Snoqualmie tribe

Snoqualmie Indian Tribe

Snoqualmie tribal office, Carnation, Washington
Total population
approximately 650
Regions with significant populations
City of Snoqualmie Greater Seattle Area Washington United States
Languages
English, Southern Lushootseed
Religion
Christianity, traditional tribal religion
Related ethnic groups
other Snoqualmie people

The Snoqualmie Indian Tribe (S·dukʷalbixʷ), is a federally recognized tribe of Snoqualmie people. They are Coast Salish Native American peoples from the Snoqualmie Valley in east King and Snohomish Counties in Washington state.

Some Snoqualmies settled onto the Tulalip Reservation after signing the Point Elliott Treaty with the Washington Territory in 1855, but many remained in their ancestral homelands around the Snoqualmie Valley and Lake Sammamish. At that time they were one of the largest tribes in the Puget Sound region numbering around 4000. They have tried and failed on several occasions to secure a reservation on their ancestral lands along the Tolt River (a tributary of the Snoqualmie River). Instead, they purchased land for and were granted a reservation near Snoqualmie, Washington, on which the tribe recently opened the Snoqualmie Casino.

In 2008, the Snoqualmie Tribe Police Services was established to enforce tribal laws at the new Snoqualmie Casino near Snoqualmie, WA. In the summer of 2008 the department hired a Chief who was supposed to hire a force of up to six officers to patrol the Casino and the Reservation property. However in the spring of 2009 the tribe did not receive the funding they anticipated from the BIA, and disbanded the department. The tribe now contracts law enforcement out to the King County Sheriff's Office on a "calls for service" only basis. The Sheriff's Office does not actively patrol the casino—no one is assigned there—but the Sheriff's Office will respond to calls when needed and the tribe is billed per call for service.