fashioned this world. Guardian spirits, both regular (lay) and shamanistic, were believed responsible for all luck, skill, and achievement. Shamans received the same powers as lay people, plus two unique powers as well. Spirit helpers and their associated songs were acquired through quests (or occasionally inheritance), which might begin as early as age eight and which consisted of fasting, bathing, and physical deprivation. Following the quest, nothing happened for up to 20 years, at which time the spirit returned (temporarily causing illness), the person sang and danced, and the power was activated. Shamans cured certain illnesses (such as soul loss) and could also cause illness and death, an explanation of why they were sometimes killed.
Southern Coast Salish Indians celebrated several regular ceremonies. The soul recovery ceremony was an attempt to recapture a soul from the dead. These performers are singing their spirit songs and dramatizing a canoe search and rescue of a soul.
Southern Coast Salish Indians celebrated several regular ceremonies. The Winter Dance was sponsored by someone who was ill as a result of a returning spirit. There was much ritual connected with a "cure," including dancing, singing, feasting, and gift distribution. The soul recovery ceremony was an attempt to recapture a soul from the dead. Performers sang their spirit songs and dramatized a canoe search and rescue of soul. The potlatch was given by someone who had encountered a wealthy power and was to become wealthy himself. It was held in summer or early fall. The leading men of nearby villages and their families were invited. Guests brought food and wealth. Potlatches lasted for several days and included games, contests, secular songs, and dances, after which the sponsor gave away gifts and sang his power song.
Among the Twana, Suquamish, and maybe others, the tamanawas ceremony initiated new members (adolescents of both sexes with wealthy parents) into a secret religious society.
Government Each local group had one or more winter villages as well as several summer camps and resource sites. Village leaders were generally the heads of the wealthiest households; they had no formal leadership role. In Twana villages, the chief’s speaker and village crier delivered brief sermons and awakened people, respectively.
Customs Villages consisted of one or more houses, which in turn sheltered several families, each within its own special section. Village membership may have been more permanent or stable in the south than in the north. Although they were truly autonomous, neighboring groups were linked by intermarriage, ceremonial and customary activities, and the use of common territories. Fishing sites and equipment could be individually or communally owned. Hunting was a profession among many Southern Coast Salish groups.
Classes, or social groups, included upper free (wealthy, high birth, sponsors of feasts and appropriate ceremonies), lower free (less wealth, common birth, fewer and less prestigious ceremonies), and slave (property). Recognition by the intervillage network was required to confirm or alter status. Possessions of woven blankets, dentalia, clamshell-disk beads, robes, pelts, bone war clubs, canoes, and slaves constituted wealth. House posts and grave monuments of high-status people were carved and/or painted. All except slaves and the very poor had their heads flattened in infancy. Popular games included gambling (dice and the disk and hand games) as well as games of skill and athletic contests. More southerly people smoked tobacco (obtained in trade) mixed with kinnikinnick (bearberry).
There were few proper birth ceremonies, although behavior was restricted for a new mother and father. At adolescence, both sexes were expected to seek visions, although a girl was subject to a greater number of behavioral restrictions, including isolation at her first period (and at all subsequent periods). Upper-class girls had "coming out parties" after their first isolation to announce their marriageability. Marriage was arranged by families, usually to people in different villages. It involved the ritual exchange of gifts. Divorce was possible but difficult, especially among the upper class. Death received the most ritualistic treatment. Professional undertakers prepared the body, which was interred in a canoe or an aboveground grave box. After the funeral there was a feast, and the deceased’s property was given away.
Dwellings Permanent plank houses had shed roofs (later, gambrel and gabled roofs) and were very similar to those of the Central Coast Salish. Several families (nuclear or extended, possibly including slaves) shared a house. Each family, or sometimes two, had its own fireplace. Co-wives might also share the house and have their own fireplaces. Cedar longhouses might be as large as 200 by 50 feet.
Some houses were built and used by wealthy men as potlatch houses. Temporary summer camp houses consisted of mats covering pole frames. Most villages had at least one sweat house. Stockades protected some villages. The famous "old man house," a Suquamish dwelling, once stood in the village of Suqua. It was about 500 feet long and 60 feet wide. The government ordered it burned in the 1870s.
Diet Fish, especially salmon, was the staple for most groups. They also ate herring, smelt, flatfish, lingcod, sturgeon, and cutthroat and rainbow trout. Sea mammals included seals and beached whales. Of the land mammals, most people ate blacktail deer, black bear, elk, and smaller animals. Dogs were used to help in the hunt. Deer and elk were sometimes hunted in community drives. Other important foods included about 20 species of fowl; shellfish; and plants such as bracken, camus, and wapato as well as other roots,bulbs, sprouts, berries, and nuts. From the mid-1850s on, many of these groups raised potatoes.
