Ballard history

Early history of the Shilsholamish

By Nile Robert Thompson

Early visitors who came to the area that would become Seattle did not think of it in terms of Starbucks, Microsoft, Boeing or Costco. Those who came from the north in large war canoes, however, did view it as a land of plenty - plenty for them to plunder. These teams of hardened combatants swept down on Salish villages whose only defense was a single warrior or "tough guy". The raiding Indians from upper British Columbia and southeast Alaska changed the cultural geography of the Puget Sound and Hood Canal drainage basins in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Some villages were fortified and others moved, watch posts were established at good vantage points and new escape routes were instituted.

When white settlers arrived on central Puget Sound in the mid-1800s, they found an Indian village located on the north side of Salmon Bay, facing south toward the hill we now know as Magnolia. The name for that village, Shilshole, means "tucked away" or "concealed", indicating that it was one of the villages that was relocated to hide it from

northern raiders seeking targets on Puget Sound. This move took place only after a heavy price was paid. In their heyday, the ancestors of the Shilshole people were said to have numbered over one thousand and among neighboring tribes were "famed for [their] manly men and comely maidens." Some of the pre-history of Shilsholamish was recorded by Dr. H. A. Smith who settled at Smith Cove in 1853. The Stikine Indians of whom he speaks were from near present-day Wrangell and Petersburg, Alaska.

"[W]ithin the recollection of their old men they numbered between 500 and 600 including children ... They claimed that the cause of their rapid decline was owing to frequent raids made upon them by the Northern or Stickeen Indians, who visited the Sound each year for the purpose of plunder; that they were a very cruel people who delighted in murder and never spared prisoners except for the purpose of enslaving them ... [T]hey lived in constant dread of their northern and warlike foes ... "

Historian Clarence Bagley in addition to the killing and taking others away as slaves, the northern Indians "drove still others away from their original habitat into the interior where they lost their tribal identity in the surrounding tribes."

Archaeological evidence shows that there was long-time occupation at the base of West Point, where the sewage treatment facility is below Discovery Park. This may have been the original home of the ancestors of the Shilsholamish.

The Shilsholamish were part of the Duwamish, the large group whose territory consisted of the drainage basin containing Lake Sammamish, Lake Washington, Lake Union, the Cedar River, Black River, Green River and the White River as well as the shorelines north to Richmond Beach and south past Des Moines. Other Duwamish villages were relocated as well. For example, the village in what is now downtown Seattle was moved from a prime location in response to the raids. It was relocated from 2nd Avenue between Cherry and Spring to the backside of a small peninsula at the end of 1st Avenue. The name of the original site probably made note of the springs there which provided fresh water. The name of the new site, dZeedZalaleecH 'small portage', referred to the access route for the houses on a flounder-laden lagoon that was blocked off by tide flats. This site too was not obvious to passing marauders. The 'big portage' was a route later followed by Yesler Street over the top of First Hill and down to Lake Washington in today's Leschi neighborhood.

The Shilshole Village

In 1853 the Shilshole village divided among twelve families, living in three large communal houses. The leader of the Shilsholamish was Hu-hu-bate-sute, or Salmon Bay Curley (as opposed to Seattle Curley, who was the leader of a village in what is today Pioneer Square). He was "a tall, hawk-nosed, eagle-eyed Indian with very curly hair".

The village was located on the north side of Salmon Bay, in the area now occupied by the locks. Salmon Bay was a narrow waterway with a large run of salmon that was easily caught by spear or net. On the north side of the entrance to Salmon Bay there was a spit that served as a major clam gathering site. At least during low tide, one could walk across the mouth of Salmon Bay to the opposite shore. The Shilsholamish name for Meadow Point (site of Golden Gardens Park) translates as 'canoe' and probably indicates is use as a storage area for the villages larger canoes that were used on Puget Sound.

On the hill to the west of the north end of today's railroad bridge was the village cemetery. The dead were not buried but rather were placed in canoes that were fastened to trees. The cemetery was located to the west of the village because the spirits of the dead traveled to the west as they left this world and it was not safe to be in their line of travel. A sentry was positioned at the crest of the hill to the north of the cemetery where he could scan north along the shoreline for any incoming northern raiders. Upon alert, members of the village would run into the woods and hide for three days before sending a scout out to look.

