Duwamish Tribe
The Duwamish Tribe, officially known as the Duwamish Tribal Organization, is an unrecognized tribe of Duwamish people, and those who identify as their descendants, based in Seattle, Washington.
The Duwamish Tribe is an unrecognized tribe. They are neither a federally recognized tribe nor a state-recognized tribe. They have petitioned for federal recognition as the Duwamish Indian Tribe several times, most recently in 2019, but were denied. In 2022, the Duwamish Tribe filed a lawsuit against the US Department of Interior in a US District Court seeking a judicial declaration that they were federally recognized. In 2025, the court ordered the DOI to reconsider the Tribe's petition for federal recognition under the 2015 regulations.
The Duwamish Tribe has operated the Duwamish Tribal Services since 1979, a nonprofit dedicated to serving the needs of their members.
History
Historical context
The Duwamish were one of the signatory tribes of the 1855 Treaty of Point Elliott. Under this treaty, the Duwamish and other peoples ceded their land to the United States. In return, among other things, the Duwamish were promised the creation of a reservation for their people, as well as fishing and hunting rights. Although the Suquamish Reservation was established intending for the Duwamish to move there, many Duwamish people chose to remain in their homelands near Seattle.In 1856, at the Fox Island Council, then-Territorial Governor Isaac Stevens agreed to create the Muckleshoot Reservation, a reservation for all the peoples continuing to live on the Duwamish River watershed, as an attempt to get the Duwamish and others to move to a reservation. Although many did move to the reservation, many Duwamish continued to resist moving.
In 1866, the Superintendent of Indian Affairs proposed the creation of another reservation in Duwamish homelands. However, virtually all of the establishment of the town of Seattle was against its creation, and many pioneers, including David Denny, Henry Yesler, and David "Doc" Maynard, petitioned against it, writing "such a reservation would do a great injustice" and be "of little value to the Indians." Hearing the settlers' complaints, the proposal was shut down.
The modern Duwamish Tribe
In 1925, the Duwamish Tribe drafted a constitution and bylaws for their new organization.The people in the tribe comprised mostly descendants of marriages between pioneer men and Duwamish women.
In 1979, the Duwamish Tribe established the Duwamish Tribal Services, a 501 nonprofit organization dedicated to serving the needs of the members of the Duwamish Tribe.
In June 1988, 72 descendants of early Washington settlers reversed their ancestors' petition against a Duwamish Reservation and petitioned the Bureau of Indian Affairs in support of federal recognition of the Duwamish Tribe. The signers were members of the Pioneer Association of the State of Washington, which maintains Pioneer Hall in Madison Park as a meeting hall and archive of pioneer records.
In March 2013, Judge John Coughenour ordered the Department of Interior to reconsider or explain the denial of the Tribe's petition. The BIA responded in July 2015 with a conclusion that the Duwamish do not meet the criteria for federal recognition.
In May 2022, the Duwamish Tribe once again sued for federal recognition as they filed a lawsuit against the Bureau of Indian Affairs.
Petitions for federal recognition
The Duwamish Tribe has unsuccessfully petitioned the US Department of the Interior for federal recognition several times. They first submitted their letter of intent in 1977, however they were denied in 1996, and once again on July 19, 2019.In March 2013, Federal Judge John C. Coughenour granted summary judgement in Hansen et al v. Salazar ordering the Department of Interior to reconsider or explain the denial of the Tribe's petition; however, they were denied two years later in July, stating that they do not meet the criteria for federal recognition.
1977 petition
The Duwamish Tribal Organization chose to petition for federal recognition under the 1978 criteria, as opposed to the revised 1994 criteria. In the 1996 proposed finding, the organization's petition was declined due to meeting four criteria for being a tribe but failing to meet three others. The preliminary finding "found that the DTO was a new organization established in 1925" which did not "arise out of an earlier organization."The Bureau of Indian Affairs found that the historic Duwamish tribal members who signed the 1855 Treaty of Point Elliott known was the "D'Wamish and other allied tribes" belonged to several federally recognized tribes:
"These treaty tribes moved to four reservations and the separate tribes and bands eventually consolidated as four reservation tribes that continue today as the Lummi Tribe of the Lummi Reservation, Suquamish Indian Tribe of the Port Madison Reservation, Swinomish Indian Tribal Community, and Tulalip Tribes of Washington. A few Duwamish tribal members moved to the Muckleshoot Reservation after its creation in 1857. The petitioner's ancestors, primarily Duwamish Indian women who married non-Indian settlers, did not go to the reservations with the treaty tribes. Rather, before and after the treaty, they left the tribes as individuals and families and, by the 1880s, lived dispersed throughout western Washington. There is no evidence that their descendants, who are the DTO's ancestors, maintained tribal relations with the “D'Wamish and other allied tribes” on the reservations or that they were a part of a community of similarly situated Duwamish descendants."The final determination also stated:
"The DTO petitioner first came into existence in 1925 when eight men announced their 'intention of forming' an organization. No evidence indicates this new organization was a continuation of the historical “D'Wamish and other allied tribes” on the reservations or that it evolved as a group from them."
Other bids for recognition
In 2015, Representative Jim McDermott introduced a bill to extend federal recognition to the Duwamish Tribe; however, no actions were taken on the bill after its introduction.In May 2022, the Duwamish Tribe and Cecile Hansen filed a federal lawsuit against Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland and the Bureau of Indian Affairs of the Department of the Interior in their efforts to obtain federal recognition. In the lawsuit, the Tribe sought a judicial declaration asserting the following:
- The Tribe has been recognized by Congress and other federal authorities as an Indian tribe under the definition of the List Act and as the successor in interest to the historical Duwamish Tribe that signed the Treaty of Point Elliott.
- The lawsuit compels the DOI to place the Tribe on the official list of federally recognized tribes based on its prior recognition.
- In the alternative, the Tribe claims that the DOI unlawfully discriminated against it by devaluing matrilineal ancestry, violating equal protection, and affecting its ability to meet key federal acknowledgment criteria.
- Additionally, in the alternative, the Tribe requests that the DOI reconsider its petition under the 2015 acknowledgment regulations, without bias against tribes descended primarily through Indian women.
- Finally, in an alternative request, the Tribe seeks a remand directing the DOI to grant a formal, on-the-record hearing before an administrative law judge under 25 C.F.R. § 83.39.
Duwamish Tribal Services
The Duwamish Tribal Services incorporated as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization in 1979, and receiving an IRS ruling in 1981.Officers of the organization include:
- President: Guadalupe Barnes
- Vice President: Cecile A. Hansen
- Chief: Charlie Sotiakum
- Secretary: John Cruce
Duwamish Tribal Services owns and operates the Chief Si?ahl Duwamish Longhouse and Culture Center.
In 2017, non-Native fundraisers created a charity campaign, Rent Real Duwamish, to generate support and income for the organization.