THEN AND NOW: Indian Pow-Wow and Canoe Races at Juanita Beach

Not much is known about the people who lived in the Kirkland area before the settlers arrived in the 1800s, and if any photos exist, they apparently have not emerged in the public record.

What is known is that the people who lived along Lake Washington were collectively known as the “hah-choo-AHBSH,” or people of the large lake. They were part of the larger Duwamish Tribe, which also had villages on Elliott Bay and Puget Sound.

Three villages stood on the shores of the lake in what is known now as Kirkland, and this smaller group was known as the “TAHB-tah-byook’w.” Their villages were at Yarrow Bay, at Kirkland proper and near the mouth of Juanita Creek – this latter village was called “TUHB-tuh-byook’w,” or loamy place.

All of these names are rough, likely inaccurate English translations of the native Lushootseed language, which used a variety of scratchy-sounding, voiceless "glottal" consonants uncommon in English.

Before the lake was lowered by almost nine feet in 1917 to create the Montlake Cut and Ballard Locks, the people gathered nourishing wapato bulbs each fall in the shallows of Juanita Bay.

They were long gone by the time these photos were taken in 1933, apparently by a photographer for the Eastside Journal. They are now part of the Kirkland Heritage Society’s archives and show an Indian “pow-wow” at , which featured a reenactment of the signing of the Treaty of Point Elliott in 1855.

Tribes participating included the Lummi, Snoqualmie, Skykomish, Muckleshoot, Yakama and “La Conner” (likely the Swinomish).

One photo shows Indian dugout canoe races on Juanita Bay, and the other shows Chief Hilliare of the Lummi and Chief Black Thunder of the Skykomish, possibly during the reenactment.

The Point Elliott Treaty, of course, was the original agreement between the United States and local native tribes, ratified by Congress in 1859. The tribes ceded hundreds of thousand of acres of their native lands in exchange for fishing and hunting rights and certain support by the federal government, as well as the creation of reservations.

The Duwamish tribe alone ceded 54,000 acres -- all of Lake Washington and today’s cities of Seattle, Bellevue, Renton and Kirkland.

Some day perhaps archaeological research will reveal more about the TAHB-tah-byook’w –- when they arrived, how long they occupied the villages, how they exploited the area’s resources to survive, the tools they used, their seasonal patterns, their social structures.

What little is known about the lake people can be found from various sources, including the websites here and here.

Although much remains unknown, I think what is important is that this missing part of Kirkland’s history and these people are not forgotten.