Key Technology Fishing equipment included seines, gill nets, weirs, traps, trawl nets, dip nets, lift nets, gaffs, harpoons, and herring rakes. For hunting, people used clubs, harpoons, bow and arrow, pitfalls, snares, nets, and flares (for night hunting). Woodworking was the primary male craft. Men used stone mauls, elk antler, yew wedges, and other tools to make canoes, house planks, utensils, bent-corner boxes, containers, dishes, and spoons.
Women worked with shredded cedar bark and cattail leaves, making cordage, mats (bed, canoe, wall), blankets, and baskets (including coiled cedar-root hard baskets) in various shapes and sizes. They also wove blankets of mountain goat wool, dog fur, and bird and fireweed down. Twana women made soft twined decorated baskets of sedge or cattail leaves. The Nisqually, a more interior people, made elk hide parfleches in which to carry food and store meat.
Trade The Southern Coast Salish regularly traded among themselves and their immediate neighbors as well as with interior groups and Indians east of the Cascade Mountains. Most of their canoes were obtained from outer coast peoples. Items from the east included mountain goat hair and hemp fiber.
Notable Arts Wood carving and painting, weaving, and basket making were the most important arts. All men carved wood, but some were specialized craftsmen. Men also pecked or incised stone, bone, and antler. Boards used in the spirit canoe ceremony (a soul recovery ceremony) were elaborately painted.
Transportation Several types of cedar canoes were employed for purposes such as trolling, hunting, moving freight, and warfare. For major travel (such as travel to and from summer camps), people made a sort of catamaran by lashing some boards between two canoes. Upriver peoples used log rafts for crossing or traveling down streams. Winter hunters walked on snowshoes. Horses arrived in the area in the late eighteenth century, but only inland groups such as the Nisqually and Puyallup used them extensively.
Dress Most clothing was made of shredded cedar bark and buckskin. In warm weather, men wore breechclouts or nothing; women wore a cedar-bark apron and usually a skirt. In colder weather, men and some women wore hide shirts, leggings, and robes of bearskin as well as skins of smaller mammals sewn together. Both wore hide moccasins.
Some groups wore basketry or fur caps. Many wore abalone and dentalia earrings. Women also wore shell, teeth, and claw necklaces as well as leg and chin tattoos. Older men might keep hair on their faces.
War and Weapons Intragroup violence was usually dealt with by compensation and purification. Fighting, usually resulting from revenge, the ambitions of warriors, and slave raids, was usually with nonneighboring groups. Professional warriors did exist, although warfare was largely defensive in nature. Weapons included war clubs, daggers, spears, and bow and arrow (possibly poisoned). Hide shirts were worn as armor. Rather than fight, Twanas might hire shamans to harm other groups.
At least in the early nineteenth century, the Southern Coast Salish had to deal with highly aggressive Lekwiltok Kwakiutl raiders. On at least one occasion the Salish tribes banded together to launch a retaliatory expedition against the Kwakiutl. Some groups, such as the Skagit and Snohomish, had guns before they ever saw non-Indians.
Contemporary Information
Government/Reservations The Skokomish Reservation (1874; 6,300 acres; 431 Indians/183 non-natives) includes Twana, Klallam, and Chimakum Indians. A constitution and by-laws were approved in 1938. They are governed by a tribal council. Their own court regulates hunting, fishing, and other laws.
The Port Madison Reservation (1855; 7,811 acres, less than half of which is Indian owned; 372 Indians/4,462 non-natives) is home to the Suquamish tribe (Suquamish and Duwamish, roughly 800 in the mid-1990s). A 1965 constitution and by-laws call for an elected seven-member tribal council. A large number of non-Indians, not subject to tribal law, live on the reservation. Roughly 400 (1991) Duwamish Indians also live off-reservation.
The Muckleshoot Reservation (1857; 1,275 acres; 858 Indians/2,983 non-natives) adopted a constitution and by-laws in 1836, under the Indian Reorganization Act (IRA). Three new members are elected annually to the Muckleshoot Tribal Council. The tribe is a member of the Intertribal Court System (1978).
The Nisqually Reservation (1854; 941 acres; 363 Indians/215 non-natives) approved a constitution and by-laws in 1946. A council governs the Nisqually Indian Community.
The Puyallup Reservation (1855; less than 1,000 acres, almost none of which is Indian-owned; 906 Indians/31,486 non-natives) is governed by the Puyallup Tribal Council. The reservation is also home to some Nisquallis, Cowlitzes, Muckleshoots, Steilacooms, and other Indians.
