The land on which we reside has and will always be Indigenous land.  Unveiling the history of the land brings us to the place names and historic sites obscured by the city's development.  Take a look at the maps below to see the Lushootseed place names of the land, which is now Seattle. On the left is the UW campus lands map, which focuses on sites in and around the University of Washington campus. To the right is a more comprehensive map of commonly known Lushootseed place names around Washington State and BC, Canada.

The place names are written in Lushootseed, the language used by tribes in, and around the Puget sound region. 

The names for Lushootseed vary between the tribes

• dxʷləšucid for Lushootseed tribes to the north

• xʷəlšucid for southern tribes

• txʷəlšucid for all other tribes

The Language's dialect is separated into two major groups, Northern and Southern, with the 'boundary line' roughly occurring at the northern King County lines. It's critical to recognize that this language, like people, is fluid and, as such, shares many similarities with neighboring languages. Indeed, Lushootseed is part of a language group that roughly incorporates over 23 languages, spanning BC, Washington, Oregon, and Montana.  Since Lushootseed was not traditionally written, its alphabet was created recently and has undergone changes within its written lifetime.  The current alphabet is derived from the International Phonic Alphabet, which allows for the representation of sounds not heard in the English alphabet.