Duwamish

The Duwamish are a Lushootseed-speaking Southern Coast Salish people whose homeland centers on the Duwamish and Black rivers and Lake Washington. The watershed combined tidal channels, lake shores, cedar forest and river valleys, allowing families to harvest salmon, shellfish, waterfowl, game, berries and roots through the year. Cedar provided planks, canoes, boxes and bark, making the forest as important as the water.

People lived in large winter longhouses and dispersed in warmer months to fishing camps, hunting grounds and gathering places. At least seventeen villages existed around the watershed, connected by canoe travel, marriage and shared ceremonies. The Black and Cedar river confluence supported an important settlement, while Lake Washington communities maintained ties across the portage to Puget Sound. Potlatches and kin obligations distributed food and wealth across the region. Canoe travel and kinship allowed families to shift between the lake, rivers and saltwater without abandoning their territorial ties.

Spanish and British ships entered Puget Sound in 1792, but sustained settlement came much later. Until then the river villages, fisheries and cedar longhouses remained the basis of Duwamish life.