March 2020 Bar Bulletin
By Jacob Kuykendall
“Seattle is a city settled by our people first. They had the nerve to the name the city after our chief, but we are the people on the outside.” Cecile Hansen, elected chairperson for the Duwamish Tribe.
The City of Seattle takes its name from the Duwamish Chief Si’ahl. Our city sits on Duwamish tribal land stolen from them by White settlers in the 1800s. Representatives from the Duwamish were signatories to the Treaty of Point Elliot in 1855, where American Territorial Governor guaranteed reservations for the Duwamish, a treaty broken by the United States. And yet, the Duwamish were never federally recognized...