Chief Seattle and the Suquamish Tribe

 

A view of Seattle Skyline from the Suquamish Tribal Cemetery where Chief Seattle is buried.  You can barely see the skyline but it's there.  I zoomed my little camera until it couldn't zoom anymore.

We visited a museum, today, on the Suquamish Indian Reservation.  It's just after you leave Bainbridge Island and drive across the Agate Passage bridge onto the Olympic Peninsula so only about 5 or 6 miles from where we're staying.

The museum looks less than impressive on the exterior.  But it's filled with hundreds of artifacts and the history of the tribe is beautifully represented.  There is a replica of the inside of an Indian Longhouse which is a long building that was the heart of the community. Their canoes were carved from trunks of cedar trees and there are two canoes in the exhibit.

  

A Hand Carved Suquamish Totem at the Museum

Chief Sealth (called Chief Seattle by the white man) was a prominent leader of the Suquamish people and respected by other tribes, as well.  He was known as a gentle and peaceful leader who helped the settlers when they arrived in the Pacific Northwest.

Chief Sealth's longhouse was 60 feet wide and more than 500 feet long!  It was burned to the ground in 1870 by a U.S. Indian Agent.

We watched two videos - one on the history of the Suquamish Tribe and the other on the significance of the canoe.   It sounds boring, I know, but it wasn't.  It was really a slide show with narration by the elders of the tribe.

At the end, there were pictures of the elders as they are today.  You could tell that they enjoyed telling the stories of their youth before the "Americanization" of their tribe.  For example, the children were forcibly taken to boarding schools and were not allowed to speak their native language!

I can't accurately describe how it made me feel...except very sorry that they were so poorly treated all those years ago.

Luckily there are tribal members who are working diligently to preserve some semblance of their heritage.  I hope they are successful in their quest to bring back their language and to teach the younger generation the crafts, traditions and culture of their ancestors.

The third weekend in February there is going to be a S'Klallam Tribal Powwow at Port Gamble.  I think I'm still going to be here.  I really want to attend a Powwow!

This short video expresses Chief Seattle's response to the government which wanted to take their land.  It's representative of a number of Indian Tribes and the scenery is not just from this area but it's message is from Chief Seattle.  It's good.