Tulalip Indian longhouse

Welcome to the Street Prophets Coffee Hour cleverly hidden at the intersection of religion, art, science, food, and politics. This is an open thread where we can share our thoughts and comments about the day. The people of the Tulalip tribes would traditionally spend the winter in their longhouses situated in permanent villages. During the winter months, a great deal of teaching would take place around the longhouse fires. During this time, the elders would pass on the family stories, songs, lineages, and moral teachings.

According to the exhibit in the Hibulb Culture Center:

“Our songs, dances, stories, basket designs and carvings are owned by certain families and are used only with their permission. Ownership of this knowledge may be given by families to particular family members, other selected people, or the whole tribe. We have a strict process of granting rights and permission to use this type of knowledge.”

Shown above is the entrance to the longhouse in the Hibulb Culture Center.

The television screen provides visitors with the stories of the Tulalip peoples.

he poles shown above were carved about 1914 by William Shelton. As a young boy in the 1870s, he had been to the great potlatch house at Skagit Bay Head. In 1912, he advocated for a longhouse to be built on the Tulalip Bay. These posts were carved for this longhouse according to his childhood memories of the posts at the great potlatch house.

Shown above is the outside of the longhouse showing the shed roof configuration.  Coast Salish houses were often built in a shed style with the roof pitched because of the great width of the structure.

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