Salmon Bay Curley and Early Settlers

Even though white settlement began before the issue of Indian title to the land was resolved, Salmon Bay Curley became a "staunch friend" of the settlers, including Ira Utter who settled near his village. When the headman of a Lake Washington village learned that a group of Indians (said to have been Snohomish) had murdered and robbed a white man on the east shore Lake Union in 1853, he took the news to Salmon Bay Curley. Curley brought the news of the murder to a council of chiefs and then informed the white citizens of Seattle.

Once the Americans arrived, the Shilsholamish purchased or traded from them "flour, beans, rice, clothes, and blankets ..." The Duwamish ceded land to the United States in a January 1855 treaty in exchange for certain guarantees (an agreement the Bureau of Indian Affairs has turned a blind eye to since the mid-1970s). Salmon Bay Curley is credited with having a hand in saving the young town of Seattle in January 1856 during the war that followed treaty signings.

"About 2,500 of our Indians and east of the mountain Indians had that night come into the woods back of Seattle. Salmon Bay Curley, an Indian from Salmon Bay, walked through the darkness of the night and came to my house in Seattle and told me the Indians were then in the timber back of town, and said we would be attacked next morning about 7 o'clock, while we were at breakfast. He told me to report this to the officers that night, which I did." (Eli B. Mapel)

"Thlid Kanem or "Cut-Hand" sent Lake John Che-shi-a-hud to Shilshole to inform this "Curley," who lived there, of the intended attack on Seattle. Curley told Ira W. Utter, a white settler on Shilshole or Salmon Bay, and brought him up to Seattle in his own canoe during the night." (Emily Inez Denny)

The Territorial War was fought in part in Ballard. Despite his friendship with Curley, Utter's cabin was burned down (as was William Bell's cabin in today's Belltown) and with it his harvest of 200 bushels of potatoes lost. There was also a brief battle, according to one of the settlers who volunteered to serve in the territorial militia.

"We scouted the whole country over. ... We had one skirmish on Salmon Bay. The Indians were in canoes and we were in hiding on shore. At least four of them fell into the water. One of our men was wounded in the shoulder." (Eli B. Mapel)

A Changed Landscape

After the end of the Territorial War and ratification of the treaty, some of the Shilsholamish moved onto the Port Madison Reservation on the Kitsap Peninsula. So, by the late 19th century, the Shilsholamish settlement was greatly reduced in number and the large communal houses were gone. Residents now resided in what were described as small shacks. The main village was still on the north side of Salmon Bay but there was also a small house on both the north and south side of the bay's opening. The lumber and other building materials for their dwellings were purchased by selling items to the white residents of Ballard (such as clams, fish and canoes) or commercial gathering in the Puyallup Valley (picking berries and hops).

"Always near the Indian was a band of scrawny dogs who enjoyed stealing chickens ..." Although Ballard residents found it acceptable to buy food from the Shilsholamish ("Everyone bought clams from Indian Charlie or Johnny"), some drew the line at allowing their offspring to play with Indian children. Both the Shilsholamish and the Ballard residents viewed themselves as living within their own communities; one was either in the Indian village or in town, the two were not parts of a whole. This was clear in 1890 when recently incorporated Ballard only extended as far west as what is now 26th Avenue. The north-south divider may have been the railroad track that serviced the mills. Settlers did not understand a number of Salish customs, such as providing to others who were needy when you had a surplus or raising ones status by giving freely to visitors. Ballard resident Margaret Wandry described the conflict in value systems:

"[T]he Indians often called on the unsociable whites. Often seeing the window blinds drawn down before their eyes, letting them know thee were not wanted or that the white folks were not at home to them. This was because a white person who was good to them became more or less good for all their friends to call upon. Thus I recall several [Indian] families coming up the road, expecting to have coffee and what ever there was in the cupboard, staying often in the yard or about the house until the hostess was indeed tired."

Relatives who had moved away to the Port Madison Reservation continued to return for the annual salmon runs. "Ballard always saw a gathering on the brow [of the hill at the north end today's railroad bridge], where camp was made each fall." There they dried salmon and clams to take back with them.

