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| Additional Information |
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| Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) |
| Which tribes live at Tulalip? |
| Where did the name Tulalip come from? |
| Where is the reservation located? |
| Do you observe customs from your past? |
| What type of houses did you live in? |
| What was your method of travel? |
| What is your language? |
| Which tribes live at Tulalip? |
| Tulalip is a place where the government set up a reservation for the Snohomish, Snoqualmie, Skykomish, and other allied tribes and bands signatory to the Treaty of Point Elliott. We are one of the Coast Salish Tribes of Puget Sound. |
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| Where did the name Tulalip come from? |
The Salish word for Tulalip is  ,
which means "small-mouthed bay" and refers to the nearly landlocked nature of the cove. History books credit Captain Vancouver with discovering Tulalip Bay in 1794, almost by accident when his ship "Discovery" ran aground on a sand bar. According to his own journals on June 4, 1792 when he came ashore he found these first settlers "...helpful and non-threatening." |
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| Where is the reservation located? |
| We are located 30 miles north of Seattle right off of I-5, and west of Marysville, Washington. See map on the right. |
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| Do you observe customs from your past? |
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We observe the following customs:
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| What type of houses did you live in? |
| Nowadays we live in modern houses, but in the old days we
had both gable roof and shed roof houses. The gable roof house is more like our longhouse here at Tulalip. It was for the wealthy and the shed roof was for the common people. We now only use the longhouse for our ceremonies - we do not live there. We still have a longhouse at Tulalip Bay that we use for our ceremonies. The current longhouse was built by: Lawrence Williams, Tom Reeves, Herman Williams, Sr., Francis Sheldon, Bernard Gobin, Ralph Jones, Clyde Williams, Sr., Myron Fryberg, Sr., Leroy Fryberg, Sr. and Arley Williams, all tribal members. They were assisted by Marvin Turk who donated his bulldozer and time to lift the poles into place, and PUD who dug the holes for the poles. Ace Wester consulted for the roof. In the old days the Indian people lived in longhouses, but during warm weather the Coastal Salish tribes of Puget Sound followed the game and fish runs erecting temporary encampments that could be moved quickly. They made these temporary house out of cattail or tulle mats. |
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| What was your method of travel? |
| A long time ago our ancestors traveled by canoe,
and these canoes were built by hand out of cedar. The big sister
canoe was carved by Jerry Jones, Master Carver and Joe Gobin.
The little sister was carved by Jerry Jones. This canoe has
gone on journeys for the past four years to other reservations,
and nations in Canada. Please click here to see pictures of the canoes on the Master Carver's brochure. Some of the hats and paddles the canoe pullers are wearing and using were made in the classes given by our Rediscovery Program. |
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| What is your language? |
| Our language language here at Tulalip is Lushootseed
- Coastal Salish. At Tulalip Cultural Resources we have one
Master Language teacher and 8 language teachers. They go into
our schools here at Tulalip to help teach the children Lushootseed.
They also offer college level courses for adults. You can visit
the Lushootseed Language homepage here. Our Rediscovery Coordinator has basket, beading, art, carving, etc., classes to try to bring back our culture. Our language and our crafts were almost lost when our children were forced to go to the government's boarding school. Our children that were at boarding school were punished if they talked the language or did anything that involved our culture. |
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