Duwamish Tribe - Tribal Status

Tribal Status

The Duwamish Tribe adopted a constitution, bylaws, and further structure in 1925, but as of 2009 they are not recognized as a tribe by the United States federal government. Individually, the Duwamish people continue to be recognized by the BIA as legal Native Americans, but not corporately as a tribe.

Tribal membership criteria vary by tribe. For the Duwamish, in accordance with Salish tradition, enrollment is by the applicant providing a documented genealogy. Consequently, not all Duwamish today are members of the Duwamish Tribe. The Duwamish Tribe recorded about 400 enrolled members in 1991 and about 500 in 2004. The tribe is of moderate size with respect to moderately-sized federally-recognized Washington tribes.

The Duwamish were party to land claims against the federal government in the 1930s and 1950s. Following the Boldt Decision (1974, upheld 1979) they sought inclusion per the Treaty of Point Elliott, and in 1977 filed petition, together with the Snohomish and Steilacoom (Chillacum) for federal recognition that is still pending as of 2009,

The Duwamish Tribe's chances of federal recognition hinge, in large part, on proving they have "continually maintained an organized tribal structure since their ancestors signed treaties with the United States in the 1850s." U.S. District Judge George Boldt (1903–1984) found in 1979 that the tribe had not existed continuously as an organized tribe (within the meaning of federal law) from 1855 to the present, and was therefore ineligible for treaty fishing rights. A gap in the record from 1915-1925 prompted Boldt's decision.

According to Russel Barsh, attorney for the Samish in that tribe's effort to gain recognition, which succeeded in 1996, "the Samish proved in a hearing that Judge Boldt's decision against these tribes was based on incomplete and erroneous evidence." This would argue for allowing an appeal of the decision.

In the mid-1980s the BIA concluded that since the Duwamish Indians have no land, they cannot be recognized as a "tribe".

In June 1988, 72 descendants of Washington settlers reversed their ancestors 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 the mid-1990s proposals were made in Congress to extinguish all further efforts by unrecognized tribes to gain recognition. These were defeated. Success or continued failure tends to drift with the national mood and leanings of Congress. Effectively, recognition turns upon the mood of Congress with respect to honoring treaties with Native Americans. Occasionally tribes succeed, in such as with the Boldt Decision in 1974.

The Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) denied recognition in 1996. The tribe then assembled additional evidence for its active existence through the decade in question. Evidence was assembled from Catholic church records, news reports, oral histories, and further tracing of bloodlines. Ken Tollefsen, a retired Pacific University anthropologist, helped assemble the additional data. This new evidence prompted the Bureau of Indian Affairs to reverse its 1996 decision, and the tribe briefly won federal recognition in January 2001, in the waning days of the Clinton administration. However, the ruling was voided in 2002 by the Bush administration, citing procedural errors.

The Tulalips have opposed efforts by local unrecognized tribes, contending that the Tulalip tribe (a post-Treaty construct) are the heirs of an amalgam of unrecognized tribes. This is also the case where it comes to the Muckleshoots. Such potentially adversarial intentions notwithstanding, the Duwamish Tribe (as of November 2009) are currently continuing their litigation for the purpose of gaining tribal recognition in the ongoing case Hansen et al vs. Kempthorne et al, Case # 2:2008cv00717, Western Washington Federal District Court, King County, Washington, Judge John C. Coughenour presiding. The Duwamish Tribe continue to publicly request donations, and (as of November 2009) have raised some, but not all, of the requisite costs of this litigation, in order to be able to continue their long-standing efforts for their existence as a legitimate tribe to be formally acknowledged and recognized by the federal government.