Samish Tribal Profile

Samish Indian Nation
2918 Commercial Avenue
PO Box 217
Anacortes, WA 98221
360-293-6404
360-299-0790 fax
Webpage: www.samishtribe.nsn.us
Email: Samish@samishtribe.nsn.us

 

About the Clinic

Location
The Samish Indian Nation Health Services are located in Anacortes, WA with headquarters at the Tribal Administration Office at 2918 Commercial Avenue.

Services/Programs/Hospitals
The Tribe at this time provides primarily Contract Health Services, a Diabetes Project and is developing a Public Health Nurse program to reach members through home visits. The Tribe is exploring the partnerships with other medical practices in Anacortes to establish a small ambulatory clinic.

Patients
The Samish Indian Nation administration currently serves nearly 1000 enrolled tribal members who reside predominantly in Washington State with several families residing in Oregon and dispersed throughout Idaho, Montana and Alaska. Additional households are located in British Columbia, Canada..Samish currently serves only enrolled tribal members living in the IHS approved service delivery area which includes Whatcom, Skagit, San Juan, Island, Snohomish, King, Pierce, Kitsap, Jefferson & Clallam counties. There were 192 Active users in 2002.

 

About the Tribe

History
The Samish Indian Nation (Tribe or Samish) is a descendent entity of the Samish Tribe, a signatory to the Point Elliott Treaty of 1885. Following the treaty signing the Samish were to be removed to the Bellingham Bay Agency. Fearing religious oppression, the Samish refused to leave Samish Island and other area villages. The Samish maintained their villages throughout the northwest Washington islands and marine shores despite repeated conflicts with homesteaders and failures to be granted the reservation they were promised. In 1969 the Bureau of Indian Affairs made an omission of the Samish from the list of federally recognized tribes. A 27-year series of legal battles ensued in order to regain federal status, during which time the tribal members continued to scatter in search of income and opportunities. This created a tribal population that is more urban than many reservation communities in the United States.

One of the main arguments raised by the Bureau of Indian Affairs to deny the appeals by Samish leaders was the widespread geographical profile of the Samish people, implying that no real tribal community existed. Fortunately the Federal District Court judge found in favor of the Tribe possessed wrote in his opinion that in this day of electronic communication, with telephones, faxes and email linking the globe, certainly a tribal community could and indeed does exist regardless of perceived geographical barriers.

Today the Tribe is aggressively moving to reestablish its homeland and presence throughout the Tribe’s historical territory. The Tribe, with over 500 tribal members living mostly throughout the more populated areas of Puget Sound, has taken advantage of technology to conduct business and preserve the culture. All eleven Tribal Council and the 26 tribal staff members use email and computers in the course of their work. A language preservation project has digitally encoded over 60 hours of interviews with first language speakers for use as the foundation of an interactive Samish language program. Added to these accomplishments is the Tribal website, in constant revision and update. There is little doubt the Tribe is actively living up to the name Judge Torbett coined when he dubbed Samish the Cyber Tribe in his 1994 opinion.

A General Council governs the Samish. An annual General Council meeting is held the third weekend in June. The General Council gives direction to the eleven-member Tribal Council and maintains active participation through the seven Tribal Council appointed committees: Natural Resources, Health and Human Services, Housing, Personnel, Enrollment, Election and Cultural. The Samish Tribal Council envisions a virtual Indian community where each tribal member is connected to tribal government and tribal administration via telecommunications.

Tribal Culture

The Samish are people of the salt water, canoes linked the numerous villages prior to European contact, and we are bringing our people home to the culture through participation in the annual Coast Salish Tribal Journeys Canoe celebrations.
With a few fluent first speakers of the Samish language still living, the Tribe is also actively pursuing high tech methods of reintroducing the language among our widespread population through Distance Learning and web based formats.
The Samish have historically been known as master carvers and blanket weavers, and recently these skills are once again emerging from our membership.



