Insight: Tribes of the Northwest

There are more than 25,000 Native Americans in the Greater Seattle area; indeed, this region’s history is inextricably tied to the local tribes that inhabited the land long before white explorers arrived in the 1700s.

Evidence of the original band of Seattleites, the Duwamish, can be hard to find, but the city does have numerous resources for learning about native art and culture. The tribes that are the best documented are those of Southeast Alaska and British Columbia.

The Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture (for more information, click here), on Seattle’s University of Washington campus, has one of the country’s largest collections of Northwest coastal native art and artifacts. These include totem poles, model canoes, baskets, tools, and a house front. It’s a very interesting place to visit.

The Seattle Art Museum (for more information, click here) also has a valuable First Nations collection, with many fine pieces created by members of the Tlingit, Haida, and Makah tribes.

The Daybreak Star Cultural Center (for more information, click here), in Seattle’s Discovery Park, coordinates events and services for the city’s native population. The center also has a collection of contemporary tribal art, and a small gallery where traveling shows are staged.

A Tlingit dream catcher.

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Chief Joseph of the Nez Perce

One of the most dramatic stories in Northwest Native American history is that of Chief Joseph, shown here in a photograph by Edward S. Curtis. He was a chief of the Nez Perce (Nimiipu).

In 1877, the US government enacted a new treaty with the Nez Perce, stripping the tribe of valuable lands. Violence erupted. Several chiefs, including Chief Joseph, refused to sign the treaty and a band that Joseph led fled on horseback and on foot toward Canada. The natives held off the US cavalry for 1,500 miles (2,400km), ­surviving more than 20 battles along the way.

The Nez Perce eventually surrendered in northern Montana near the Canadian border, where Chief Joseph delivered his historic speech, with the conclusion, ‘I will fight no more forever.’

Exiled to Oklahoma until 1885, Chief Joseph finally returned to the Pacific Northwest and lived on Washington state’s Colville Reservation until his death in 1904.