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Home , Camano Island, Coast Salish, Tulalip, Whidbey Island

Frequently Asked Questions

What is tribal sovereignty? ...... 2 What is the ? ...... 2 Where did the tribe reside prior to contact? . . . . 3 Does the Tribes own all of the land on the Tulalip Reservation? ...... 3 What is an enrolled Tulalip tribal member? . . . . 4 Do you have to live on the reservation to be an enrolled Tulalip tribal member? ...... 4 What traditional foods did Tulalip people eat? . . . 4 What is the traditional Tulalip language? ...... 5 What is the traditional Tulalip home? ...... 5 What is the traditional Tulalip mode of transportation? ...... 6 Why is cedar so important to the tribe? . . . . . 6 Why is your logo a ? ...... 6 What is a boarding school? ...... 7 When did you become a modern society? . . . . . 7 What is ? ...... 8

Page 1 of 8 Next The Tulalip Tribes—Frequently Asked Questions

What is tribal ■■ Developing the tribe’s other local tribes have fought sovereignty? economic base that provides continually to uphold our treaty the primary support for a rights . Sovereignty is the authority of growing population of young In 1974, tribes in the region a people to govern themselves . tribal members won a major fishing battle in Our sovereignty guarantees our ■■ Treaty rights, preservation, the “Boldt” case (The United inherent right as a government access to government to States v . ) . This case to raise revenue for our government relationships reaffirmed the tribe’s treaty- community . In fact, 92% of our protected fishing rights in all government services, family our usual and accustomed places and senior housing, education, What is the Treaty of and established the tribe as health and dental services, law Point Elliott? co-managers of the fisheries enforcement, fire protection, resource . Later cases affirmed infrastructure improvements, The 1855 Treaty of Point Elliott treaty rights to shellfish and and economic growth are funded reserved specific tribal rights, treaty protection against from within . which were not ceded to the destruction of habitat necessary Treaties, court cases, and . An important to support the runs . the U .S . Constitution have provision tribal leaders insisted Since the turn of the century, upheld Tulalip’s status as a self- upon was the right to continue to many commemorations of the governing nation . fish in all usual and accustomed treaty have been held on the Today, tribal government grounds and to hunt and gather Tulalip Reservation . Treaty Days and the people of the Tulalip on all open and unclaimed occur in our longhouse on or Tribes continue to exercise our lands . These “reserved rights” around January 22 every year sovereignty through a number are rights which were essential and always includes speeches on of initiatives: to tribal culture, subsistence, the importance of upholding the and commerce . These rights treaty . In spite of the hardships ■■ Administering a strong were not granted in the treaty, brought on by the reservation tribal government rather they were rights that system and the cession of ■■ Providing tribal citizens tribes have always possessed millions of acres of land, the opportunities for education, and which were protected by Tulalip Tribes celebrate the Point jobs, land, and housing the treaty . The Treaty of Point Elliott Treaty of 1855 as formal ■■ Improving our tribal Elliott contains 15 articles . In recognition by the United States community to promote addition to reserving reservation of the tribe’s inherent right to physical, emotional, and homelands and tribal rights, self-determination as a sovereign spiritual wellbeing and the treaty promised education, and distinct people . Under the perpetuating cultural and medical assistance and housing United States constitution, the environmental sensitivity to the tribe . treaty is the supreme law of the ■■ Building infrastructure on Since the signing of the land and it is as legally binding and off the reservation treaty, the Tulalip Tribes and today as it was the day it was

Home Page 2 of 8 Next The Tulalip Tribes—Frequently Asked Questions

signed . The treaty continues to support the tribe’s sovereign right of self-governance, and Traditionally our ancestors resided throughout Western the protection of fish, animals, FreeVectorMaps.com © Washington. lands and waters on which tribal culture depends .

Where did the tribe reside prior to contact?

