Thread by @jfhigh

#NativeAmericanHeritageMonth Day 7

Fire medicine post is gonna wait, because there's stuff in my library I want to reference and I'm not home to do so! Today I want to talk about the Point Elliott Treaty and it's contemporary impacts.

Point Elliott is (depending on how you count) the 301st treaty that the US signed with Indigenous Nations (out of more than 500) signed in 1855 and included these important words: The right of taking fish at usual and accustomed grounds and stations (we'll come back to this)

The US constitution, the one that grants y'all rights like free speech and such, also states this on treaties: all Treaties made, or which shall be made, under the Authority of the United States, shall be the supreme Law of the Land;

The Indigenous signatores on the treaty numbered over eighty, including subchiefs, the tribes that were part of it were Dxʷdəwʔabš. Suqʷabš, Sdukʷalbixʷ, Sduhubš, Dxʷləbiʔ, Swədəbš, amd Skagit. (I don't know Skagit in Lushootseed, and welcome teaching).

There are a lot of important treaties going up around WA state at this time, not just Point Elliott. There's also Point No Point a few months earlier, Medicine Creek in December the previous year, Neah Bay, Walla Walla, Yakima and more.

'The right of taking fish, at all usual and accustomed grounds and stations' appears in all of them.

There's two signatores on Point Elliott I want to draw your attention to: The first one is Siʔaɫ, Si'ahl, or sometimes Sealth, or more famously known to whites, Seattle.

Siʔaɫ was renowned for building positive relationships between Indigenous folk and settlers and represented two nations: Dxʷdəwʔabš and Suqʷabš as he was a chief of both.

How, you ask? Well, it's pretty simple. His mother was Dxʷdəwʔabš and his father Suqʷabš and he was so greatly respected in both nations that he was seen as a leader of both. The point is that he had the power to sign for both nations.

The other name is Pat-ka-nam (as it appears on the Treaty) or Ṗəƛ̓qidəb. Ṗəƛ̓qidəb is another individual who I find heroic and inspiring, but

suffice to say for this entry that he was not originally friendly with Governor Stevens and Siʔaɫ played a part in convincing him to sign the treaty (as well as other reluctants)

Now, I'm sure that might make some of y'all feel one way or another about Siʔaɫ, but the point I'm trying to make is that the Point Elliott treaty might well not have happened without his influence. The US owes him thanks for a lot of things and that's one of them.

Despite this, and despite the legal documents (both Point Elliott and the Constitution) which recognize the Dxʷdəwʔabš Tribe, they remain, today, unrecognized by the federal government.

I could go into all the reasons for this, and the complicated responses that have come from the government when fought about it (they briefly achieved recognition at one point, only to have it almost immediately stripped away) but that's going to make this entry super-long.

Instead I want to point you to realrentduwamish.org as a way to support these important people, and if you live in Seattle, Tacoma, and in between, there's a good chance you're living on their land (and others as well) so as far as I'm concerned, this is your duty.

But what about the other treaties and my references to fishing? I'll tell you about the Fish Wars and the Boldt decision and another one of my heroes: Billy Frank Jr. on another day this month, maybe soon, but I want to get my fire medicine post in first.