The Tulalip (formerly the Snohomish) Reservation (1855; 10,667 acres; 1,193 Indians/5,910 non-natives) is home to the Tulalip tribes, who are mostly of Snohomish, Stillaguamish, Snoqualmie, Skykomish, Skagit, and Samish descent. The original constitution and by-laws were approved in 1936. A six-member board of directors is elected every three years.
The Upper Skagit Reservation (1981; roughly 99 acres; 162 Indians/18 non-natives) was purchased by the tribe. The tribe operates under a constitution and by-laws approved in 1974. A chair, elected annually, presides over the seven-member Upper Skagit Tribal Council. The tribe is also a member (with the Swinomish Indian Tribal Community and the Sauk-Suiattles) of the Skagit System Cooperative, which regulates fishing in the Skagit River system, and (with the Lummi, Nooksack, and Swinomish tribes) of the Northwest Washington Service Unit of the Indian Health Service. Tribal enrollment in 1993 was 552 people.
The Swinomish Reservation (1855; 3,602 acres; 578 Indians/1,704 non-natives) is located in Skagit County. Their constitution was adopted in 1936, under the IRA. Governed by the Swinomish Indian Senate, from which the principal tribal officers are elected, the Swinomish Indian Tribal Community (roughly 625 people in 1993) is composed of Swinomish, Kikiallus, Suquamish, Samish, and Upper and Lower Skagit peoples. They are members, with the Upper Skagit Reservation and the Sauk-Suiattles, of the Skagit System Cooperative.
The Squaxin Island Reservation (1854; 971 acres; 127 Indians/30 non-natives on trust lands) has been abandoned; most of the people live in and around Kamilche, the location of their tribal center, and Shelton, Washington. A constitution was accepted in 1965. The people are governed by a tribal council.
The Sauk-Suiattle Reservation (23 acres; 69 Indians/55 non-natives) separated from the Upper Skagits in 1946. Their constitution and by-laws, featuring a seven-member tribal council, were approved in 1975. They are members, with the Upper Skagit Reservation and the Swinomish Indian Tribal Community, of the Skagit System Cooperative.
The Stillaguamish Reservation (60 acres; 96 Indians/17 non-natives) was purchased with proceeds from a 1966 land claims settlement. The tribe of roughly 185 members is governed by a board of directors. It comanages 700 square miles of the Stillaguamish watershed.
The Snohomish Tribe was incorporated in 1927 and 1974. Its by-laws were written in 1928 and its constitution in 1934. It is governed by councils and chairpersons. Tribal enrollment in the early 1990s was about 900 people.
Most of the roughly 600 members of the Steilacoom tribe live in and around Pierce County. The tribal offices, including a museum, are in the town of Steilacoom. Their constitution and by-laws were originally created in the 1930s. They are governed by a nine-member council with three officers. There is also an honorary chieftain. They are largely assimilated.
Economy Fisheries industries predominate, such as aquaculture, hatcheries, and fishing fleets. There are some traditional crafts as well as retail establishments such as stores, marinas, and restaurants. Tribes receive income from trust lands and leases. The Suquamish are involved in clamming, fishing, plant gathering, and bingo. The Muckleshoot are also involved with bingo, as are the Puyallups and Swinomish, and are planning a casino. Tribal governments also provide some employment. Unemployment, however, remains very high on most reservations.
Upper Skagits manufacture replica Northwest Coast bentwood boxes. They and several other tribes recently reached a multimillion-dollar settlement with Seattle City Light for losses sustained to their fisheries by the erection of dams on the Skagit River early in the century.
Tulalip is beginning to reduce its unemployment rate of greater than 40 percent. Part-time work includes fishing, logging, and crop picking. Tribal income is also derived from land leases to non-Indians, a number of small businesses, a bingo operation, and a casino. Economic plans include construction of a golf course, a business park, and a second casino.
Legal Status Fishing rights litigation came to a head in the 1960s and 1970s. The main point of contention was the paucity of the salmon run, which was due primarily to river diversions for power and irrigation. Indians were losing out on the competition for the remaining salmon. When the state of Washington regulated the Puyallup fishery in the name of conservation, the Puyallups fished illegally, justifying that activity by their treaty rights. In the landmark 1974 case of U.S. v. Washington (the so-called Boldt decision, later upheld almost in its entirety by the U.S. Supreme Court), the court held that traditional tribal fisheries are protected by the 1854 and 1855 treaties.
One result of this decision was that tribal governments began enforcing fishing regulations. Taxes went to support the tribal fisheries industries as well as some social services. The decision also helped to promote Indian identity by refocusing it on fishing as a core activity.
Federally recognized tribal entities include the Upper Skagit Tribe, the Sauk-Suiattle Tribe, the Swinomish Tribal Community (Swinomish, Skagit, Samish), the Skokomish Tribe (Twanas), the Suquamish Tribe, the Muckleshoot Tribe, the Nisqually Indian Community, the Puyallup Tribe, the Tulalip Tribes, the Stillaguamish Tribe, and the Squaxin Island Tribe. The Snoqualmie Tribe received full federal recognition in early 1998.
