Native American History Panel

On July 25, 2001, the Seattle City Council held a public forum in preparation for the city’s sesquicentennial (150th) anniversary celebration. This meeting was led by city councilmember Jan Drago and organized by the City's Special Assistant for Tribal and Regional Relations, David Conrad. The meeting invited historians and tribal councilmembers to speak to the complex, ongoing, and tenuous relationship between Native nations and local governments in the Puget Sound area. The meeting included welcome and closing songs performed by Spirit Healing Drum, a panel discussion of local history, and a public discussion forum. Topics discussed included histories of federal Indian policy, treaties, Indigenous peoples in the Puget Sound, early encounters between the Denny Party and Chief Seattle, Duwamish tribal recognition, and upcoming reconciliation events organized by the City of Seattle.

Testimony

Welcome song performed by Spirit Healing Drum (listen to audio)

Bob Anderson, Indian Law Professor and Director of the Native American Law Center at the University of Washington, discusses the history of federal Indian policy in the United States (listen to audio)
When you look at the history of Indian policy from the perspective of Europeans, it at bottom originally it was about figuring out a justification for the acquisition of territory as against other European nations. And secondly, to figure out how to acquire, property held by Native Americans in a way that was somehow consistent with the moral underpinnings of, first, the Catholic Church, and later, the Protestant theologians after the Reformation in England.

In the way that these Christian thinkers justified the acquisition of property from Native Americans in what's called the United States now, and Indigenous peoples in Africa and other parts of the world, was by developing what they call the natural law doctrine, that basically held that Indigenous peoples who did not subscribe to the Catholic religion originally did not have a moral or legal right to own property unless and until those individuals would agree to subscribe to the teachings of first the Catholic Church, and later other religious faiths.

And Indigenous people, generally not understanding, not being willing to give up all that had developed in terms of their own culture and tradition, fell into disputes with the European nations. The Spanish were notorious in what's now South America and Central America for their, what's called the black legend for the decimation of Native American culture and tribes through the terrible wars - we can't even call them wars, through attacks that took place shortly after Columbus landed in San Salvador in 1492.

In the United States, you see a similar pattern of acquisition and of thinking that because Native Americans did not follow the same religious dictates as the colonizers from England and elsewhere, that Native Americans didn't have a moral or legal right to the soil. At the same time, the colonies that followed this line of thinking on paper recognized that that Indian tribes, Native Americans, were forces to be reckoned with in terms of having actual occupation of territory that Native Americans wanted and having military capability of either destroying, early on, the colonizing forces or at least holding them off and carrying out long, drawn out battles with the colonies [of] the European nations on the the frontier of what's now the United States.

Legally, we see the the King of England in 1763 after the French and Indian War, proclaiming that England - that is, the crown itself, the national government - would be the only entity that was entitled to deal with Native American tribal governments in terms of making treaties and negotiating over sessions of land.

Individual colonists, George Washington and Ben Franklin among them - we can see it in many of their writings - were anxious to cut side deals with tribal leaders or tribal individuals to elevate their own personal claims to property on the east coast of the United States as against other individuals who were prominent in these colonial days. And the colonists were furious with King George for adopting this proclamation in 1763 that had the legal effect of cutting off the ability of the colonies to make their own individual deals with the Native American tribes that butted up against the European settlements on the east coast.

When the War of Independence was concluded, the United States adopted the Articles of Confederation, which were remarkable in the sense that they were completely unworkable with respect to Indian affairs. On the one hand, language in the articles gave authority to the national government, to the United States government to deal exclusively, it seemed to say, with Native American tribes.

And then it had a proviso that said, but the legislative authority of the states with respect to Native Americans shall not be disturbed. And so you had these conflicting governmental bodies purporting to legislate over Native American tribes who were of the view that they hadn’t agreed to be legislated over by anybody and had the ability to resist that sort of legislation through physical warfare and through negotiations and treaties.

Duwamish tribal councilmember James Rasmussen presents a request for City support in petitioning the United States federal government for Duwamish tribal recognition (listen to audio)
My name is James Rasmussen. I'm on the council of the Duwamish tribe here in Seattle. Right before I make my comments, I'd like to recognize Patricia Goldenhawk, who's also a current council member, and Miss Edie Nelson, who is a past councilmember who's attending your conference today. We attended as guests and not as part of a panel, which is disappointing to us.

The Duwamish tribe never got a reservation. I don't think that had anything to do with what the Duwamish tribe did, it just happened to have [sic] where the tribe lived. A lot of the fishing rights issues that were talked about were contingent on reservations. We still fight that battle today, and I would like to have some comment on that because of the situation that the tribe is in right now, in kind of a quasi-black hole between the Bush administration and the Clinton administration.

I would also, officially, in front of people, ask that the City of Seattle support the tribe in its quest for recognition by the federal government in a letter of support. If that would be possible, it would be a big step forward for us, and also hopefully support for the Duwamish Cultural Center and Longhouse, which we are raising money for. We have purchased property, because we couldn't find any other way to get property in the City of Seattle.

Hopefully those things are possible. And if I could get a response, especially from the attorneys, because the other ones I know too well [laughter] about the reservations, and fishing rights, and Duwamish recognition?  
 
Jan Drago: I'd like to say that I will commit myself to working with David, and I see Councilmember Peter Steinbrueck here, on the issues that you've raised. And I think there has been some history there, and we will commit ourselves to working on that.

Duwamish tribal councilmember Patricia Goldenhawk affirms the cultural and emotional importance of tribal recognition for Duwamish people and expresses support for James Rasmussen's request for support (listen to audio)
My name is Patricia Goldenhawk and I am White River Duwamish. And I really am honored to be here tonight, today, but I want to join in with James in saying, you know, I’ve heard and been told for so long that this is a political issue. Maybe that's the whole problem - I think we need to get in touch with ourselves as human beings and start acting on what we believe is the right way to behave.

And I would certainly hope that this council would come forward and write this letter. I also hope that each one of these tribes that are recognized will come and support us in this recognition, because if they can't, then shame on you. Real shame on you because, you know, I'm not talking just as myself as a councilmember, I'm a mother and a grandmother.

And my cultural house means everything in the world to me, you know, to have that there, that longhouse. And it's okay that we had to buy the land. Hopefully the next the extension of the land we won't have to buy. So my hopes to you would be that please, make this a personal issue and not a political issue and join us in this fight. Thank you. 

Watch the entire event and read the full transcript in Digital Collections. Citation: Seattle City Council Native American History Public Forum, July 25, 2001. Event ID 6789, Seattle City Council Legislative Department Audio Recordings, 4601-03.

Related Resources

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