Duwamish Culture in the Cougar Mountain Region

"Duwamish" means "People of the Inside" in the Coast Salish language and refers to the indigenous peoples of the Black, Bedar, and Duwamish rivers. In the area around Cougar Mountain, now known as the towns of Renton and Newcastle, WA, there were at least 3 Duwamish villages. The Duwamish lived in cedar longhouses and used canoes for travel and fishing on the rivers, which were essential to the Duwamish way of life.

When European settlers arrived in the region in the 1850s, there were about 300-400 Duwamish living in the Renton area, according to the Duwamish exhibit at the Renton History Museum. The indigenous people were understandably reluctant to allow white settlers to take over their ancestral lands but ultimately, as in most cases of European appropriation of indigenous lands, they had little choice. As wildlands the Duwamish depended on for food became more urbanized, they were forced to travel farther and farther to gather supplies for the winter.

A story we are all familiar with: the government had created a system of reservations which were meant to relocate and concentrate indigenous populations away from European settlements. A reservation was not created for the Duwamish people, so the tribe remains relatively fragmented among the Tulalip, Port Madison, and Muckleshoot reservations even today. Many Duwamish chose instead to remain on their ancestral lands and were forced to assimilate to Western society. The Duwamish people are still struggling to gain federal recognition as an American Indian tribe and have appealed to the government numerous times to little success.

Pacific Northwest American Indians were some of the only indigenous cultura, groups which did not use ceramics. Instead, the Duwamish and other PNW tribes developed highly sophisticated basketry technology. The baskets, woven so expertly they could even be waterproof, were created for a wide variety of uses, from berry picking to clam gathering to cooking.

A Duwamish fishing basket (creel) handmade in Newcastle, Washington of woven hazelnut strips.

A fishing reel (ca. 1910) owned by Duwamish native Henry Moses. Excellent example of how Duwamish culture was altered by the introduction of Western technology and practices.

The Duwamish used bow like this one (ca. 1880) to hunt game on land.

The Duwamish tribe traditionally inhabited this region (green). The area is now known largely as the cities of Renton, Bellevue, Issaquah, Newcastle, and metropolitan Seattle. The region they previously inhabited is now the most densely inhabited region in Washington State. The cities which now stand in former Duwamish territory are the commercial hub of the state. The lack of reservation territory given to the Duwamish, despite their residence in what is now inarguably the most profitable and industrialized region of the state is no coincidence. With nearby coal, access to the Sound and rivers, the region was too valuable for white settlers to allow the Duwamish to continue occupying their ancestral lands, and thus had to force them out or force them to acclimate to Western society.