Story by Tracy Record
Photos/video by Patrick Sand
West Seattle Blog co-publishers

In light of 10,000+ years of history, the past 15 years were a blink for the Duwamish Tribe.

But it was a blink worth celebrating – and recalling – with more than 100 people filling the Duwamish Longhouse and Cultural Center in West Seattle on Saturday to celebrate its 15th anniversary.

The lineup of speakers was impressive – from the tribe’s longtime chair Cecile Hansen, to the longhouse’s architect, whose father got him involved by suggesting he could help “Seattle’s original homeless … find a home,” to its chief fundraiser, to its exhibit curator teaching the history of longhouses, to its historian discussing life in longhouses, to a lawyer updating the tribe’s longrunning fight to regain federal recognition, and more.

The four-hour by-invitation event was also an occasion to honor those and many others who worked with and for the tribe to bring the longhouse to life on a patch of land across from a historic site on the shore of the Duwamish River, more than a century after the last of the Duwamish’s previous longhouses was torched by settlers. After years of fundraising and planning, the groundbreaking happened in 2007, and the grand opening in January 2009. And this weekend, the milestone celebration.

“I raise my hands to you,” said Chair Hansen in her brief welcome, “It’s wonderful that our tribe has succeeded to come to this date.” She invited everyone to “have a good time,” and with that, the party was on – with speakers before lunch focused on history, those after lunch focused mostly on the present and future. Our first video clip features Duwamish Tribal Services board chair Kristina Pearson, chair Hansen, and pre-construction fundraising co-chair Chad Lewis:

Lewis said the fundraising campaign dated back to philanthropists who formed the Friends of the Duwamish in the late ’90s.

$1 million+ was raised by the early 2000s, he said, before the campaign stalled. A turning-point event was a MOHAI ceremony in late 2003 for descendants of the Denny Party (of which he is one) to say thank you to descendants/members of the Duwamish Tribe. There, he met Hansen, offered to lead a workshop for the DTS board, helped write a grant, “and the next thing I knew, I was leading the new capital campaign.”

From 2004 to 2008 they raised $2.1 million to build the Longhouse and $300,000 for operating expenses – “we ended up with the bills being paid and no mortgage.” He listed many organizations and people who contributed, but ultimately “without Cecile’s iron will and dedication, we wouldn’t be here today.” He said his involvement “has been one of the greatest honors of my life.”

Another part of the Longhouse’s story was told by architect Byron Barnes.

Barnes was introduced as having donated thousands of hours of his own time to the project. He said he was living outside the U.S. when he received a letter from his father, a Blackfeet Nation member, saying he thought his son could help “Seattle’s original homeless … find a home.” He was invited to a Duwamish Tribal Council meeting in Burien, and from there became entwined for 30+ years in a project he said spanned “the good, the bad, the unexpected,” including the Duwamish Tribe’s struggle to regain the federal recognition they briefly had at the end of the Clinton Administration, erased by the (GW) Bush Administration. He was also there as Duwamish members met and determined the path that they would take, ultimately a longhouse and tribal offices “where we can get to know people and introduce them to our culture.” Starting with no money and no land, they transcended both of those situations; the road to a building permit was complicated, though, by zoning on the site. Barnes said then-Mayor Greg Nickels (a West Seattleite) helped them get past that.

That wasn’t the only challenge; the bid was $200,000, so they went through it and figured out $200,000 worth of labor and materials that could be handled through volunteers and donated materials. “That was the seed of the organic growth” that continues today, he noted, with some land added on both sides of the site, and the historic village site across West Marginal Way protected as parkland.

After his half-hour of reminiscences, several people were honored for their contributions along the way, each presented with a blanket (made by Native-owned Eighth Generation).

Among the honorees is the woman in the center of the photo above, Duwamish master weaver Mary Lou Slaughter. Her cousin and former apprentice DeAnn Sackman had spoken for her from the podium:

She said Slaughter’s work was a lesson “to be proud of who we are, of our heritage,” and she said that learning traditional weaving from her had been “an amazing experience.” It involved not only the weaving but also obtaining the materials, recalling times spent out in the forest, learning about the strength of cedar; she likened her mentor to cedar, “strong and it withstands time.” That included continuing to work on the art – which Sackman noted is “in museums around the world” – even while other facets of life demanded her time, like caring for her ailing husband.