By the 1890s, the only the land south of today's 65th Street had been cleared. The Indians of the Shilshole village had to travel beyond 65th to the wooded areas to gather the plants they used in their daily lives. Eli Hamblet and his wife Mary (a Tsimshian Indian) in 1889 purchased the land from NW 67th to NW 70th between 15th and 12th NW. Indians would walk to the Hamblets in the 1890s. Below that they fished for salmon in a beautiful, deep creek (that in more recent times passed Whittier School on its way to the sewer under 11th Northwest).

Other Notable Shilsholamish

Often Indian residents who stayed on as new towns sprang up around them or married into that white community were anonymous. In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries there were several exceptions to this rule among the remaining Shilsholamish. These individuals were known as Doctor Jim, Old John, Mrs. Scheurman, Salmon Bay Charlie and Madeline.

The spirit doctor or shaman of the Shilsholamish was known as Doctor Jim who "quite renowned for his many astonishing cures." Considered by the settlers to be "a superior Siwash, manly, fine-looking and intelligent," Jim learned to speak English fluently. Jim and his wife lived in a small cabin at the mouth of Salmon Bay, possibly on the north shore. About 1880, "he grew weary of this world and left it by hanging himself to a rafter in his own house ... one morning while his old wife was preparing breakfast."

A number of white males moving into early-day Ballard found wives among the Shilsholamish. One Indian woman, whose Indian name has been lost, was married Christian Scheurman, an early German settler living on northern Magnolia. She was thought by some to have been a Shilsholamish, although there may not be any remaining evidence to prove if she was or wasn't. She had ten children with Scheurman before she died in 1884.

Another older Indian well-known to the settlers of Ballard in the 1890s was called variously John, Old John, Crab John or Johnny. He, his wife, mother and children would come to Ballard Avenue from the Indian settlement and spend the day selling clams, crabs, fish baskets, trinkets and jewelry. John would call out to women passing by: "A Salmon [for] ten cents, Lady!" They then used the money they earned to buy needed goods from shops along the street.

Salmon Bay Charlie (also known as Siwash Charlie or Indian Charlie), or Hwehlchtid, and his wife Madeline, or ChilohleeTSa, lived in a small cedar cabin, reportedly constructed in 1864, on the south shore of the entrance to Salmon Bay. He became Seattle's most popular and most photographed Indian after the death of Chief Seattle's daughter, Princess Angeline, in 1896. By the 1890's Charlie and Madeline's house was a landmark. It was said that around 1900 they hosted one of the last potlatches in the area. Charlie, whose father was Shilsholamish and mother from the Samish tribe, sold salmon (a three to four foot one went for five cents), clams and berries to the early residents of Ballard and also at Fort Lawton.

Charlie was a favorite of the children of Ballard and Magnolia because he devoted much time to talking with them. Ballard resident Ike Hansen (born about 1892) recalled that "a man called Indian Charlie delighted in spinning tales for school kids [and] showing them his scars from the Indian wars." (Charlie might just have been one of the four Indians shot in the Salmon Bay Skirmish.) Charlie also took time to make a bow and arrow set for at least one white child.

In 1907, when Ballard was annexed into Seattle, there was still a strong Indians presence on Salmon Bay. Less than a decade later, however, the makeup of the community had completely changed after the Shilsholamish were forced from their homes.

Nile Thompson, Ph.D. has graduate degrees in linguistics and anthropology. For the past 30 years he has worked with numerous Pacific Northwest tribes with language preservation, museum exhibits and interpretation, achieving federal official tribal acknowledgment, and documenting pre-contact place names and resource utilization. Dr. Thompson is the managing partner of Ballard based Dushuyay Research. He is adjunct faculty at North Seattle Community College and has taught at several local colleges. Dr. Thompson is credited with the original research on the Native Residents of Salmon Bay that was first published in Passport to Ballard. His research work has appeared in regional and national publications. He recently co-authored with is wife Carolyn Marr, Building for Learning: Seattle Public School Histories, 1862-2000. Dr. Thompson makes his home in Ballard with his wife and children.

Editor's Note: This history of the Shilshole people is another article in a continuing series on Ballard's history by expert historians who have studied the subject. This article covers the Shilshole from before contact with the while man until 1907.