Long before the first Europeans began their invasion of what would become the state of Washington, the Salish-speaking people known as the Duwamish settled in permanent villages on the flat meadows along the rivers of the Duwamish Drainage System, principally the Black River.
With regard to the contemporary names given to the Puget Sound tribes (Nisqually, Puyallup, Muckleshoot, Duwamish, Snohomish, Skagit, and Suquamish), Alexandra Harmon, in her entry on these tribes in the Encyclopedia of North American Indians, reports:
“Names assigned to these so-called tribes did not all reflect the named peoples’ usages or important affiliations. Few if any of the groups had unifying political institutions, although some shared language, resources, and cultural traditions.”
Displays at the Renton History Museum document some of this Native American heritage.
According to the museum display:
The rivers gave the Duwamish their main food staple, fish. At a narrow point of the river they would build a fish weir. This consisted of a tripod of poles and a platform. Other poles were driven into the riverbed to which woven mats were attached to keep the fish from swimming up the river. The men would stand on the tripod platforms and use dipping nets to catch the fish and deposit them in canoes on the upriver side of the weir. The canoes were then paddled to shore and unloaded where the women waited to clean, smoke and dry the fish for future use.
One of the important resources used by the Duwamish and other Salish groups was the Western Red Cedar. The trees could be cut down and the trunks hollowed out to make canoes. The tree could be cut into planks for building the traditional longhouse.
The cedar also provided material for clothing: the fine under-bark from young cedars was used to make clothing. The bark, pounded into fibers, was also used in making sleeping mats and baskets.
Villages
In 1853, there were twenty-eight permanent Duwamish villages. The largest village was TUXUDI’DU, centrally located on the Black River where Renton Shopping Center is today. There were ten large longhouses, each 60 by 120 feet, built of cedar posts and planks. TUXUDI’DU had its own fresh-water spring and a cleared garden for growing root crops. Indians from as far north as Canada and as far east as Yakima came to trade.
The model shown above shows the orientation of Duwamish villages to rivers. Dugout canoes were an important form of transportation.
Shown above is a model of a Duwamish longhouse on display at the Renton History Museum. Like most of the Indian people in North America, the Duwamish did not live in tipis. The longhouse was generally home to several families.
Ground stone tools, such as the mauls shown above, were a part of the Duwamish tool kit.
Baskets
Woven baskets were important to the Northwest Coast nations. The basketry style often expressed tribal identity. With regard to making the baskets, Reg Ashwell and Roger Hancock, in their book Coast Salish: Their Art and Culture, write:
“The Coast Salish women made their baskets during the long winter, but the tedious and time-consuming process of gathering and preparing materials had to be done in the summertime when the spruce and cedar roots and grasses were at their best.”
Shown above are some Duwamish woven baskets which are on display at the Renton History Museum.
Shown above is a coiled gathering basket.
Shown above is a cooking basket. Coiled baskets like this were made watertight so that they could be used for boiling water. Hot rocks were placed in the water-filled baskets until the water boiled.
Shown above is a Duwamish basket which is on display in the Washington State History Museum in Tacoma. This is a contemporary, non-traditional basket.
Canoes
Transportation was primarily by water and canoes were important. Several different kinds of canoes were used.
Shown above is a canoe model on display in the Washington State History Museum in Tacoma.
European Contact
The earliest recorded contact between the Duwamish and Europeans came in 1792 when a British expedition under the leadership of George Vancouver explored Puget Sound and Hood Canal. While the British reported that the Indians of this area had not had previous contact with Europeans, they did have some metal objects of European manufacture and there was evidence of smallpox, a European disease.
Traders with the Hudson’s Bay Company entered the region in 1824. In 1845, the first American settlers arrived.
Indians 101/201
Twice each week Indians 101/201 looks at different aspects of American Indian cultures. More tribal profiles from this series:
Indians 101: A Very Brief Overview of California's Achumawi Indians
Indians 101: A Short Overview of the Western Apache
Indians 101: A Very Short Overview of the Caddo Indians
Indians 101: A short overview of the Coeur d'Alene Indians
Indians 101: A very short overview of the Havasupai Indians
Indians 101: A very short overview of the Hualapai Indians
Indians 101: A Very Short Overview of the Mohave Indians
Indians 101: A Brief Overview of the Omaha Indians
Indians 101: A Very Short Overview of the O'odham Indians
Indians 101: A Very Short Overview of the Ottawa Indians
Indians 201: A short overview of the Tillamook Indians
Indians 201 is an expansion of an earlier essay.