After a lunch of salmon, frybread, and more – catered by Native Soul Cuisine – the program continued. Longhouse exhibit curator Heidi Bohan, after marveling that “there are legendary people in this room,” presented a primer on longhouse construction and styles. She said she sees “magical things happening” whenever she’s at the Duwamish Longhouse and seeing visitors “sit in silence, tears in their eyes, as they experience what this place means. “This is a living longhouse .. in its right place, along the river.”

She explained longhouse-design styles such as “shed style plankhouse, single pitch roof” – wrapped in cedar planks – and “post and beam” construction, with props included this cake baked for the celebration:

(The cake was created by Barbarann Kym of Cake Rhapsody in Sumner.) Bohan had a slide show that you can see in its entirety in our video of her presentation, above. It featured diagrams, photos, and paintings of multiple types of longhouses. She also showed an example of how trees were planked for longhouse construction materials: “Thousands of years of adaptation to this land, to build a house that’s super-efficient.” Roofs were configured to let smoke out without letting rain in, for example. And she had props to illustrate construction methods:

Illustrations of longhouses’ interiors showed multiple levels of platforms for storage, work, and sleeping, among other functions. More stories of traditional longhouse life were told by Duwamish Tribe historian David Buerge:

Buerge said his involvement with the tribe dated back to the ’70s, when he had “no idea the Duwamish people were still around,” but met chair Hansen through a friend. She asked him, “would you like to help the tribe?” and “that question changed my life.”

Over the past half-century, Buerge said, he’s learned a lot about the 16,000-year history of people in the area. A longhouse, he explained, was a shelter for a “hunter-gathering band,” an “extremely complex” group in terms of relationships and responsibilities. They were advanced beyond what they’re given credit for, he added, saying that when Vancouver arrived in the late 1790s, “he didn’t reaize people had been managing the land for 11,000+ years” but what he saw was evidence of it – “the forests were actively managed … most of the trees the pioneers encountered were smaller – burned every three years, so sunlight could come in, game herds could graze …” The tribe itself was a farther-flung group than you might realize, he also explained: “Though they were ultimately identified by the river, you’d have salt water Duwamish, river water Duwamish, lake people, interior people,” and “various social classes.” Leadership was based on consensus.

On to what’s happening now.

The Duwamish remind people, “We are still here.” Ken Workman, in the video above, reminds people of that in Lushootseed – “our own language.” Of the longhouse and vicinity, he said, “This is a sacred place for us, the last village site for us, the name of the house, the village that was here, Herring – the house that we’re in today is on the southern end of the ancient village of Herring House …. so in a sense the Duwamish are reestablishing their presence here on this land.” – And yet, “we the Duwamish Tribe have not moved …our bones are still in the hills of this brand-new city, which is only 172 years old …” After death, “all the material that was then goes down into the ground and then when the rain comes in the spring, it comes back up in the trees, the grass, the berries, and all that … we are part of this place … our ancestors were here just yesterday and they are here because some of the trees in Seattle are that old, the roots go own and touch the bones … the DNA of the trees” – and he singled out weaver Mary Lou Slaughter in her woven hat and cape:

“What you see here are the Duwamish people.”

But even as the Duwamish people celebrated their Longhouse’s 15th anniversary, they are dealing with an as-yet-unresolved problem that goes back many more years: The quest to regain the federal recognition granted toward the end of the Clinton Administration and revoked at the start of what followed. An update was provided by Ben Mayer of law firm K&L Gates:

Mayer recounted the twists and turns of the legal fight, including the past almost-two years since another lawsuit was filed. They are still trying to “get the Duwamish their day in court,” he said, explaining that the suit is still “in active litigation.”

A project bridging the tribe’s past and future was discussed by cultural preservation officer Nancy Sackman – the land adjacent to the longhouse where they are growing native plants and hope to pursue other traditional cultural activities:

Maggie Cooper talked about another present/future project, health and wellness for Duwamish members and other “urban Natives.” With the help of a grant, she and others are working to define “what does wellness mean for the Duwamish Tribe?”

More blanket presentations followed, for some of those who had spoken earlier, and others. Then after a few open-mic speakers, chair Hansen thanked all in attendance, and mingling followed – with hugs and stories, a family reunion of sorts, for Seattle’s original family.

You can visit the Duwamish Longhouse – which includes cultural exhibits and a gift shop – at 4705 West Marginal Way SW [map], 10 am-5 pm Tuesdays-Saturdays.