Sauk-Suiattle Tribe

 

Picture of Sauk-Suiattle Health Facility If Available

 

Sauk-Suiattle Tribe
Sauk-Suiattle Tribal Community Clinic
5318 Chief Brown Lane
Darrington WA 98241
Phone: 360-436-1124
Fax: 360-436-0242
Webpage: www.sauk-suiattle.com

About the Clinic

Location
The clinic has 611 SF and is owned and operated by the Tribe. The Tribe's Contract Health Service Delivery Area (CHSDA) is Snohomish and Skagit Counties. The enrolled tribal population is 183 and the Indian population living on or near the reservation is 273.

Services/Programs/Hospitals
The Tribe operates a small outpatient clinic with a public health nurse that provides direct medical care four days per week. Additional medical care is available via a "fee for service" contract, with the Darrington Health Clinic. The Tribe also operates programs: elder care, alcohol/substance abuse, mental health and social services and youth intervention services. The Tribe does not bill Medicare or Medicaid. Programs are operated under a P.L. 93-638, Title I contract with the IHS.

Patients
The active health clinic user population is 175. The leading causes of death are heart disease, malignant neoplasm, cirrhosis of the liver, accidents other than motor vehicle, and cerebrovascular disease. There were 65 Active users in 2002.

 

About the Tribe

History
The Sauk-Suiattle Indian Tribe is a Puget Sound Salish speaking group. They lived along the Sauk and Suiattle rivers, tributaries of the Skagit River. The Tribe fished for salmon, a staple in their diet, in the Sauk, Suiattle, and Cascade Rivers by using gaff hooks, spears, and net and fish weirs. The Tribe also hunted game and gathered wild berries and roots. Like many of the coastal tribes the Sauk-Suiattle built permanent winter homes from split red cedar planks. The Tribe elects a seven member Tribal Council to staggered three-year terms. The Sauk-Suiattle Tribe has a constitution, by-laws, fishing, and election ordinance and law and order code. The Reservation consists of two parcels in Skagit and Snohomish Counties with a total of 23 acres.

About the Area

Geography
City: Darrington, population 11,020, elevation 527 ft. County: Snohomish, population 393,600, Native American 4,412, 15% of non-white population, 1% of total. 2,098 square miles extending from Puget Sound to Cascades. Rainfall (Everett) 45.2 inches, temperatures 42-59. Assessed value of Snohomish County averages $10,922 an acre. Principal industries: Transportation equipment (Boeing), wood products, food processing, electronics. County: Skagit, population 69,500, Native American 1,484, 32% of non-white or 2% of total population. 1,735 square miles. (County extends inland to the Cascades from Rosario Strait at Anacortes and Mt. Vernon.) Assessed value of Skagit County averages $2,463 Principal industries: Wood products, petroleum and coal processing, food processing, agriculture.

Climate
Rainfall (Mt. Vernon) 32.2 inches. Average Temperatures 41-60.

Other Information

Members
237 enrolled members.

Other Offices and Programs
One multi-purpose building that houses administration, pre-school, and housing at the main address.

Total Tribal Employees
45.

 

 

 

Swinomish Tribe

History
The reservation was created by the Point Elliott Treaty of 1855. An executive order of September 9, 1873 clarified the northern boundary and added 59.73 acres establishing the 7,448.80-acre reservation. The people were influenced by Roman Catholic missionaries. Many of the people moved around various areas in Puget Sound seeking employment. They came into conflict with white settlers because of land. In 1884 three quarters of Indians on the reservation were engaged in farming, logging, and milling.

Government
The Swinomish voted to accept the Indian Reorganization Act on November 16, 1935. The constitution was adopted and the governing body is the Swinomish Indian Senate. The tribe filed a claim for an alteration in its reservation. They want it as promised to them in the Point Elliott Treaty of 1855. On June 21, 1971 Indian Claims Commission ordered that the petition be dismissed.

 

 

 

Sauk-Suiattle Tribe

Traditionally, the Sauk-Suiattle Indian Tribe lived along tributaries of the Skagit River in Washington State. Our ancestors fished for salmon, hunted game, and gathered wild berries and roots. Our people built permanent winter homes from split red cedar planks.

The Sauk-Suiattle Tribe was "federally recognized" as a Tribal governing body September 17, 1975. Our Tribe received reservation status on July 9, 1984 for a 15-acre reservation. Today, the reservation comprises 84 acres of which 23 acres are in trust and the remaining acreage is in the process of being placed in trust. We currently have a membership of 233 enrolled tribal members.

The Tribe operates an outpatient clinic, the Saux-Suiattle Tribal Health Facility, in Darrington, Washington. In 1998, the user population was 134. Our services include:

picture of Sauk-Suiattle Health ClinicContact Information:
Sauk-Suiattle Health Clinic
5318 Chief Brown Lane, Box 1
Darrington, Washington 98241
Phone: 360-436-1124

 

 

 


The Sauk-Suiattle Indian people lived under the gaze of Whitehorse Mountain for many generations. We lived as hunters, gathers and fishermen in the region of Sauk Prairie near the present-day town of Darrington, Washington. In the early days, we were known as the Sah-Ku-Me-Hu.



We were canoe people, plying the swift waters of the Sauk, Suiattle, Stillaguamish, Cascade and Skagit Rivers in our river canoes. Though our homelands were in the foothills of the North Cascades, we often traveled downriver to Puget Sound. There we harvested fish, shellfish and other foods not available in the mountains. We even voyaged in large seagoing canoes.



We also traveled over the mountains to gather food, herbs and other necessities. We became skilled horsemen, trading with tribes from Eastern Washington. Our free roaming horses grazed among our relatives there.



Our Homelands were the entire drainage area of the Sauk, Suiattle and Cascade Rivers. We had an important village at Sauk Prairie near the confluence of the Sauk and Suiattle Rivers. The village consisted of eight traditional cedar longhouses which were destroyed in 1884 by early non-Indian settlers who had laid claim to these lands under the U.S. Homestead Act.



We thus became a landless people, but continued to lived in scattered groups close to our traditional homelands. Though many of our tribal members left the area or joined other neighboring tribes during our exodus, we maintained our tribal government, our social structure, our identity, and most importantly, our hope for the future



Our tribal membership numbered around 4,000 before 1855, and by 1924 our numbers had dwindled to 18 members. Residents in the Sauk Suiattle Indian Reservation are the surviving descendents of the original peoples who lived in this special valley. Our current membership numbers around 200 individuals. The Sauk Suiattle Indian Tribe's enrollment requirements is one quarter Indian Blood and proof of decendency from the ancestral native Americans who inhabited this unique valley recorded in the 1942 United States Census.

Contact Person: Jason L. Joseph, Chairman

Sauk-Suiattle Indian Tribe
(360)436-0131
5318 Chief Brown Lane
Darrington, Washington 98241