Peoples

First nations, first people. A child is born, so there is a family. There is love, so the family grows. We call that a people. The people speak to their children. They sing to their children. They teach their children. We call that language and belief. They have a place to live, a village. They belong to a group of villages, different people bound by friendship and marriage. We call that a tribe. The people have a name and the place has the same name. They were the first to love this place, so they named it, and it named them. * You have your own names for us. You call us Indians. Indians are a people from India below the Himalayas. You call us Native Americans. America is from Amerigo Vespucci, a man in Europe who drew a map but who never came here. You call this place Puget Sound. Peter Puget was the midshipman on the boat with Captain Vancouver. Peter Puget was from Britain. You call your big city Seattle. That is your name for our chief Si’ahl. Seattle is on Elliott Bay, which we call the Duwamish Bay. * Si’ahl lived with the Duwamish people, the Dkhw’Duw’Absh, which means “the people of the inside,” inside the bay and up Duwamish River, up Black River and Cedar River. Today the Duwamish includes the Xachua’bsh, “the people of the large lake,” who lived around Lake Washington. Today most of Black River is gone. Water from Lake Washington used to flow down the Black River to the Duwamish River but now it flows west through the locks. When Si’ahl signed the Treaty of Point Elliott he signed for the Muckelshoot, which was a name used later for the Duwamish, the Suquamish, and the people on the upper Puyallup River. The Puyallup called themselves Spoy-all-up-obsh, which means “the people friendly to all.” Si’ahl’s mother, Sholeetsa, was Duwamish, and his father, Shweabe, was Suquamish, whom we called Dkhw’Suq’Absh, “the people of the clear salt water.” The people of the clear salt water lived among the islands across the waters of Puget Sound, that is, Khwulch. * Here are your names for the peoples who signed the Treaty of Point Elliott: Dwamish and Suquamish, Sk-kahl-mish (you now call Skokomish), Sam-ahmish (you now call Sammamish), Smalh-kamish, Skope-ahmish, and St-kah-mish, Snoqualmoo (you now call Snoqualmie), Skai-wha-mish, N’Quentl-ma-mish, and Sk-tah-le-jum, Stoluck-wha-mish (you now call Stillaguamish), Sno-ho-mish, Lummi, Skagit, and Kik-i-allus, Swin-a-mish (you now call Swinomish), Squin-ah-mish, Sah-ku-mehu, Noo-wha-ha, Nook-wa-chah-mish, Mee-see-qua-guilch, and Cho-bah-ah-bish. These and many different peoples were the first nations to live across this region. They were the first, ten thousand years ago, to live here after the ice retreated. These peoples have their own stories.