PUYALLUP

In the Pacific Northwest, inland tribes regularly traded with coastal peoples, typically at sites along rivers. The original name of the Puyallup, Spwiya’laphabsh, was given to them by the YAKAMA and translates as “generous people” because of their fair trade practices. The Puyallup, a coastal people, are grouped among the NORTHWEST COAST INDIANS; their inland trading partners, the Yakama, are considered PLATEAU INDIANS. The current tribal name Puyallup, pronounced pyoo-AH-lup, is thought to have been applied originally to the country at the mouth of the Puyallup River in present-day northwestern Washington, written in early texts as Pwiya’lap and translating as “shadow” in reference to the shade of the dense forest. In addition to the lower river and its mouth, the Puyallup occupied lands along the neighboring coast of Puget Sound and on southern Vashon Island. They spoke a Salishan dialect known as Lushoot-sheed, related to those of their neighbors, the NISQUALLY, SQUAXON, and DUWAMISH. These tribes are discussed with other Salishans of the Northwest Coast Culture Area as Coast Salishan (or Coast Salish) to distinguish them from inland Salishan-speaking peoples.

Like other Northwest Coast Indians, the Puyallup lived in permanent cedar wood-plank houses built near the water’s edge. Western red cedar, with its tall straight trunks, was the wood of choice. Dugout canoes were the primary means of transportation. For subsistence the Puyallup depended primarily on fishing, especially of salmon and steelhead trout; hunting and gathering wild plant foods rounded out the diet. The gifting ceremony known as the potlatch was central to their ceremonial life.

The first non-Indians to reach the region in the 17th and 18th centuries were traders, arriving by boat, but the extent of their early contact with the Puyallup is unknown. The first settlers arrived in the region in the 1830s. In 1854, many Puget Sound tribes, pressured by the growing non-Indian presence, signed the Treaty of Medicine Creek with Washington Territory officials. The next year, when non-Indians ignored the treaty terms and continued to settle on tribal lands, many of the area Indians rebelled in conjunction with their Yakama allies. The Nisqually led by Leschi, along with some Puyallup and other allies, attacked the settlement of Seattle in January 1856 but were repelled. The last Native resistance in the region ended in 1858.

The Puyallup Reservation was established at the time of the Medicine Creek Treaty. Tribal members took up farming, growing wheat, oats, and hay on natural meadows near tidal flats. A settlement, which evolved into the city of Tacoma, brought new pressures on area tribes. The federal government’s Allotment policy, established in 1887, in which the Puyallup Reservation was broken up and allotted to individuals who then could sell them off, resulted in loss of tribal lands by about one-half. The Puyallup tribe was reorganized with a constitution and a tribal council under the terms of the Indian Reorganization Act of 1934.

An ongoing issue for the Puyallup and other Puget Sound Native Americans is fishing rights. In 1954, Puyallup tribal leader Bob Satiacum was arrested for unlawful fishing in the Puyallup River at Tacoma. He claimed treaty fishing rights going back to the 19th century but was convicted in a trial, the decision later overturned by the Washington State Supreme Court. In the 1960s, he and other activists staged “fish-ins” and organized the Survival of American Indians Association; one of the supporters of the movement was the actor Marlon Brando. In 1974, after a number of legal setbacks, the Boldt Decision was handed down, with a ruling that treaties signed in the 1850s entitled the tribes to 50 percent of the total fish harvest. Regarding a separate land issue, the U. S. Supreme Court upheld a U. S. circuit court of appeals ruling that a dozen acres acquired by the Port of Tacoma in 1950 belonged to the Puyallup, and the tribe was compensated in the amount of $77.25 million.

Some of the problems affecting Tacoma, such as drug use and street violence, have spilled over to the Puyallup Reservation, affecting tribal youths. The tribe itself is responsible for law enforcement, health, safety, education, and welfare services for tribal members. Funds from successful gaming operations have been a new source of income for social programs and for tribal growth. In 2005, the tribe purchased 321 acres of residential land in Graham, Washington.