Tulalip Tribes

The present-day Tulalip Tribe is a confederation of tribes from

the northern

href="http://www.ohwy.com/wa/p/pugetsou.htm">Puget

Sound,

href="http://www.u-s-history.com/pages/h1480.html">Washington, area.

The 22,000 acre reservation, more than half of which is held in

federal trust*, is adjacent to the city of

href="http://www.ohwy.com/wa/e/everett.htm">Everett.

The tract includes land suitable for development, forests, creeks

and lakes, wetlands, tidelands and marine waters.

As of 2004, 3,611 tribal members resided on the

reservation.

A brief history

The aboriginal Tulalip band was one of three clans of the

Twana, a Salish tribe that inhabited the west side of

href="http://www.ohwy.com/wa/h/hoodcana.htm">Hood

Canal. The ancestral tongue was Lushootseed, a variant of

the Salish language. The Tulalip Tribe's ancestral home,

Hebolb, lay at the mouth of the Snohomish

River.

In similar fashion to numerous neighboring Northwest tribes, the

Tulalip followed a fishing, hunting and gathering way of life

based on the seasons. They harvested salmon during the spring

and summer runs, then preserved and stored it for the winter.

They rounded out their diet by game hunting, and gathering

berries and roots. The Tulalip moved from place to place to

subsist, and the cedar canoe was a principal means of

transportation. They also used cedar to build durable longhouses

in which they lived during the cold months.

Inherent in Tulalip

lifeways was a profound reverence for their environment; they

shared a spiritual kinship with living things. For example, a

ceremony was held to honor the first-caught salmon of the

season.

The Tulalip also traded with neighboring tribes.

By the time of European settlement in the early 19th century,

members of the tribe pursued trading and fishing opportunities

throughout Puget Sound and as far north as the

href="http://www.ohwy.com/bc/f/fraserri.htm">Fraser

River of present-day British Columbia.

Overwhelmed by the force and numbers of non-Indian settlers in

the Puget Sound region, the Tulalip and others eventually gave

up the land their forebears had dwelt upon for millennia, in

exchange for a nominal monetary pay-out and permanent

protection provided by the federal government. The leaders of

22 local tribes signed the historic Point Elliott Treaty at

Mukilteo on January 22, 1855.

Among other reservations, the treaty established the Tulalip

Reservation, which was enlarged by a

href="http://www.u-s-history.com/pages/h102.html">presidential executive order in 1873. It became a permanent home for

the Tulalip as well as members of the Samish, Skagit,

Snohomish, Snoqualmie, Stillaguamish and Suiattle tribes.

Relegation to the so-called reserve radically changed their lives

and sense of self-identity by removing their autonomy. They

were forced to abandon much of their traditional culture and

their native tongues.

In 1857, Roman Catholic missionary Father Chirouse came to

the Tulalip Reservation to found a church and a school for boys.

In 1858, he was joined by several Sisters of Charity of the

House of Providence of Montreal to teach the girls.

As part of an effort in the 1880s to assimilate native people into

American society, the federal government sent Indian children to

off-reservation boarding schools. The schools were first opened

by missionaries with government consent, then by the

government. Parents were threatened with incarceration if their

children did not attend. Classrooms and dormitories were

organized on a quasi-military format, including discipline and

uniforms. Children were compelled to speak English. They

could not observe native spiritual practices, and were not

permitted to go home until the end of the school year.

Traditional teaching by elders and growing up within the family and

community were disrupted.

Along with English, students were taught reading, writing,

arithmetic, and such occupational skills as farming, sewing and blacksmithing. Automobile repair was added later. The

boarding school practice persisted into the 1920s, when Indian

children began to attend reservation and public schools.

Another example of social engineering occurred when the

federal government started an allotment program intended to

induce an agrarian way of life among Native Americans. It

was conducted on the Tulalip Reservation between 1883 and

1909. The tribe did not adjust to farming quickly, preferring

rather to continue in the old ways. But many had to seek

off-reservation jobs to make do.

The Tulalip tribe was organized under the Indian Reorganization

Act of 1934, which promoted greater Indian autonomy. The

Tulalips drafted a constitution and bylaws, which were

approved on January 24, 1936, and a charter was ratified on

October 3, 1936.

By the 1970s, more than half of the reservation, some 13,995

acres, had been sold to non-Indians. Indians owned 4,571-acres;

3,845 acres of that land was tribally owned in trust.

By 1992, only 17 elders of the Tulalip tribe spoke Lushootseed.

Around that time, the tribe established the Tribal Cultural

Resources Department to preserve the tribe's language and

culture. In addition, the tribe and the Marysville School District

began a program that provides linguistic and cultural learning

activities in the classrooom and community.

In May 2004, Puget Sound area Native Americans and local

government officials met in Mukilteo to sign a pledge to

collaborate on a number of social, health, educative and

economic issues. Tulalip tribal leaders were in attendance. The

signing ceremony was held at the site of the monument

commemorating the Treaty of Point Elliot, inked near the

location on Jan. 22, 1855.

The Tulalip today

The Tulalip Tribes is a federally recognized, sovereign Indian

nation. Its governing unit is the seven-member Tulalip Board of

Directors. The tribe maintains more than 60 departments and

services, among them a preschool, higher education assistance,

health and dental clinics, a pharmacy, state-licensed chemical

dependency recovery program, senior retirement home, and

cultural activities.

In addition to two Marysville School District elementary

schools, the tribes collaborate with the district in providing

on-reservation middle school and high school alternative

programs.

The Tulalip Housing Authority provides nearly 300 housing

units for tribal members, and the Tulalip Utilities District is the

primary provider of water/sewer services.

The Treaty of Point Elliot stipulated that the the signatory tribes

be endowed with fishing and hunting rights. The federal court

ruled that the tribes and the State of Washington share

responsibility for the management of fish and wildlife resources.

The mission of the Tulalip Natural Resources program is to

carry out the tribes' co-management responsibilites according to

treaty rights as well as the preservation of reservation

resources.

The Tulalip Health Center is a 4,500-square foot outpatient

clinic in Marysville. Clinic functions include outpatient primary

and public health care services, a dental program, chemical

dependency program, recovery house, and acupuncture

program.

The

href="http://www.ohwy.com/wa/t/tulalmus.htm">Tulalip

Museum houses tribal artifacts and helps to preserve the

Lushootseed language.

Of the 1,200 employees working for Tulalip Tribes, more than

two thirds are involved in business enterprises: A sampler of

businesses follows:

Quil Ceda Village Business Park is a commercial

center located near Marysville.

The Tulalip Casino opened in June 2003 and is 227,000

square feet with complete gaming facilities. Quil Ceda Creek

Casino is a nightclub and medium-sized casino.

The Consolidated Borough of Quil Ceda Village, located

on the reservation, is a corporate and municipal body of the

Tulalip Tribes.

The Tulalip tribes enjoy a number of regular cultural activities.

Among them:

Treaty Days, an evening of traditional spirit songs

and dancing that takes place at the Tulalip Longhouse in late

January.

The Veterans Pow Wow, three days of competition dancing

held the first week of June.

During July, the annual First Salmon Ceremony and dinner,

held in honor of the first salmon caught.

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*Land owned by the federal government, but maintained by a

tribe.

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