Mythologies of the Snoqualmie Tribe
The Snoqualmie people (Lushootseed: sdukʷalbixʷ) are a southern Coast Salish indigenous people of the Pacific Northwest Coast. Their homelands span the Snoqualmie Valley in east King and Snohomish counties in Washington state. Today, they are enrolled in the federally recognized tribes: Snoqualmie Indian Tribe and Tulalip Tribes of Washington. Snoqualmie is a dialect of the Southern Puget Sound Salish language, which is a Lushootseed language, belonging to the Central Salish language family. Speakers of the dialect have been shifting their ancestral language towards English. Some Snoqualmies settled onto the Tulalip Reservation after signing the Point Elliott Treaty with the Washington Territory in 1855, but many remained in their ancestral homelands around the Snoqualmie Valley and Lake Sammamish. At that time they were one of the largest tribes in the Puget Sound region, numbering around 4,000.
The Snoqualmie Indian Tribe is a sovereign tribal nation with its own constitution and laws governing its tribal citizens. Snoqualmie leaders signed the Treaty of Point Elliott on January 22, 1855. By signing this Treaty with the Snoqualmie Tribe, the United States government affirmed and recognized the Snoqualmie’s inalienable, inherent status as a separate sovereign nation that has existed since time immemorial. In return for extensive concessions by the Snoqualmie People, the United States recognized and promised to respect and protect the Snoqualmie Tribe’s reserved rights, including the ability to fish, hunt, and gather in their ancestral homelands as they had done for thousands of years before. 21 years ago the Snoqualmie Indian Tribe’s status as a federally recognized tribe was finally affirmed. After decades of petitioning, the Tribe received a determination of Federal Recognition in August of 1997. Following the announcement there was a short period of time in which surrounding tribes could challenge our final determination, which some tribes did. It was not until over two years later, in 1999 that the Department of the Interior affirmed its original decision. Today, the Snoqualmie Indian Tribe celebrates this date, October 6th as Snoqualmie Rights Day.
The people who make up the members of the sdukʷalbixʷ (Snoqualmie Tribe) and their ancestors have lived here Since Time Immemorial. Their history is the history of the Snoqualmie Valley. They have lived here since before the time when the landscape that is now the Valley existed in its current geological form, for at least 13,000 years. The Snoqualmie Tribe since regaining federal re-recognition in 1999 have been working on developing ways to share their history with the community; they publish most of their resources online. Please find below links to some of the materials they would like the Museum to share with you to help tell their history and the history of the Snoqualmie Valley.
The Snoqualmie People signed the Treaty of Point Elliott in 1855, along with many other signatories. It ceded tribal lands with the promise of reservation land and guaranteed rights, including hunting and fishing. At the time, the Snoqualmie was one of the largest tribes in the region, with around 4,000 people. The treaty recognized the Snoqualmie Tribe’s sovereignty, but has never been fully upheld by the U.S. government. In the late 1930s, the Snoqualmie Tribe tried to secure a reservation of more than 10,000 acres along the Tolt River, and a second parcel north of the Suquamish reservation in Kitsap County. But after World War II, the U.S. government abandoned working towards these plans. Instead, the federal Indian Termination Policy was adopted to try and eradicate tribes. The Snoqualmie Indian Tribe lost its federal recognition in 1953, and later was excluded from the Boldt Decision in 1974.
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The Snoqualmie Indian Tribe, a federally recognized Tribe headquartered in King County, has acquired roughly 12,000 acres of its ancestral forestlands in the Tolt River Watershed. The forest has significant cultural, historic, environmental, and economic value to the Tribe and is near the lands originally promised to the Tribe as its reservation by the federal government in the 1930s – a promise the United States did not keep. The lands acquired by the Tribe were managed for industrial timber purposes for over a century. By acquiring these lands, the Tribe is concluding a decades-long effort to reclaim ownership in an area that is enormously important to the Tribe. “Because of this purchase, roughly 12,000 acres of the ancestral lands of the Snoqualmie Indian Tribe are being returned to the People who have loved, cared for, cultivated, and protected them since the beginning of time, and who dearly felt their loss for over a century,” said Snoqualmie Tribal Chairman Robert de los Angeles. “Going forward, our Tribe will sustainably manage these lands to produce revenue for our Tribe while we steward the functioning ecosystems and thriving wildlife populations that have shared these lands with our People since time immemorial.”
The Snoqualmie Tribe, also called The People of the Moon, believe that Moon the Transformer created the waterfall and the first man and woman, making Snoqualmie Falls a sacred site. “It is our beginning and our end,” McKenna Sweet Dorman, Snoqualmie tribal member and assistant director of governmental affairs, said. “The transformation of that water travels over the lip of the falls, hitting the plunge pool becoming the mist and carrying those prayers to our ancestors and the creator.” The tribe also worries about the danger of low flying helicopter tours in addition to feeling disrespected and they have asked the public and the Federal Aviation Administration to help them. “I see my grandma in the mist, and I feel a connection with her,” Castleberry said. “It's the only place I can do that and it's sad that people take advantage and try to exploit that and ruin that experience for us.”
For perhaps 10,000 years the Tolt River country was known by the Snoqualmie Indians by the name Tolthue, which means river of swift waters. When the white man came to the lower valley, the name was shortened to Tolt. Chief Patkanim was head signer of the Point Elliott Treaty of 1855, which ceded Snoqualmie Indian land to the United States in exchange for a reservation, which was granted in 2000. The first record of Tolt appeared on the Survey General’s Map of Washington Territory in 1857 as “Tolthue River.” The land that was to become Tolt was previously the location of the administrative center of the Snoqualmie Indians. The cedar plank houses comprising the village at the Carnation site were constructed on the west bank of the Snoqualmie River where it meets the Tolt River.
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