From the Cascades Mountains Does the Tulalip Tribes ■■ Securing parts of the to the east, the islands of the own all of the land on reservations as Indian land, to the west, as the Tulalip Reservation? and far as Canada to the north and ■■ Opening the remainder of south almost to Tacoma . There No . The Dawes Act of 1887 (also the land to white settlers for were permanent villages along known as the General Allotment profit the shores of the salt water at Act or the Dawes Severalty Act , , of 1887), adopted by Congress in In 1883, the Tulalip Indian , the Straits, 1887, authorized the President Agency superintendent began , Hat Island, of the United States to survey to allot the reservation land in and Island and along American Indian tribal land 40-, 80-, and 160-acre panels the banks of the rivers among and divide it into allotments for to Tulalip heads of household . them—Snohomish, Skykomish, individual Indians . The Dawes In 1906, the Burke Act allowed Stillaguamish, Snoqualmie, Act is responsible for enacting the issuance of patents in fee Goldbar, and Sultan . Our the division of the American to Indian landowners, allowing main villages were at Hibulb, native reserves into plots of them to sell their allotments . Speebidah, Quil Ceda, and land for individual households, Due to poverty and outside around Tulalip Bay . and was created by reformers to pressures, much land on the Trade protected friendships achieve six goals: Tulalip Reservation was sold . with our neighbors and provided At this time, about 60% of the the opportunity to arrange ■■ Breaking up of tribes as a Tulalip reservation is Indian marriage partners between social unit, owned . In the last few years, the villages . Our ancestors’ trade ■■ Encouraging individual tribe has bought back several routes went north to Canada, initiatives, thousand of the lost acres east into the Rockies and south ■■ Furthering the progress of and expects to buy more in to California . There was a great native farmers, the future . deal of trade between our ■■ Reducing the cost of native In 1936, with money from ancestors and our neighbors . administration, their own pockets, the first

Home Page 3 of 8 Next The Tulalip Tribes—Frequently Asked Questions

Tulalip Board of Directors sought ways to support our people . A sustainable cash flow was necessary to start our own businesses . Land leasing along Tulalip Bay was our first venture and it turned out to be profitable . To lease land meant we also needed to provide basic water and sewer services, which became our next two business projects . This developed a Our culture and survival depended on the salmon’s annual return. home-based economy that helped draw our people back 12 continuous months at any used their watertight baskets to the reservation, but hard time prior to the birth of the to boil salmon and their eggs, times were still ahead . A applicant and be able to prove it . all types of shellfish, a variety traditional mainstay, logging, of fresh and dried meats . was in decline and farming was Steamers clams and mussels unsuccessful . Smoke shops and What traditional foods would be cooked on the hot other small businesses provided did Tulalip people eat? rocks covered with seaweed to some income . trap in the steam . These foods Our ancestors knew what the were complimented with nettles, Puget Sound offered . They would seaweed, wild carrots, and What is an enrolled gather shellfish, spear fish, onions . Dried berries were also Tulalip tribal member? and catch ducks at night . They added to enhance the flavor . would set torches on the beach They would fill their baskets All Tulalip tribal members and the bow of the and with water, then add heated are descendants of tribes that spear for flounder, skate, and rocks from the fire pit to create signed the Point Elliott Treaty . other bottom fish . At night, they a gentle boil that cooked the would also set flyaway nets for different foods to perfection . catching ducks and other birds . Do you have to live on One of the most healthy and ■■ Fish: five kinds of salmon the reservation to be an nutritious ways to prepare a (spring, humpback, silver, enrolled Tulalip tribal meal was to boil and steam the dog, sockeye), steelhead, member? food . The people sturgeon, smelts, herring, made the finest watertight flounder, trout, cod, rock The tribal member parent baskets that could be used cod, and skate has to have resided on the for cooking . Our people were ■■ Shellfish: clams, oysters, Tulalip Reservation for at least excellent weavers . Our ancestors barnacles, and crabs

Home Page 4 of 8 Next The Tulalip Tribes—Frequently Asked Questions

■■ Eggs: fish eggs from salmon and herring, bird eggs from pheasant, lark, and duck ■■ Meat: deer and elk meat ■■ Berries: salmonberries, huckleberries, elderberries, salal berries, blackcaps, blackberries, wild strawberries, and wild raspberries ■■ Roots and bulbs: brake

fern, wood fern, dandelion, or University of Washington photo. cattail, camas, and tiger lily William Shelton and George Jones Sr. standing in front of the Tulalip longhouse they built, 1913.

