Steilacoom people

The Steilacoom were a Native American tribe who lived in the Puget Sound area of Washington state in the United States.

Steilacoom
Total population
extinct as a tribe[1]
Regions with significant populations
United States  United States
(Washington  Washington)
Languages
one of the Salish languages
Religion
Indigenous religion
Related ethnic groups
other Cowlitz people[2]

They were a Coast Salish people. Other tribes in the Puget Sound region include the Nisqually and Puyallup peoples.[1]

Name

Other names for the Steilacoom include Steilacoomamish and Stelakubalish.[1]

Territory

Their territory was along the Chambers Creek, also known as Steilacoom Creek, and in what is now Steilacoom, Washington.[1] Archaeologist Carrol L. Riley wrote that Anderson, McNeil Island, and Fox Islands near Puget Sound and the lands along Chambers and Sequalitchew Creeks were Steilacoom Territory.[3]

An archaeological site on the north shore of Chambers Creek in Pierce County, Washington, was confirmed by Western Washington University archaeologist Herbert C. Taylor Jr. as being a Steilacoom summer encampment.[1]

History and subsistence

The Steilacoom spoke a sub-dialect of the Salish language.[4] They depended largely on the ocean for subsistence but traveled inland to hunt.[5]

The tribe was thought to have numbered about 500 members prior to European contact, though by 1853 a smallpox epidemic had decreased that number to about 25 individuals.[6][7] In 1854 the remnants of the tribe entered into the Medicine Creek Treaty but did not receive a permanent reservation.[6]

Contemporary heritage group

The Steilacoom Tribe of Indians, an unrecognized organization based in Steilacoom, Washington, claims descent from the historic Steilacoom people.[8] They also claim to be composed of five bands: Steilacoom, Sastuck, Spanaway, Tlithlow, and Segwallitchu.[9] They are neither a federally recognized tribe[10] nor a state-recognized tribe.[11]

Beginning in 1929, members embarked on an unsuccessful process of official recognition by the United States government.[12] As of the early 21st century, the group claimed about 600 members, however, a 2008 investigation by the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) found that "only three of them are documented descendants of persons described in 19th and early 20th century documents as Steilacoom Indians" with the remainder having Native ancestry from other sources.[8] The heritage group formed the Steilacoom Tribal Museum Association, 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization in 2019.[13]

See also

Notes
  1. Indian Claims Commission (1978), page 332.
  2. Pritzker 261
  3. Indian Claims Commission (1978), pages 332–33.
  4. Santoro, Nicholas (2009). Atlas of the Indian Tribes of North America and the Clash of Cultures. p. 365. ISBN 978-1440107955.
  5. Indian Claims Commission (1978), page 333.
  6. Collins, Cary (2013). A Guide to the Indian Tribes of the Pacific Northwest. University of Oklahoma Press.
  7. Indian Claims Commission (1978), page 334.
  8. Artman, Carl J. (March 12, 2008). "Summary under the Criteria and Evidence for the Final Determination against Federal Acknowledgment of the Steilacoom Tribe of Indians" (PDF). Bureau of Indian Affairs. US Department of the Interior. Retrieved January 21, 2022.
  9. "Steilacoom Tribe". steilacoomtribe.blogspot.com. Retrieved October 8, 2022.
  10. "Indian Entities Recognized by and Eligible To Receive Services From the United States Bureau of Indian Affairs". Indian Affairs Bureau. Federal Register. January 21, 2022. pp. 7554–58. Retrieved January 21, 2022.
  11. "State Recognized Tribes". National Conference of State Legislatures. Retrieved January 21, 2022.
  12. Davis, Mary (2014). Native America in the Twentieth Century: An Encyclopedia. Routledge.
  13. "Steilacoom Tribal Museum Association". GuideStar. Retrieved January 21, 2022.

References
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