History of Vashon's First People and the Puyallup Tribe

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Vashon’s Native people, the sx̌ʷəbabš (meaning ‘Swiftwater People”), lived on these islands, attuned to the gifts and seasonal patterns of the south Salish Sea ecosystems since time immemorial. They were forced to leave their ancestral homeland and move to the Puyallup Reservation in 1855-56, but their descendants still live in the Tacoma area as part of the thriving Puyallup Tribe, and still retain their rights to fish and gather shellfish in their traditional places around Vashon’s shorelines.

Lucy Slagham Gerand, Kingsbury Beach

Most of the specific details we have about place names and village locations on Vashon Island were provided by islander Lucy Slagham Gerand, who gave information to anthropologist Thomas T. Waterman in 1918, and testified in a Court of Claims hearing in 1927. Lucy grew up in a longhouse on Quartermaster Harbor, was present at the Medicine Creek treaty signing, and lived on the Puyallup Reservation before returning to Vashon. In 1929, she was buried in the Vashon Cemetery, where a headstone was placed by the Puyallup Tribe in 2008.

How did they live comfortably in this wet climate for so many thousands of years? What kinds of homes did they build, and what foods did they enjoy eating during the changing seasons? What changes were brought by Europeans and Americans? How did they survive the ensuing hardships to become the thriving Tribe of today?

Islanders have an opportunity to hear about their history and culture from Charlotte Basch, Historic Education Coordinator for the Puyallup Tribe.

Charlotte Basch is the Historic Education Coordinator for the Puyallup Tribe.

Wapato John, Lucy Gerand, Tom Milroy, 1927