What is the traditional the sound of can ■■ Platforms ran along the side Tulalip language? continue to be heard in a chain for seating that goes unbroken back to the ■■ Shelves for storage of Lushootseed—our sacred very beginning of the language . baskets, tools, clothing, first language . To preserve dried foods and other the traditional training and goods were located above teaching of the people of Tulalip, What is the traditional platforms, reached by we aspire to protect its records Tulalip home? ladders and become “living records” ■■ Carved house posts ourselves who, by speaking, Longhouses: ■■ Cattail mats hung on teaching, and involvement in ■■ Approximately 100 to 200 walls for insulation, put living culture, pass on to the feet long on floors for seating, hung tribal community what we ■■ Cedar planks split from tree as partitions and used for have learned . trunks and smoothed with padded mattresses The Tulalip Lushootseed an adze ■■ Open place down the middle Department seeks to preserve ■■ Shed roof, sloping from one of the house for walking records of the language; to side of house to the other; ■■ Fires along the sides near promote awareness of and roof boards located over fires seating platforms, shared by respect for the entire language were loose so they could be two to three families, used heritage; to teach the language pushed aside to control the for heat and cooking to tribal members, both in a smoke escape ■■ Building traditional school setting and in community ■■ Some groups divided across longhouses involved the classes; and, to create a core into rooms with doors that community . The head of group of new speakers so that opened directly outside the family would ask gifted

Home Page 5 of 8 Next The Tulalip Tribes—Frequently Asked Questions

and experienced people to Temporary mat houses: resource, providing everything help build their longhouse . ■■ Primarily used in the from tools, baskets, and bowls Our people always built summers when traveling to long-lasting carvings . It their houses on the shores on hunting or fishing has medicinal and spiritual of Puget Sound, along the expeditions purposes . Every part of the tree rivers, and creeks . The main ■■ Made from cattail mats over is used and nothing is wasted . entrance of the houses pole supports It touches every part of our always faced the water . ■■ Mats made to be waterproof lives . Our ancestors taught and overlapped to shed rain us the importance of having The size of the longhouse ■■ Mats provided quick way to respect and understanding depended on the family’s wealth, make a house for how it is to be used . Cedar their prestige, their extended is to be protected for future families, and the number of generations . their friends . All would live What is the traditional Cedar bark was so versatile in one house . The longhouse Tulalip mode of that our ancestors used it for had sleeping platforms along transportation? every part of their daily life . A the wall . freshly pulled piece of bark could We used cedar planks to Canoes connected our ancestors be used to make a temporary build our houses . The largest to our lands for travel, fishing, dwelling at a summer camping big house or cedar plank gathering shellfish, hunting, place, folded into boxes or house of the Snohomish was trade, and transport . There bailers, and cut for carving and at Hibulb . It was 115 feet long were large ocean-going canoes weaving templates . Women wove and 43 feet wide with a single and small hunting canoes . cedar bark strips into baskets, pitch roof . The planks could be Women used canoes for hauling mats and hats, or twisted them adjusted depending on weather possessions, gathering tules, and into rope . They wove shredded conditions . Our ancestors were many other daily tasks . strips into capes, skirts, and very skilled at splitting planks blankets or bundled them up for from the old growth cedars . babies’ diapers . Cedar bark is a Our ancestors understood Why is cedar so critical natural resource . migratory patterns like a important to the tribe? calendar . Spring and summer gatherings brought families The Creator gave our people Why is your logo a out of their winter villages to the cedar as a gift to serve killer whale? travel to their family camping us throughout our lives . Our grounds . They built cattail mat ancestors, like our people today, Long, long ago at Priest Point, houses along the shorelines, offered a prayer to honor the there were two brothers who islands, rivers, and creeks . Many spirit of the tree . We harvest were famous seal hunters . There families joined houses, having a cedar roots, bark, wood, and was some family trouble and mat house up to thirty feet long . branches . Cedar is the perfect the brothers had to leave Priest

