The Puyallup (; ) are a Lushootseed-speaking Southern Coast Salish people indigenous to the Puget Sound region of Washington state. They are primarily enrolled in and represented by the Puyallup Tribe of Indians, a federally-recognized Indian tribe located near Tacoma.
For centuries, the Puyallup and their sub-groups had several villages along the Puyallup River and the nearby coastline. Each village was autonomous, but united in a shared culture, language, and history. In 1854, the Puyallup were signatories to the Treaty of Medicine Creek, which ceded their land to the United States in return for the Puyallup Reservation and several other treaty rights. Following the controversial treaty, they participated in the Puget Sound War, eventually resulting in the 1856 Fox Island Council which increased the size of their reservation. Since then, the Puyallup people have continued to fight for their language, culture, and treaty rights.
Name and etymology The name "Puyallup" is an anglicization of the Lushootseed word . The name means "people of the bend (at the bottom of the river)," literally , from the root ; the suffix ; and the suffix , and refers to the way that the Puyallup people live on the winding river. The name refers to the population center of the Puyallup near the mouth of the Puyallup River near what is now downtown Tacoma. According to anthropologist Marian Smith, the name on its own refers to Puyallup River (specifically the area downriver of its confluence with the Carbon River), meaning "bend at the bottom". However, this is contested by linguist T. T. Waterman, who says that the name is restricted only to a specific location below a bluff, where the river used to flow, and the location of a former village.
The name traditionally referred to two groups: the Puyallup proper (also sometimes called the "real" Puyallup), who had four villages near the mouth of the Puyallup River, as well as the other peoples who were not exactly, but did live along the upper Puyallup drainage. Today, the term even more broadly refers to any people who moved to the Puyallup Reservation, which included peoples who did not live along the Puyallup River, such as the Homamish, Shotlemamish, and Steilacoom.
Classification and subgroups The Puyallup are a Southern Coast Salish people, along with the other Lushootseed-speaking peoples and the Twana. The broader Coast Salish are a group of linguistically and ethnically related peoples along the Northwest Coast, generally centered around the Salish Sea and its tributaries. Although they have different languages, customs, and cultures, they share many broader cultural elements. Among the Southern Coast Salish, the nations are linked by strong cultural, linguistic, ceremonial, and family ties. Historically, they were also linked through alliances, marriages, joint feasting, and territorial usage.
The peoples of the Puget Sound traditionally classed themselves into broader ethnic units stemming from their relationships to the land. While all Puyallup villages were , i.e., from the Puyallup River, they were part of several larger units that modern anthropologists have classed as ethnic groups: saltwater people, river people, prairie people, and inland people. While the people of the village identified as saltwater people, the other three Puyallup villages were river people.
Prior to the reservation period, all peoples living along the Puyallup River were seen as belonging to the Puyallup in a broad sense. However, they were indeed their own sovereign villages who were not controlled by the Puyallup proper. Today, they may be classified as "subgroups" or "bands" of the Puyallup, although this is somewhat anachronistic, as the many villages along the coastline and rivers of Puget Sound formed a continuous weave far beyond the Puyallup, linking neighboring autonomous villages to one another up and down the coast.
Puyallup River peoples The had their village on Hylebos Creek in Fife Heights. Formerly, the creek was used primarily for fishing silver salmon. Their name is derived from the Lushootseed name of Hylebos Creek, .
The were a band centered on Clarks Creek, the location of their village. They were allied closely with a Steilacoom village on Clover Creek. Their name is derived from , the name of Clarks Creek.
The (also recorded , and not to be confused with the identically named (Squinamish) on the Skagit River) had a village at the mouth of Simons Creek, where it entered Wapato Creek. The name is derived from the name of Simons Creek, which is .
The Stuck people (), (also called the Stuck River people; not to be confused with the Stkamish, a nearby people living on the Green River), had their main village near the confluence of the Puyallup and Stuck rivers, close to what is now Sumner. The name, , derived from the name of the Stuck River itself, . This references how the Stuck River once flowed down the Wapato Creek bed, rather than directly into the Puyallup River as it does today. The village was originally located along that channel, but moved to the contemporary confluence after the river's flow changed. According to Puyallup oral tradition, whales were trapped inland, and in their attempts to gain access to the sound, they created the valley through which the Stuck flows. This village was closely allied to the Duwamish and Smulkamish.
One group of people, whose exact name is uncertain, had their village on the upper Puyallup River, above its confluence with the Carbon River. Their name, which is "identical" to , according to T.T. Waterman, is unclear to modern scholars. According to Marian Smith, it is derived from the name of the Puyallup River above the Carbon River. However, according to Waterman, it is only the name of a creek near the Puyallup River. According to oral tradition, the name is derived from the words of a girl who was occasionally seen in the area. It was suspected she was a , or at least captured by the , creatures in indigenous Puget Sound folk tales which stalk the forests at night, whistling to imitate birds. They capture women, and the girl in the stories was believed to be held captive by . When she was spotted, the only word she could be heard saying was the name of the stream, or, alternatively, the upper Puyallup River.