Museums/Events/Annual Powwows/Etc

The Tribe sponsors large community events such as war canoe races, stick game tournaments, and other cultural activities at various times throughout the year. Samish sponsors a traveling canoe each summer in the two to three weeks of Tribal Journeys, the revival of the canoe family societies among neighboring Coast Salish tribes.
The Tribe hopes to develop an interpretive center in collaboration with other entities, and is involved in a project with the Smithsonian Museum to document use of the Wooly Dog fibers in traditional methods of Coast Salish blanket weaving.
The Maiden of Deception Pass story pole at Bowman’s Bay in Deception Pass State Park is dedicated to one of the most significant of our tribal stories.

 

About the Area

Geography
Anacortes is situated on Fidalgo Island, accessible by bridge to the mainland, and is often known as the gateway to the San Juan Islands via the Washington State ferry system. Seattle is 80 miles south, and Vancouver BC is 90 miles north.

Climate
A small microclimate keeps Anacortes drier than most other parts of the northwest, we have about 40 more days of sunshine than Seattle, and 12 inches less rainfall as well. Temperatures average 45 in winter, and about 70 in summer.

Points of Interest
Numerous beaches and protected forestlands provide ample opportunity for hiking, beachcombing, whale watching, kayaking and other outdoor activities. Skiing and snowboarding are available two hours away at Mt. Baker Resort.

During the first weekend in August, the annual Anacortes Arts Festival attracts art sellers and art lovers from all over the state. A weekend of art shows, children's activities, food and entertainment center around the 250 booths lining Commercial Avenue. Many small art galleries are open year round, in addition to unique shops in the old town district.

Other Information

Members
525 enrolled members.

Other Offices and Programs
Store, Bingo Hall, Police Department, Enrollment and Education, and Planning.

Total Tribal Employees
40 FTE, some seasonal part-time, about 10.

Housing
Housing is located in both the urban and rural areas within one hour of the facility. Housing availability is limited in the area immediately surrounding the clinic.

 

 

 

 

Samish Nation

History
The Samish Nation doesn't appear in the final draft of the Point Elliott Treaty of January 22, 1855. The Nuwaha chief Pateus was said to have signed the treaty for the Samishes. Other sources claimed that the Lummi chief Chowitsoot signed it for them. After the treaty was ratified the Samishes were sent to the Lummi and the Swinomish Reservations. The Samishes who chose to stay, were pushed by American soldiers to the reservations and the ones who refused were put to death. Some upper class Samish women married white men to escape cruelties. The ones who moved to the Lummi Reservation faced conflict with Lummi and Nooksack Indians. Most of the Samishes returned to their tribe, which remained on Samish Island during the 1870s. Under the treaty an area was suppose to be set aside for them on the Swinomish Reservation. Only six of 97 allotments were for Samishes though. The people found themselves outside the protection of the United States government and they were forced to move to Guemes Island. There they built a longhouse 60 by 480 feet where over 100 people lived. In 1883 they received trust patents to lands. This protected the land for 20 years ending in 1903. Many of the non-Indians wanted the land because of the fresh water spring. The Samishes were forced off their land by 1912. Some remained as squatters and others removed to various communities in Samish county. Others occupied fishing villages on Lopex and Cypress islands in San Juans. Many took allotments on Swinomish Reservation in 1885. Some moved on to the reservation after the 1900s.

Government
In 1907 the Samish people developed a political organization who met in the longhouse on Guemes Island and later in Anacortes. Then they held meetings on the Swinomish Reservation as their own tribe. In 1918 the Lower Nuwahas merged with the Samishes. In 1926 the Samishes organized under a formal constitution and bylaws. They replaced new ones in 1951, 1965 and 1974. The Samishes were a landless tribe and the federal government wouldn't recognize them as a tribe. They filed a land claim before the Indian Claims Commission in 1951. They were awarded a settlement on October 6, 1971, $5,754.96. Then in 1979 the Bureau of Indian Affairs declared the tribe extinct. A federal judge declared the tribe a viable entity. This left the door open to getting federal recognition.

