Drafter
Clerk 02/16/2023
Title
A MOTION pledging support for efforts by the Duwamish Tribe to achieve status as a federally recognized tribe and urging residents of King County to join in bringing attention to and supporting efforts for Duwamish Tribe federal recognition.
Body
WHEREAS, the Duwamish people have lived in the King County area for time immemorial and the county's largest city carries the name of Chief Seattle, Si'ahl, who was chief of the Duwamish and Suquamish tribes, and
WHEREAS, Chief Seattle was the lead signatory of the Treaty of Point Elliott in 1855, which led to United States settlement in the Salish Sea area, and
WHEREAS, on February 7, 1865, ten years after local tribes signed the Treaty of Point Elliott forcing cession of most of their land to white settlers, the Seattle Board of Trustees adopted Ordinance No. 5, calling for the removal of Native Americans from the city, and
WHEREAS, these policies forced many Coast Salish Indigenous Peoples to move from their ancestral homelands to reservations that generally lacked cultural connection and access to employment while others, including many Duwamish families, continued living on Duwamish aboriginal territory, which includes Seattle, Burien, Tukwila, Renton and Redmond, and
WHEREAS, in 2015, the King County council recognized the harm caused by this racist policy by proclaiming February 7 as Native American Expulsion Remembrance Day in King County, and
WHEREAS, the Duwamish Tribe, a treaty tribe, has been repeatedly recognized by the United States since treaty time, the United States government has continued to leave the Duwamish off of its official list of federally recognized tribes, and
WHEREAS, the United States government's official position on the Duwamish Tribe has been held in court limbo for two decades, and
WHEREAS, the federal government formally recognizes nearly six hundred other Native American tribes and bands, and
WHEREAS, federally recognized tribes have access ...

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