Duwamish (tribe)

Duwamish

Duwamish territory shown highlighted in green. Orange blocks are modern Indian reservations.
Total population
(About 253 (1854); about 400 enrolled members (1991), about 500 (2004).)
Regions with significant populations
Metropolitan Seattle, Washington
Languages
Southern Lushootseed, English
Religion
Many Indigenous or Roman Catholic
Related ethnic groups
Suquamish, Sammamish, Snoqualmie; ancestral Dxʷ'Dəw?Abš, "the People of the Inside", and Xacuabš "the People of the Large Lake" (before mid-1850s). Coast Salish

The Duwamish (Lushootseed: Dxʷdəwʔabš, [dxʷdɐwʔabʃ]) are a Lushootseed-speaking Native American tribe in western Washington, and the indigenous people of metropolitan Seattle, where they have been living since the end of the last glacial period (c. 8000 BCE, 10,000 years ago). The Duwamish tribe descends from at least two distinct groups from before intense contact with people of European ancestry—the People of the Inside (the environs of Elliott Bay) and the People of the Large Lake (Lake Washington)—and continues to evolve both culturally and ethnically. By historic language, the Duwamish are (Skagit-Nisqually) Lushootseed; Lushootseed is a Salishan language. Adjacent tribes throughout the Puget Sound-Strait of Georgia basin were, and are, interconnected and interrelated, yet distinct. Today, some Duwamish people are enrolled in the federally recognized Tulalip Tribes of Washington.

The present-day Duwamish tribe developed in parallel with the times of the Treaty of Point Elliott and its aftermath in the 1850s. Although not recognized by the U.S. federal government, the Duwamish remain an organized tribe with roughly 500 enrolled members as of 2004. In 2009, the Duwamish tribe opened the Duwamish Longhouse and Cultural Center on purchased land near their ancient settlement of Ha-AH-Poos (also written hah-AH-poos) in West Seattle, near the mouth of the Duwamish River.