Graham Mullen
5/22/2024
Prior to White settlement and colonization, the land the University of Washington lies on was occupied by the Duwamish. Though there is little documentary evidence for what exactly existed on this tract of land prior to the late 19th century, some scattered references to a Duwamish village on campus exist. All of these references are secondary sources referencing an older source from the early 20th century. Only the anglicized name is documented: SWAH-tsoo-gweel, but with some additional analysis we can approximate the Lushootseed name for the village: Sxʷacəgʷil,which translates to portage. The Duwamish Tribe’s website has a map of approximate longhouse locations, including the area where Sxʷacəgʷil would have been, using records from the Port of Seattle and the US Court of Claims. You can find the map here: https://www.duwamishtribe.org/lawsuit-for-federal-recognition
I first came across a reference to this village on the Internet Archive, where someone had made a map of Indigenous villages around Lake Washington. You can find the map here: https://web.archive.org/web/20200304063649/http://coastsalishmap.org/new_page_6.htm. Sxʷacəgʷil is number 26, and if you click on it on the map it will direct you to a short description of the village. Upon further research, The earliest digital source of this village comes from a 1984 article, “Indian Lake Washington”, in Seattle’s The Weekly written by David Buerge, which contains a map with a place titled “SWAH-tsu-gweel” in the same location. While the article does not specify what “SWAH-tsu-gweel” is, it discusses a Duwamish village around Union Bay with five longhouses. One of these longhouses is said to have been situated where the UW steam plant is today, placing it right on an important historical portage between Lake Washington and Lake Union. Another longhouse is said to have been about a block southwest of Seattle Children’s Hospital, near University Village.
Buerge says information on villages came from evidence in a court case, though he does not specify which one. It is my belief that this court case was Duwamish et al. vs USA, 1927, United States Court of Claims, No. F-275. Naturally, I wanted to find this testimony but so far I have been unable to, and not for lack of trying. The testimony itself does not appear to be anywhere online, though there are references to the court case and its findings available. Luckily the University of Washington has the testimony in its microfilm, specifically A7348. Here is the beginning of a frustrating and baffling series of obstacles.
On May 13th, I headed to the library and accessed the microfilm, divided into volumes 1 and 2. It took some time but I eventually found some testimony from the case. As I was short on time I had to return the microfilm before I found the testimony on Sxʷacəgʷil, hoping to come back the next day to continue looking through it. Unfortunately, when I came back the microfilm was gone! The University of Washington, I learned, has the physical volumes in Special Collections, so down I went to Special Collections. The staff were very friendly and helped me find the material despite having no prior appointment scheduled. To my dismay, they only had volume 2 available; volume 1 was missing. They told me it was likely on someone’s desk or misshelved somewhere. I hoped that volume 2 would have some testimony in it as well, and while it contained an index for pieces of evidence and testimony in volume 1, it had no testimony in it itself. I was then pointed in the direction of getting an interlibrary loan from Western Washington University, which also had the volumes by the staff in Special Collections. So, I filled out the form requesting volume 1. Yet again, I ran into a roadblock. I received an email telling me that my request was canceled because WWU’s copy of volume 1 was missing as well. I decided to head back to microfilm only to find out that on 5/14 the microfilm had gone out on loan to another library! That week and the following week I revisited Special Collections. As of this writing volume 1 is still missing. While the Scooby Doo fan in me wanted to believe that I stumbled into some kind of conspiracy regarding this testimony, in all likelihood it was just bad timing and poor record keeping for a relatively obscure item. Someday, I hope to find it.
All is not lost. Volume 2, though not as helpful as I hoped it would be, did provide some answers, showing through its index that there was indeed testimony in volume 1 regarding Duwamish villages in the area.
References
Buerge, David. 1984. “Indian Lake Washington.” The Weekly (Seattle), August 1-7, 1984, 29-33. https://s14621.pcdn.co/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Indian_Lake_Washington.pdf.
Duwamish Tribe. 2022. “Lawsuit for Federal Recognition — Duwamish Tribe.” Duwamish Tribe. https://www.duwamishtribe.org/lawsuit-for-federal-recognition.
Griffin, Arthur Eugene. The Duwamish, Lummi, Whidby Island, Skagit, Upper Skagit, Swinomish, Kikiallus, Snohomish, Snoqualmie, Stillaguamish, Suquamish, Samish, Puyallup, Squaxin, Skokomish, Upper Chehalis, Muckleshoot, Nooksack, Chinook and San Juan Islands Tribes of Indians, Claimants, vs. the United States of America, Defendant. Consolidated Petition. No. F-275 ... Seattle: Argus Press, 1933.
Miller, Jay, Astrida R. Blukis Onat, BOAS, Inc, and Central Puget Sound Regional Transit Authority (Wash). 2004. Winds, Waterways, and Weirs : Ethnographic Study of the Central Link Light Rail Corridor. [Seattle, Wash.?]: [BOAS].
Simpson, Neal. 2022. “Sqʷsəb and the people of the big lake.” Solid Ground. https://www.solid-ground.org/sq%CA%B7s%C9%99b-and-the-people-of-the-big-lake/.
Smith, Marian W. 2022. “Seattle Duwamish Indigenous Place Names and Settlements — Cascadia Department of Bioregion.” Cascadia Department of Bioregion. https://cascadiabioregion.org/department-of-bioregion/seattle-duwamish-indigenous-place-names.
“Village Descriptions Duwamish-Seattle section.” n.d. Coast Salish Map on the Internet Archive. Accessed May 17, 2024. http://coastsalishmap.org/Village_Descriptions_Duwamish-Seattle.htm.