Tkwakwamish () is the broad term for all the villages along the upper Puyallup drainage system, including the Carbon River, according to some anthropologists. Specifically, it is the name of a group of people whose village was located north-west of Orting, near where Vogt Creek enters the Carbon River. The name is derived from the Lushootseed name for the Carbon River, . Although this name was applied to other villages along the Carbon River and its tributaries, the Tkwakwamish proper did not control them, and the other villages were autonomous, as were the other Puyallup villages.
One such autonomous village of the Tkwakwamish was located at what is now South Prairie, near the mouth of Cole Creek. This village, although it was Tkwakwamish and Puyallup, was closely allied with the Green River peoples (Such as the Skopamish and Yilkoamish) and the Snoqualmie, and were much closer related to them than their downriver neighbors. During the reservation period, the people of this village moved to the Muckleshoot reservation, rather than the Puyallup reservation.
Homamish The Homamish (; also called the S'Homamish or Sqababsh) were not originally considered part of the Puyallup in pre-contact times, however, they had strong alliances with the Puyallup historically, and during the reservation period, they joined the Puyallup on the Puyallup Reservation and became part of the modern Puyallup people. Their territory covered southern Vashon Island and much of the coastline west of the Tacoma Narrows, until Carr Inlet. Their main village was located at , what is now Gig Harbor, and was founded many generations before the contact period by Puyallup people, likely from the group. For this reason, they were extremely closely connected with the Puyallup, especially the . They were also closely related to and allied with the Shotlemamish. Their two other villages were located on Vashon Island:
- Located at the head of Wollochet Bay, it was an "overflow" village founded by people from, and closely related to, the village. The name means "marked mouth", as it is referring to the mouth of Artondale Creek (), and is the origin of the name "Wollochet". Another village was located on Quartermaster Harbor. It was said to have been founded by a single Skagit man who married into the Homamish and nearby groups and built a large fortification with his family. He was constantly raiding the Duwamish, and, as he got older, eventually moved to the main village of sometime before 1854.
Shotlemamish The Shotlemamish (), like their Homamish neighbors, were not originally part of the Puyallup, however, as they moved to the Puyallup Reservation, they became part of the modern Puyallup people. They controlled Carr Inlet and had three villages:
– Located on the Purdy Sand Spit at Wauna, this village was the main settlement of the Shotlemamish. The name means "place of biting". The Shotlemamish also had a village at what is now Glencove. It was founded by the people from . Another village was located at the head of Burley Lagoon. The village had disappeared by the early colonial period, either from becoming extinct or the people moving to the main village at .
Steilacoom
The Steilacoom people () historically controlled the Steilacoom Creek area and the nearby shoreline. They had two villages, one located at what is now Steilacoom, and the other on Clover Creek. They may have had another village, located at the present site of Spanaway. The Steilacoom were also closely tied with the Nisqually.
History According to Puyallup tradition, the Puyallup people were created by , the Changer. is the figure in Puyallup religion who made the world the way it is today by creating the Puyallup language, making animals smaller, and teaching the people how to live.
On December 24, 1854, the Puyallup attended the Treaty of Medicine Creek at McAllister Creek (Twulshootseed: or ). Over three days, several representatives from the signatory tribes and the United States, represented by Territorial Governor Isaac Stevens, negotiated a treaty which established the 1,280-acre Puyallup reservation. The Puyallup signatories did not understand English, and the official website of the Puyallup Tribe states that it is believed that many signatures were forced or entirely forged.
The hasty treaty negotiations, poor reservation conditions, and persecution and outright murder of Native people resulted in growing tensions between several tribes and the United States. The Puyallup, along with several other tribes, fought the United States in the 1855–1856 Puget Sound War, also called the Treaty Wars or Indian Wars. During this period, the United States forced non-combatant Puyallup to be confined to Squaxin Island, to segregate them from the "hostiles". The war ended with the 1856 Fox Island Council, where a new treaty between the Puyallup and the United States was negotiated, which expanded or relocated the reservations previously established in the Treaty of Medicine Creek, in addition to the formation of the Muckleshoot Reservation.
Around 1870, a large contingent of Puyallup gamblers visited the Snoqualmie to challenge them to a large Slahal game and horse races. The Puyallup side was led by a man named . After several days of playing, the Puyallup eventually defeated the Snoqualmie, both in the races and in Slahal.
Since the Fox Island Council in 1856, the Puyallup have continued to fight for treaty rights and civil rights, and were influential in the Fish Wars leading to the Boldt Decision of 1974.
Territory and villages