Samish Indian Nation

The Mission of the Samish Indian Nation is to use the talents, knowledge and skills of tribal members to preserve & strengthen our culture and to ensure quality of life, prosperity, health and education for all members through progressive, diversified tribal and individual enterprises that sustain our Nation into the future.

Tribal departments include:

Currently, the Samish Indian Nation does not have a health facility, but operates a Contract Health Service Program for its members. User population at other health service clinics numbered 140 for 1998.

Contact Information:
Samish Indian Tribe
PO Box 217
Anacortes, WA 98221
Phone: 360-293-6404

 


 
 

 

Cultural Department

Text Box: The Maiden of Deception Pass   The Samish Nation is the descendent entity of the large and powerful Samish Nation, signatory to the Treaty of Point Elliott - 1855. The Tribes aboriginal area stretches over a wide seven-county region of Northwest Washington. This area, which includes river basins, hills and mountains, marine shorelines, woodlands, and river deltas, provides the backdrop for the Tribes history and cultural traditions.

The Samish historically occupied, hunted, fished, and gathered in what is now all of San Juan County, and parts of Whatcom, Island, Skagit, Snohomish, Clallam, and Jefferson Counties. Samish people were respected for their spiritual strength as well as their skillful carving of canoes & construction of longhouses. One of those longhouses on the eastern end of Samish Island measured some 1,250 feet in length. In 1847 the Tribe had over 2,000 members and because of the raids from Northern Tribes and the epidemics of measles, smallpox, and the ague(flu), the population of the tribe was decreased to approximately 150 at the time of the signing of the Point Elliott Treaty. History shows 113 Samish were at the Treaty grounds at the time of signing. In 1855 the Samish were not named in the preamble to the treaty but were known to the treaty commission at the time of signing. This is assumed to have been an oversight very similar to the one that again happened to the Samish in the late 1960's when a BIA clerk left them off the list of Federally Recognized Tribes. It has taken the tribe over 26 years of fighting both in and out of court to finally resolve this grievous error, finally gaining re-recognition in April 1996.

As part of a larger Coast Salish cultural complex The Samish formed a village community, which consisted of several important social groupings. These groupings can be listed as 4 units: the family, the house group, villages, and the Tribe as a whole. Samish tribal members married outside of their own units so as to create a network of "kinships". The Tribe relied on these relationships during bad times in order to be able to access areas of food and shelter that was not currently available in their home territory. Linguistically & Culturally the Tribe is grouped with the Coast Salish, speaking a language known as Straits Salish rather than Lushsootseed as some of their neighbors do.

The Samish people have access to a wide variety of food sources. Vegetable foods included sprouts, bulbs, and roots from a dozen or so species, and the berries & fruits of about 2 dozen species. Shellfish included 10 different mollusks, sea urchins, and crab. More than 20 species of fish were eaten: these included all 5 species of Pacific Salmon, steelhead trout, halibut, herring, sucker, chub and occasionally sturgeon. 2 or 3 species of upland bird were eaten and more than 40 species of waterfowl & shore birds. Some land mammals such as deer, elk, and seal were also taken.

The Samish are strong and committed people, reestablishing their homelands, strengthening their tribal identities, demonstrating stewardship, and contributing to the economy of the area. In short, the Tribe is continuing in the ways of their ancestors, carrying forth the values and visions of a strong Samish Indian Nation.

The Cultural Committee consists of tribal members: Chris DeKay/chairman, Jan Flagg/staff, Mary Hansen, Tom Wooten, Peggy Morgan, Rita Louis, Leslie Eastwood, Dee Branson, and Ken Hansen

To contact the Cultural Committee email them at samish@samishtribe.nsn.us. Make sure you put "Cultural Committee" in the subject line.