This is Edward Curtis’s first Native portrait. It’s of “Princess Angeline.” She was the daughter of Chief Seattle of the Duwamish Tribe, the tribe whose territory was usurped by the White colonial settlers who built the city of Seattle. She was living on the street and eking out a living by digging clams and selling them. Curtis noticed her and took her portrait. This was the first of many portraits from many tribes around the country. The Duwamish and closely related Suquamish were re-located from Seattle to the Suquamish Reservation, a short boat ride across the Salish Sea on the Kitsap Peninsula. Chief Seattle is buried out there and I have visited his grave site. His grave is marked by a beautiful Totem Pole. Ironic that they named the city after him while forcing his people to re-locate.
In the early 2000’s, when my wife was working with Vi Hilbert to preserve the Lushootseed (Puget Sound Salish) language and storytelling traditions, she and Vi identified a particular hill in South Seattle as being a hill that was seen as the “Center of the World” in the Native storytelling traditions. The hill was still undeveloped but surrounded on all sides by industrial development, however, they learned that it was also slated for development. She worked with the Duwamish Tribe to recognize it as a sacred site and preserve it as a park from development. It’s still a park to this day. Here’s a news story from 2001 about this site. The site also survived the last ice age and so has some important fossils.
https://archive.seattletimes.com/archive/20010904/povertyhill03m/duwamish-site-may-be-sacred-but-its-slated-for-development
Homeland Security: Fighting Terrorism since 1492.
I have this on a T-shirt.
Chief Leschi of the Nisqually Tribe was a freedom fighter for his people who was murdered by the Washington State Government. I live in Nisqually Territory here in Olympia, WA. He is buried at the Puyallup Tribal Cemetary in Tacoma, WA. I visited his grave when I worked there in the 80’s.
p.s. If you live in the Americas it’s good to know what tribes inhabited (or still inhabit) the territories where you live and honor the spirits of those people.
Robbie Robertson’s (Mohawk) song about Handsome Lake.
If you don’t know about Handsome Lake, here’s the history:
Very interesting, thank you for this. Also found this:
" The Longhouse Religion is the popular name of the religious movement also known as the Code of Handsome Lake or Gaihwi:io/Kaliwihyo (Good Message), founded in 1797/1799 by the Seneca prophet Handsome Lake (Sganyodaiyoˀ). This movement combines and reinterprets elements of traditional Iroquois religious beliefs with elements adopted from Christianity, primarily from the Quakers. Anthropologist Anthony F. C. Wallace reported that the Gaihwi:io had about 5,000 practicing members as of 1969.[1]: 3 Originally the Gaihwi:io was known as the “new religion” in opposition to the prevailing animistic beliefs, but has since become known as the “Old Way” in opposition to Christianity.
Prior to the adoption of the single-family dwelling, Iroquois lived in large, extended-family homes also known as longhouses which also served as meeting places, town halls, theaters, and sites for religious ceremonies. Gaihwi:io keeps the longhouses for ceremonial purposes, and the movement was therefore termed the “Longhouse Religion”."
The Code of Handsome Lake
