Snoqualmie Ethnicity: Community and Continuity

Abstract

This study seeks to analyze the extent to which the Snoqualmie Indians have maintained a sense of identity and community in the presence of severe opposition, including the loss of aboriginal villages, reduction in subsistence resources, and persistent pressure for assimilation. It proposes to measure the membership's perception of their identity and community in several significant areas: social networks, political participation, tribal leadership, religious symbols, and symbols of identity. Three divisions of this document include a section addressing the theoretical idea of ethnicity and community, a section describing individual perceptions of social organization and ethnic boundaries in the 1990s, and a section analyzing responses to a survey questionnaire on identity and community. Many Snoqualmie Indians continue to live within their aboriginal territory, the Snoqualmie River drainage system, between Monroe and North Bend, Washington, some twenty-five miles east of the city of Seattle. The Snoqualmies signed the Point Elliott Treaty, ratified April 11, 1859, which granted the tribe reservation lands. They were prohibited from moving to the reservation due to inadequate subsistence resources, poor soil for agriculture, and lack of governmental funds.' In 1937, Indian Agent E. M. Johnston proposed a 10,240-acre reservation at the mouth of the Tolt River, but World War II erupted and the national emergency took precedence.2 Nevertheless, the Snoqualmies are listed in the Congressional Record in 1953 as a recognized tribe. However, at some later date the Bureau of Indian Affairs, in direct disregard of congressional powers, dropped the Snoqualmies from the federal list of recognized tribes without any record or rationalization of the action.4 Consequently, the Snoqualmies went through the governmental process and received federal recognition on August 22, 1997. Their recognition is now being challenged in the Indian Review Court. Additional data concerning the history and social organization of the Snoqualmies is available in several professional journals.5 Kenneth D. Tollefson is emeritus professor of anthropology at Seattle Pacific University. Martin L. Abbott is professor of sociology and dean of the College of Arts and Science at the same university. Tollefson has done extensive research among the Duwamish, Snoqualmie, and Tlingit Tribes and was formally adopted into each tribe.