Vashon Island’s Native People: Resources for Learning
About the sx̌ʷəbabš and Puyallup Tribe
Vashon Rural Heritage
The collection labeled “Vashon’s First Peoples” includes: --Lucy Gerand’s place names and village sites for Vashon-Maury Island, as told to Thomas Talbot Waterman in 1918 --Testimony by Lucy Gerand and other Puyallup Native people in the U.S. Court of Claims in 1927, describing their homes and way of life --"Vashon’s and Maury Islands: Hands Across Time,” a film produced and directed by Roxanne Thayer, in 1998 that shows the Burton Acres excavation and interviews with many members of the Puyallup Tribe and descendants of the sx̌ʷəbabš.
Read moreVashon Island Archaeology: a View from Burton Acres Shell Midden
Edited by Julie K. Stein and Laura S. Phillips, Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture Research Report No. 8, 2002.
The Puyallup-Nisqually
by Marian W. Smith, Columbia University Press, 1940.
“Seasonal Round of the Coast Salish People”
A poster showing Puyallup Tribe names for every month of the year in both Twulshootseed and English, and illustrating key activities of the months. Produced by the Vashon Heritage Museum and available for purchase from the museum.
Read moreGeneral Resources
Vashon Rural Heritage
There are four collections in this resource - Journals and Memoirs, Maps and Periodicals, Vashon's First Peoples, and Vashon College.
Read morePuget Sound Regional Archives
This office is a great place to start researching your house. You can email with your parcel number, and for a small fee, an archivist will send you a tax document from the 1930s, with a photo of your home and any other buildings, and descriptions of building materials. Additional research can be done by request or in person.
Read moreWashington Digital Archives
This is a great online resource for genealogical research, with searchable birth, marriage and death records as well as other legal records.
Read moreBureau of Land Management General Land Office
Search these records for homestead claims and surveyor's notes from the mid-1850s.
Read moreLibrary of Congress Chronicling America
Search Vashon's historic newspaper pages from 1907-1933 or use the U.S. Newspaper Directory to find information about Vashon's newspapers published between 1907-1933. Chronicling America is sponsored jointly by the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Library of Congress.
Read moreVashon History
Search Vashon's historic newspaper pages from 1907-1933 or use the U.S. Newspaper Directory to find information about Vashon's newspapers published between 1907-1933. Chronicling America is sponsored jointly by the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Library of Congress.
Read moreResources
It's all about connection
The Vashon Heritage Museum is part of a network of museums that support and connect to each other.
Find out more about other museums accessible throughout the Pacific Northwest.
