#duwamish

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Fun fact: 'Alki' means By and by in Lushootseed (indigenous language of the land I was born on). Fuck a hollow land acknowledgement. I live my ethics every day. If you wanna support decolonization and paying reparations on the path to land back, click below to pay real rent. The Duwamish have been the stewards of the land for longer than written records exist. It's only fair to pay them their just dues.

Gateway Park North

Promised Land (2016) is an award-winning social justice documentary that follows two tribes in the Pacific Northwest: the Duwamish and the Chinook, as they fight for the restoration of treaty rights they've long been denied. In following their story, the film examines a larger problem in the way that the government and society still looks at tribal sovereignty.

by Chetanya Robinson | December 9th, 2020 Visitors to the Duwamish Longhouse and Cultural Center in West Seattle have to navigate poor sidewalks and a treacherous stretch of West Marginal Way that lacks a crosswalk and pedestrian signal.

“People go up and down West Marginal Way at 60 miles an hour — it’s like a freeway,” said Jolene Haas, director of the Longhouse.

Visiting the Longhouse might become safer next year. The Seattle Department of Transportation (SDOT) will build a temporary pedestrian crossing by the Longhouse in summer 2021, followed by a permanent one a year later. The department will also build a new sidewalk — meeting Americans with Disabilities Act accessibility requirements — and fill a gap in the biking trail there.

“I was delighted,” Haas said of the new improvements, which the Duwamish have long requested. “We just never thought this was going to happen in a million years.”

The Longhouse, which was constructed in 2009 from Western red cedar with traditional Salish architecture, is the centerpiece of the Duwamish tribe’s efforts to survive culturally and economically. It includes cultural objects, a space for performances and a kitchen for preparing traditional foods. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, it hosted regular events, educational programs for children and walking tours of the history, geology and biology of the Duwamish river. Limited tours are still available.

The Longhouse stands across the street from an archeological village site and the Duwamish river. “We’re so happy to be here, to be close to the river and close to one of our sacred sites,” Haas said. “There isn’t any other place we’d want to be. But we just feel like the city should help us create equal access and safe access to getting here.”

The hazardous traffic along West Marginal Way has created financial barriers for the Duwamish. “People don’t want to rent our facility or come here for a workshop, because the access to get here is so difficult,” Haas said. “Then how are we supposed to survive in this economy and in this city?”

In March, the city closed the West Seattle bridge after an inspection found alarming cracks. As traffic was diverted toward other bridges, it increased along West Marginal Way. SDOT lowered the speed limit on the road to 30 miles per hour in May and installed radar feedback signs in September to control speeding.

Ironically, the bridge closure probably ensured the crosswalk and other projects were funded and installed more quickly.

The Longhouse pedestrian safety improvements — the sidewalk, crosswalk and bike lane — already had $1.25 million in funding for planning and design from the 2020 budget. With the closure of the bridge, it became important to quickly mitigate the impacts of detouring traffic along West Marginal Way, said Dawn Schellenberg, spokesperson for SDOT, in an email.

“It’s sort of a glass-half-full outcome of the bridge closure,” said Councilmember Lisa Herbold, who represents West Seattle. “This year, we leveraged the fact that we have this crisis with the bridge closure to get the city to fully fund the project.”

Herbold has supported the Duwamish tribe’s efforts to get a crosswalk built for years, starting when she worked as a staffer for Councilmember Nick Licata. She lives nearby and has frequently visited. “You go to a meeting at the Longhouse and have to cross that crazy road,” she said.

It’s taken so long to build the crosswalk and implement other improvements, Herbold said, because of the City Council’s lack of “prioritization around the need.”

According to Schellenberg of SDOT: “Unfortunately, up until recently, a lack of funding for these improvements in that location did not make it feasible for us to provide them.”

That didn’t stop the Duwamish from advocating for the improvements, including recently seeking funding through SDOT’s Your Voice, Your Choice participatory budgeting process for street improvements. The tribe’s proposal received wide community support in West Seattle.

SDOT has narrowed traffic into one lane on either side of the Longhouse and installed paint and posts. But at first, the city said there wasn’t enough funding for the crosswalk, and the industrial location was a challenge, Haas said.

“It wasn’t going anywhere, so we basically held everyone’s feet to the fire,” she said.

After the bridge closure, Haas feared the Longhouse safety program would get pushed aside, and she joined the West Seattle Bridge Task Force to keep the project alive.

