Comprising nearly 5,000 wooded and marshy acres, the Skokomish Indian Reservation lies on the Skokomish River delta, where it empties into
Hood Canal on the
Olympic Peninsula in
Washington. It lies between the
Mason County cities of
Shelton and
Hoodsport.
A brief history
The aboriginal name of the Skokomish tribal members was Twana, which referred to a larger population that lived in the Hood Canal drainage before contact with Europeans and the creation of the reservation. The term Skokomish (or big river people) refers to the largest Twana group, which resided in villages along the Skokomish River and its north fork. It was but one of nine bands that shared a region, culture and language. The Twana language, or tuwaduqutSid, is a southern Puget Sound dialect of the Salish language family.
Like the other Twana bands, the basic social unit of the Skokomish was the extended family, which might include relatives from other villages, or even members of bands outside the Twana area. Villages consisted of one or more such families.
The Skokomish led a nomadic mode of existence, using movable warm weather camps, then regrouping in permanent cold weather villages. The Skokomish River and Hood Canal area was a source of subsistence foods, which included salmon, steelhead, other finned species and shellfish. Their hunting grounds reached to the Olympic Mountains in the west, and south to the neighboring Sahewamish tribe's main village, which is present-day Shelton. They also gathered plant foods.
History records the Skokomishs' initial encounter with European culture in 1792. White explorers, trappers and traders were unwitting carriers of diseases to which indigenous peoples had no immunity. The Skokomish were hit with a withering smallpox epidemic that claimed the lives of numerous members.
In the 1800s, the growing hegemony of the white culture, hungry for land and other resources as it moved westward, exerted tremendous pressure on indigenous cultures. One result was the signing of several treaties with the U.S. government that called for the native signatories to cede vast tracts of their homelands in exchange for reservations set aside for their protection, and the promise of federal benefits. The Skokomish Indian Reservation was established by the Point-No-Point Treaty on January 26, 1855. It was ratified by Congress on April 29, 1859, then expanded by a presidential executive order on February 25, 1874.
Beginning at the turn of the century, the Skokomish confronted a number of fresh difficulties:
At around 1900, a businessman from Tacoma, Washington, procured land at the mouth of the Skokomish River. Earthmoving that followed destroyed such plant species as the sweetgrass prized by Skokomish women for their basketry.
Meanwhile, the State of Washington's jurisdictional claims over tidelands seriously limited the tribe's subsistence shellfish gathering tradition.
Between 1926 and 1930, the City of Tacoma erected two dams on the Skokomish River's north fork, which resulted in increased limitations on the tribe's saltwater access and the ruination of significant cultural sites.
Lastly, a choice shoreline tract was used by the state to create Potlatch State Park in 1960.
All of the foregoing provoked the Skokomish to file land claims in the courts. In 1965, compensation in the amount of $374,000 would be earmarked by the tribe to purchase a fish processing facility, as well as tribal housing. On the strength of treaty guarantees, the tribe also successfully regained fishing rights as a result of the historic Boldt Decision (1974), which ruled that 50 percent of the season's harvest would be reserved for them as well as other Northwest tribes.
Years of flooding on tribal lands damaged numerous community buildings, businesses and homes, as well as highways and smaller roads. Responding to the impacts, the tribe dedicated a 338-acre tract in 2003 to a significant economic and community development effort involving a new community center and housing complex.
The Skokomish today
The tribe consists of nearly 800 enrolled members, whose governing body is the Skokomish General Council comprising all enrolled members 18 years and older. The council convenes every three months, but will meet at other times as needed. The tribe's governance, administrative and business affairs are the province of the Skokomish Tribal Council, which convenes every week. The council is a seven-member unit elected by the general council to function as their executive arm.
In addition to administrative departments, the tribe operates the following programs:
Cultural resources
Fisheries
Head Start and child care
Health services
Higher education
Public safety
Social services.
Numerous tribal members earn their living in the fishing and logging sectors. The tribe maintains its own businesses, including a fish hatchery and a gas station/convenience store. The Twana Trade Center includes the Twin Totems Grocery & Deli, and the Lucky Dog Casino. The tribe has pursued its ventures according to an economic development plan since 1981.
The tribe also operates the Skokomish Health Center, a primary medical and dental care facility in Shelton, completed in July 1995.
The reservation's Tribal Historic Preservation Office is charged with preserving the cultural riches of all the Twana people. To that end, the Skokomish Tribal Center displays and exhibits their history, traditions and customs. In addition, a number of rituals dormant for better than seven decades have been revived, beginning in the late 1970s. Today's carving, basketweaving and dance projects exemplify the revived interest in traditional arts. In addition, the Skokomish participate in a major regional canoe journey and enjoy the annual Elders' Picnic and Chum Run.