Home Page 6 of 8 Next The Tulalip Tribes—Frequently Asked Questions

Point and live elsewhere . They the people from starvation and everywhere they went . Hard went to live in the ocean and preserved the salmon run for work and manual labor were became killer whales, in our coming generations . Another the way of life at the school . language . People continued to of our storytellers says that the The children were forced to live at Priest Point, including seals used to come frequently in garden, log, sew, cook and the descendants of the two the spring, and that the killer clean . Children lived in large brothers . Then something whales were called many times, communal spaces with no happened . According to one not just once . But both versions privacy . They often did not of our storytellers, in the fall of the story make it clear why have enough food and endured and winter of one year, there the killer whale is important harsh working conditions . were some unusual storms and to the Tulalip Tribes . We have Disease spread rampantly temperature changes, and the been told that if you are in a and many children died at the people could not put food away boat and killer whales come up school . Others ran away to live as they usually did . By early to you, you can greet them like with distant relatives . Those spring, everything they had this: “killer whale, killer whale, remaining endured school but stored was gone . There was no your ancestors were also my faced a difficult life, haunted game to be found and the people ancestors ”. by their memories of boarding were starving . Just in time, the For more history school . early salmon run started and the and information visit people thought their suffering HibulbCulturalCenter o. rg was at an end . When did you become a However, hordes of seals modern society? invaded the waters around What is a boarding Priest Point, chasing the salmon school? Through the later part of the and devouring them before 19th century and the 20th the people could catch any . The In the late 1880s in the Pacific century, our community became people were in despair . It was Northwest, the Coast Salish increasingly impoverished due then that they remembered children were taken from their to corruption and greed on their ancestors, the qal̕qaləxič . homes to assimilate and civilize the part of the Indian Agency The people called out to them them into American society . and others . Federal and state for help, remembering that the Indian agents sent children, governments had imposed laws two brothers had been expert at as young as five years old, to and regulations on how we were getting food for the people . The boarding schools across the to live and where we could fish, killer whales heard the peoples’ country . gather and hunt . call . They arrived and caught Teachers brutally punished In 1934, the federal every seal . They ate the seal and ridiculed children for government passed the Indian heads and then tossed the seal speaking their native language Reorganization Act, also known bodies onto the beach for the or breaking school rules . as the Wheeler-Howard Act . people . In that way, they saved The children were marched This legislation restored self-

Home Page 7 of 8 Next government and the ability to of commercial land more than manage our lands . We adopted 60 acres has been set aside to our first Constitution that protect salmon spawning areas declared all the people living and provide walking trails and at Tulalip would be known as picnic areas . the Tulalip Tribes . Our elders We provide jobs for our determined that adopting a tribal members and our non- constitution was the best way to Indian neighbors . We have serve all our people . developed services to meet our community’s housing, education and healthcare What is Quil Ceda needs . We support charitable Village? organizations in our area with gaming profits . Nearly three Quil Ceda Village, a multi– quarters of the hundreds of million dollar commercial millions generated by the Quil development complete with a Ceda Village directly supports resort casino, amphitheater and the surrounding communities of shopping centers . Incorporated Marysville, Everett, Arlington, as its own municipality, Quil and Snohomish . The Tulalip Ceda Village continues to grow, Tribes is one of the largest attracting thousands of visitors employers in Snohomish to its many amenities . Proceeds County . Quil Ceda Village is the from our operations continue first and only IRS-recognized to support our community . tribal city in the United States . As the village continues to Chartered under tribal laws and grow, it attracts more than governed by a council-manager 6 million visitors to its many form of government that amenities . The village is enacts local ordinances, builds dedicated to preserving as much infrastructure, and manages the of the natural environment as tribes’ economic development possible . Within the 450 acres ventures .

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