Module 02 - Tulalip Tribes Resource

In the Module 02 Cultural Based Online Resources section I discovered the link to the Tulalip cultural website.  The site is provided by the Hibulb Cultural Center and Natural History Preserve in Washington state.  The Tulalip tribes include the Snohomish, Snoqualmie, Skagit, Suiattle, Samish and Stillaguamish along with other allied tribes.

[When I read “Suiattle” I immediately thought “Seattle,” because it is Washington; it turns out that the Tulalip Reservation is about 30 miles away from Seattle (part of the mid-Puget Sound), but I wonder if one name affected the creation of the other.] 

This site contains many links to different aspects of the Hibulb Cultural Center.  There are short video clips (called the Tulalip History Minute) on the site that demonstrate various exhibits and treasured resources of the Center.  The first clip I watched told about the actual center which possesses two classrooms, a longhouse, a research library, certified collections and archeological repository, as well as having a permanent exhibit and temporary exhibit displayed.  The classrooms are used to teach the traditional language, Lushootseed, as well as other classes for basket making, beading and carving as a way to “try and bring back our culture.”

A couple of the videos showed exhibits from the Center, such as basketry (much of which is donated by families and is over a hundred years old) and photographs that they have.  There is a lot of history to be learned from this site about the Native American tribes on the West Coast.  Being from the East Coast, I loved learning more about tribes from that side of the United States. 

The Native American children were still taken away from their homes to go to boarding schools as they were all across the United States.  The video on early education provided me with knowledge about the boarding system that I had not known before; in 1907 the Tulalip boarding school contained two hundred students who were treated “as if they were in a military school.”  Not only were they subjected to inspections, and were punished for speaking their own languages, they had to work in the fields and sew their own clothes.  (This was apparently the government’s idea of teaching the children to be self-sufficient.) 

However, the people have not lost their culture entirely.  The site provides information on some of the ceremonies that are still part of Tulalip culture including the Salmon Ceremony to bless the fishing season in the summer, and the Winter Dances where all the tribes come together and the spiritual dancers perform traditional dances. 

What I also liked about this site is that many of the people in the old photographs, or who made the artifacts such as the baskets, are relatives of the people there now.  One woman pointed out her grandmother in a black-and-white picture from the boarding school.  This enhances the experience of learning about the Tulalip people and their history because the subjects of that history and the artifacts are not just random people; they share the blood of the people speaking about them which makes it more personal and real. 
I would really recommend checking this site out; there are so many different links with a ton of resources to learn more about the Tulalip.

Tulalip Tribes - Who We Are