DUWAMISH TRIBAL SERVICES
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Mission Statement
The mission of Duwamish Tribal Services is to promote the social, cultural, educational and economic survival of the Duwamish Tribe.
About This Cause
The Duwamish are Seattle's first people. The were the aboriginal occupants of the area encompassing the Duwamish drainage system of rivers and lakes in what is presently known as King county for thousands of years. When Chief Si'ahl for whom the City of Seattle is named, welcomed the Denny party to Alki in 1851, over five thousand Duwamish people lived in many villages along the shores of the lakes and river of Central Puget Sound. In 1855 with the signing of the Point Elliott Treaty, the world in which the Duwamish people lived changed forever. Chief Si'ahl, of the Duwamish /Suquamish was the first signature of the treaty. In exchange for 54,780 acres of ceded land, the treaty promised full payment, land allotments and a reservation at the mouth of the Duwamish River. None of the treaty promises were honored. In 1851 there were just a few dozen settlers, but just a few years later the Euro-American population grew to over 42,000. In 1865 new laws" Removal of Indians" prohibited the Duwamish from living within city limits as wells as a petition against the creation of a small reserve on the Black River for the Duwamish in 1866. The traditional lifestyle of the Duwamish was fractured irrevocable. In 1887, the Duwamish could receive allotments on others tribes reservations, an option that required them to give up their guest for their own reservation, and in most cases their own tribal identity. Many Refused. In response, the Duwamish faced three basic paths for survival: some remained in the city and worked for the Americans in logging and agricultural jobs on land they once freely inhabited. Often the Duwamish tried to assimilate into dominate Euro-American culture through intermarriage with American citizens. Others moved onto one of the reservations outside their ancestral land, such as Tulalip or Suquamish, that forced them to give up their Duwamish identity. Others moved to small, rural communities and persevered to foster their Duwamish ways of life with their families and with gatherings with other Duwamish people. Let us not forget our promises to the Duwamish. There was a time "immemorial" where there was over an estimate of 5000 Duwamish people here living in 28 villages in 96 longhouses along the rivers, lakes and salt-water shores of Puget Sound, of what is now known as Seattle. The Duwamish Longhouse is operated by the Duwamish and provides a place to gather as Indian people, remember our ancestors, honor our families, strengthen our Duwamish identity, educate our children in traditional ways, protect our sacred sites and reconnect with our ancestral lands. The Duwamish Longhouse an Cultural Center is dedicated to support and preserve the culture and heritage of Seattle's only indigenous people, the Duwamish. The Duwamish longhouse support the goals of Duwamish Tribal Services, to promote the long-term social, educational, cultural and economic survival of the Duwamish. This is done by promoting economic self-sufficiency by establish for profit enterprises, creating ventures that stimulate both employment opportunities and traditional based cottage skills. The Duwamish Longhouse and Cultural Center also establishes an important and critical educational tool for recognizing the Duwamish peoples's historical and contemporary role in the City of Seattle. The Duwamish Tribe is dedicated to serving the Duwamish tribal members, all of whom derive economic and social benefit from the Duwamish Longhouse and Cultural Center. Yet it is also an important regional resource that preserves Duwamish culture and aims to share it with the broader community.