Topic: Northwest Indians
For thousands of years, people who lived on Lake Washington have used its waters in their daily lives. In the last 150 years, the methods of crossing the lake to transport goods and people from one si...
Jacques Raphael Finlay, a Canadian fur trader commonly known as Jaco, crossed the Continental Divide in modern-day Alberta and reached the upper Columbia River during the summer of 1806. Working as an...
There were no fewer than four outposts named Fort Walla Walla, but the last and most enduring was established as a cavalry post on March 18, 1858. This military reservation housed soldiers who would f...
The era of the treaty wars in Washington Territory lasted from 1855-1856.Territorial Governor and Superintendent of Indian Affairs Isaac Stevens (1818-1862) ordered the building of forts and blockhous...
Billy Frank Jr. served as chair of the Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission (NWIFC) for most of its first 30 years. He committed his life to protecting his Nisqually people's traditional way of life ...
Garry oaks, the only native oaks in Washington, grow west of the Cascades and along the Columbia River below The Dalles. Although acorns were a staple food for Native Americans in California and to a ...
Ginkgo Petrified Forest State Park contains the remains of one of the most unusual fossil forests in the world. It was set aside as a historic preserve in the 1930s, after highway construction crews w...
Bernie "Kai Kai" Gobin (his Indian name means "blue jay" or "wise one") was a fisherman, artist, musician, and political leader on the Tulalip Reservation, where he lived most of his life. Gobin's for...
The discovery of gold in California in 1848 sent would-be millionaires on a quest for treasure throughout the West. By 1900, major strikes had been made in Oregon, Idaho, Nevada, Alaska, and western C...
Cecile Ann Hansen -- a descendant within the family of Chief Si 'ahl ("Chief Seattle") -- has served as the elected chair of her people since 1975. During those decades the Duwamish (or in the Salish ...
Vi Hilbert, a member of the Upper Skagit tribe, had as her life's work to preserve the Lushootseed (Puget Salish) language and culture. Vi learned Lushootseed (the language of Chief Seattle) as a chil...
Jacob Ziontz, was a tenth-grade student in teacher Mikael Christensen's class at Shorewood High School when he won the 2010 HistoryLink.org award, senior division, for this essay on the history of Pac...
Kendal Crawford, a 14-year-old eighth-grade student at Canyon Park Junior High School in the Northshore district, won first place in the Junior Division, Historical Paper Category, of the 2008 North P...
Jacob Bruce, a 12-year-old student in the 7th Grade at Kingston Junior High School, won second place in the 2007 History Day competition with this essay on Native American fishing rights.
Archaeological finds in various locations across Washington have helped scientists learn about how the earliest residents of this state lived. (This essay was written for students in third and fourth ...
Bill Holm was curator emeritus of Northwest Indian art at the Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture in Seattle, a professor emeritus of art and anthropology at the University of Washington, and ...
The Hudson's Bay Company, a fur-trading enterprise headquartered in London, began operations on the shores of Hudson Bay in 1670. During the next century and a half, it gradually expanded its network ...
There is a place on the lower southwestern slopes of Mt. Rainier that has been called one of the "loveliest alpine meadows and probably the most famous single view of the mountain" (Spring and Manning...
Hops, the bitter plant used for beer flavoring, were in high demand in national and international markets in the last half of the nineteenth century, and conditions in river valleys of the Puget Sound...
Bill James, a Lummi textile and basket weaver, environmental activist, and tribal historian, absorbed the artistic and cultural traditions of his tribe as a means to both revitalize Coast Salish weavi...
The first Japanese known to have visited what is now Washington arrived in a dismasted, rudderless ship that ran aground on the northernmost tip of the Olympic Peninsula sometime in January 1834. The ...
One of perhaps 100 Native American architects in the United States, architect Johnpaul Jones has manifested his Choctaw/Cherokee heritage in the creation of an internationally significant legacy of pr...
Chief Charles Jules (Schay nam'kin) was held in high regard by members of the Snohomish and related bands that would eventually become the Tulalip Tribes, as well as by his white contemporaries. Jules...
Claudia Kauffman was the first woman Native American elected to the Washington State Senate. She was raised in the Beacon Hill neighborhood of Seattle where her mother, Josephine, championed American ...