Duwamish Plea

[Truth2Tell]

http://www.indiancountrytoday.com/opinion/letters/91028439.html#commentbox

Our tribe is the Duwamish Nation, indigenous people of Seattle, Wash., who signed the Point Elliott Treaty in 1855, ceded 54,000 acres, was promised a reservation and hunting and fishing rights. Presently, we are still here but with no status.

During the Fish Wars that ended in 1974, U.S. District Judge George Boldt, affirmed Indian fishing rights, but this great battle ended with the Duwamish, Snohomish, Steilacoom, Snoqualmie and the Samish tribes being shut out, dismissing them as political non-entities with no treaty rights. The Duwamish, “the people of the inside,” have been suffering like all landless tribes who in good faith listened to the Indian agents and politicians when in reality should have enjoyed the rightful benefits that all Indian tribes have today.

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We continued on with our endless battle to prove our existence, documenting our people from Chief Sealth to the present, our participation in potlatches, and other traditional gatherings, and most importantly preparing genealogy charts to rebut the finding that today’s Duwamish are not a continuation of Seattle’s tribe and then documenting the hierarchy of chiefdoms that governed the Duwamish and other Puget Sound Indian groups.

Then, in 2001, at the end of the Clinton administration, Duwamish received a phone call from the Branch of Acknowledgment and Research announcing that the United States was officially recognizing the Duwamish Tribe. That announcement was short lived because on the Monday after the Bush administration came into power, the tribe received a half-legible fax from the BIA stating that its status had been suspended pending review. Nine months later the agency revoked the recognition and declared the Duwamish extinct. Four other tribes nationwide, including the Chinook in southwest Washington, suffered the same fate.

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As the chair for the Duwamish Tribe seeking justice for this tribe and other tribes in our beautiful state of Washington, why have our own Indian people turned their faces and consciences to do the right thing. Are we in the midst of traditional genocide?

I sent a letter to President Obama in December 2009 asking him why the Duwamish are not recognized by the federal government. No answer.

http://www.indiancountrytoday.com/opinion/letters/91028439.html#commentbox">Whole letter here...