The Snohomish Tribe is a federally recognized political entity and has applied for tribal recognition. The Kikiallus Tribe, formerly a subdivision of the Skagits; the Steilacoom Tribe; the Duwamish Tribe; and the Snoqualmoo Tribe (derived from the Snoqualmies after a factional split in the 1840s) have petitioned for federal recognition. The Samish Tribe has been denied federal tribal recognition.
Daily Life In general, the Southern Coast Salish people come together regularly for intertribal gatherings around traditional ceremonies and activities, such as winter spirit dancing and games.
The Suquamish Museum and Cultural Center (1980) is a center of that tribe’s cultural life. The Suquamishes are predominantly Catholic. Their children attend public school. Chief Seattle Days, held in August in conjunction with the American Legion, celebrates local Indian culture, and other festivals are also open to the public. The Duwamish have formed a nonprofit corporation to foster tribal identity and culture. They still seek federal recognition and fishing rights.
The Muckleshoot Tribe has a community center, library, medical-dental clinic, educational training programs, and police force. Many people are active in the Indian Shaker Church as well as the Pentecostal Church. A land reacquisition program is underway. Their Skopbsh celebration is held in early May.
The Puyallups hold a powwow in late summer. After two physical occupations, they regained title in 1980 to the site of a former Indian hospital. They now operate the Takopid Health Center, which provides a wide range of health care for Indians of hundreds of tribes. They also recently reached a land claims settlement with the government for $112 million for tribal land that illegally became the port of Tacoma. Most Puyallups are Christian, although traditional winter spirit dancing and healing ceremonies are still held. Lushootseed is taught in schools but is not generally spoken.
Numerous services on the Nisqually Reservation include a clinic, programs for the old and young, and a library, trading post, and bingo hall. Nisquallis participate in the Indian Shaker Church and various Christian churches.
Most of the approximately 100 Sauk-Suiattles live in Skagit County. Many work in the fishing and logging industries; unemployment on the reservation exceeds 80 percent. Many also practice spirit dancing, and there are members of the Indian Shaker Church and various Christian denominations.
As a result of dams, diking, and water diversions by public and private interests, the Skokomish lost important pieces of their lands in the twentieth century. They are currently trying to recover some of this land. Most Skokomish children attend public high school, although there is a tribal school for grades K-4. The tribe has native language and curriculum projects, plus a basketry project in conjunction with neighboring tribes. Most Skokomishes are either Pentecostals or Shakers, and some people practice the traditional tamanawas religion. The tribe observes several festivals, most connected with traditional activities such as personal naming and the first salmon run.
The Stillaguamish work mainly in Snohomish County. They are assembling a tribal history in order to learn more about their heritage. The tribal center features courses in arts and language, and the tribe operates a fish hatchery. Children of the Swinomish Indian Tribal Community attend public school. Most Swinomishes are Catholics. They hold the Swinomish festival, featuring traditional games, dances, and food, on Memorial Day. They also observe Treaty Days in late January and participate in local canoe races and powwows.
The Steilacoom Tribe is creating an activities learning center on five acres of land they lease from Fort Steilacoom Park (in Pierce County). The center emphasizes both traditional (basketry, wood carving) and modern (such as energy conservation) technology. Fort Steilacoom Community College coordinates programs with the tribe. There is an annual Elders Feast Day.
Most of the 1,000 or so Snoqualmies live on non-Indian lands throughout the Puget Sound area. A very few people still speak the native language. The tribe sponsors arts and crafts classes and trains traditional dancers.
Many Upper Skagits, on the Upper Skagit, the Swinomish, or the Sauk-Suiattle Reservation, retain elements of their traditional culture. The language is still spoken; shamans still practice; and traditional dances, music, and ceremonials, particularly pertaining to funerals, spirit powers, and the giving of inherited Indian names, are still important. A tribal center and a library are on the Upper Skagit Reservation.
Tulalip children attend public schools, including an elementary school on the reservation. Tribal members are attempting to revive the traditional crafts of basketry and wood carving. Instruction in Lushootseed is also offered. They celebrate First Salmon ceremonies as well as other traditional festivals, and much of the traditional social structure remains intact. Primarily as a result of intermarriage, assimilation, and allotment, the Skykomishes no longer constitute an identifiable tribe. The Snohomish continue to seek tribal recognition and a land base.
Squaxin Island people retain the use of the island for various activities. Most are Protestant, although some celebrate the First Salmon ceremony. The tribe is active in local environmental management programs and manages a hatchery and a salmon and steelhead fishery program.