In the end, the project was fully funded through SDOT’s Reconnect West Seattle, which is intended to mitigate the impacts of detour traffic in Duwamish Valley neighborhoods.

SDOT will build a temporary pedestrian crossing signal by the Longhouse in summer 2021, followed by a permanent one the next year. The permanent crossing will take a year because it requires reconstructing the BNSF rail crossing at that location, and the company needs “a long lead time” to review designs, according to SDOT.

In spring 2021, SDOT will install a new asphalt sidewalk on the west side of West Marginal Way where there’s now an overgrown path.

SDOT will also build out 0.4 miles of biking trailway to create a full path for cyclists getting to the Longhouse. The department is considering design options for the southbound curb lane, which extends from the existing Duwamish Trail Crossing signal to the Longhouse, and will have discussions with the public and stakeholders about options.

Haas is happy the pedestrian safety projects will soon become reality. Next, she hopes King County Metro will create a bus stop near the Longhouse; the closest one is about a mile away. “That would just be, to us, a dream come true,” she said.

“With the billions of dollars that’s being dumped into the city by all the tourists that come here, they can’t get on a bus and get here,” Haas said. “So we’re sort of being left out in the cold, we feel.”

The Longhouse receives an estimated 10,000 visitors per year on average, and Haas wants to make it easier for more people to visit.

“There’s no other place in the city of Seattle that represents the first people of Seattle but this longhouse, and tells our story,” Haas said in reference to Duwamish representation. “I just feel like people should have access to get here.”

A bigger dream in sight

An even bigger dream for the Duwamish is the possibility that the new Joe Biden presidential administration will grant them federal recognition.

In 1855, tribal leaders in western Washington, including Duwamish and Suquamish leader (and Seattle’s namesake) Chief Si’ahl, signed the Treaty of Point Elliott. In signing the treaty, the Duwamish gave up their homeland of most of King County in return for a reservation and fishing and hunting rights. Several Washington tribes were granted land and federal recognition as sovereign tribal nations, but not the Duwamish.

Federal recognition would allow the tribe to create their own laws, be exempt from taxes, and receive services from the federal government, like healthcare and subsidized housing.

The tribe has pursued federal recognition since 1977, which it almost received in the last days of Bill Clinton’s administration, but then President George W. Bush swiftly took it away because of a technicality based on stricter criteria from 1978, which have since been updated twice.

Haas believes there’s a greater chance it could happen under a Democratic administration, and the tribe is preparing to petition the Biden administration. That said, the tribe had high hopes for recognition under President Barack Obama, and it never happened.

This is a big deal, folks. 

Eighth Generation is a Seattle-based art and lifestyle brand owned by the Snoqualmie Tribe.  It was founded in 2008 when Louie Gong (Nooksack) — an artist, activist and educator widely known for merging traditional Coast Salish art with influences from his urban environment to make strong statements about identity — started customizing shoes in his living room. Now the first Native-owned company to ever produce wool blankets — with a flagship retail store in Seattle's iconic Pike Place Market — Eighth Generation is a proud participant in the global economy.

Eighth Generation provides a strong, ethical alternative to “Native-inspired” art and products through its artist-centric approach and 100% Native designed products. Our Inspired Natives™ Project, anchored by the tagline “Inspired Natives™, not Native-inspired,” builds business capacity among cultural artists while addressing the economic impact of cultural appropriation.

Great Spirit of Light, come to me out of the East (red) with the power of the rising sun. Let there be light in my words, let there be light on my path that I walk. Let me remember always that you give the gift of a new day. And never let me be burdened with sorrow by not starting over again.

Great Spirit of Love, come to me with the power of the North (white). Make me courageous when the cold wind falls upon me. Give me strength and endurance for everything that is harsh, everything that hurts, everything that makes me squint. Let me move through life ready to take what comes from the North.

Great Life-Giving Spirit, I face the West (black), the direction of sundown. Let me remember everyday that the moment will come when my sun will go down. Never let me forget that I must fade into you. Give me a beautiful color, give me a great sky for setting, so that when it is my time to meet you, I can come with glory.

Great Spirit of Creation, send me the warm and soothing winds from the South (yellow). Comfort me and caress me when I am tired and cold. Unfold me like the gentle breezes that unfold the leaves on the trees. As you give to all the earth your warm, moving wind, give to me, so that I may grow close to you in warmth. Man did not create the web of life, he is but a strand in it. Whatever man does to the web, he does to himself.

-Chief Seattle,  Duwamish Tribe