Nooksack people
The Nooksack, officially Nooksack Indian Tribe, are a living in the northwest of the State of Washington Indian tribe that culturally and linguistically to the Coastal Salish of the Northwest Coast culture of the Pacific, whose residential area extends up to Oregon to be heard.
The name Nooksack is an Anglicisation of their self-description as Noxws'áʔaq or Nuxwsá7aq ( "always bracken remote roots" - " place where there are always roots of bracken " ), the name of Anderson Creek, a tributary of the Baker River and its estuary. The bracken made this an important food source for the Nooksack and neighboring tribes dar.
Their language, ɬəčələsəm / ɬəčælosəm or Lhéchelesem / Lhéchalosem, belongs to the Central Coast Salish (Central Coast Salish ) of the Salish languages and is closely related to the Squamish / Skwxwu7mesh or Sḵwxwú7mesh snichim the Squamish ( Skwxwu7mesh ) and the Halkomelem. the Sháshíshálh / She Sháshíshálhem ( šášíšáɬəm ) of Sechelt ( Shishalh ).
The Reservation of the Nooksack Indian Tribe today comprises 284.53 acres and is located near the town of Deming in the western Whatcom County in northwest Washington. The number of tribals in 2007 was 1,658, today they include claims to approximately 2,000 registered tribal members.
History
Thousand years ago, the ancestors of at least five Nooksack laid flat nets in the river to catch Chinook, Coho and Chum Salmon. For this purpose, they used löffelnasiger canoes from the wood of the Western Red Cedar.
About 450 Nooksack Indians, spread over 27 villages, lived in the valley of the Nooksack River. The largest villages were at today Lynden ( Squ -ha - lish ), in Everson ( Pop-a - homy and Kisk -a -well ) at the river bifurcation. The early Nooksack built dugouts approximately 1.20 to 3.70 m depth, on which they built Rindentipis. In the winter villages, however, dominated long houses made of wooden planks. Of the 28 ethnographic tangible sites, however, have only two survived, one of them revealed relics of whites.
During the fishing season in spring and autumn, ten to twelve families shared a smoke house on the river bank at the trap sites. Phoebe Judson, the founder of Lynden, wrote that the Nooksack believed that "the spirit of the fish lived in his tail bone and returned to the salt water back to lure the other salmon to their fishing grounds. "
They hunted the mountain goat for their meat and fur, and gathered berries on mountain meadows. But mostly they ate fish, roots and ferns. The Nootsack also built on wild carrot ( Sbugmack ) and were the first Indians of the region, the cultivated potatoes which they had received from trappers of the Hudson's Bay Company (HBC ).
Your main trading partners were the Sumas, Chilliwack and Matsqua. But they also traded with the people of the Lummi and Semiahmoo and the Skagit River tribes.
Contacts with fur traders and prospectors
The HBC was since the 1820s dominant in the later Washington area. It established several trading posts, as a central exchange places for the fur trade. A small post was at Ten Mile Creek, on the Nooksack River. With the demarcation of 1846 along the little north of the Nooksack nearby 49th parallel, the area came to the U.S., the HBC shifted its focus to Victoria, on Vancouver Iceland.
1857 construction began on the Whatcom Trail, a Nook - sack Road followed said path and Bellingham combined with Everson. 1858 studied gold diggers on the way to the Fraser River in the east of the Nooksack and the Nooksack River, but most moved on, via Vancouver from the Fraser gold field. They were soon followed settlers, first under the leadership of Colonel William Patterson, then came 1871 Holden and Phoebe Judson from Ohio to Lynden, where Phoebe named the place. Where today Lynden City Park is located, there lived a group of Nooksack. There she also taught some of the Indian children in a rudimentary school, first in their home. 1886 was the Northwest Normal School, the predecessor of the Western Washington University. Already in 1881 reversed steam boats on the river. Holden Judson was the first mayor in 1889 raised the city. In 1900 came a wave of Dutch immigrants in the area.
How tense was the atmosphere at the boundary, shows an incident from 1884 On February 24, drew an angry mob from Washington across the Canadian border and lynched the 14 -year-old Louie Sam, a member of the Sto: Lo.. He was suspected to have the shopkeeper James Bell ( later Whatcom ) murdered in the Nooksack County. The Sto: lo had delivered the boy in good faith in the police. The deputy from British Columbia could not prevent hang him on a tree right on the border of the mob. A Canadian inquiry commission found his innocence, and that two of the lynchers themselves had murdered the shopkeeper.
Reserve policy and recognition as a tribe
The Nooksack have never signed a contract with Washington, and they were never asked. So they do not even regarded as a tribe. 1873 an attempt was made to relocate the Nooksack to the reservation of the Lummi. However, since there was neither linguistic nor ties of blood, the tribesmen moved gradually back into their old territories back. Mid-1930s, the tribe voted to adopt the Wheeler - Howard Act, which provided for the establishment of a tribal constitution. But the Nooksack were not recognized by the Bureau of Indian Affairs as the root, because they could not produce a land ownership. Nevertheless, she received a refund of exactly $ 1,858 for their dispossession in 1958. 1971 finally succeeded recognition as a tribe.
End of the 19th century, the Nooksack River flowed in the estuary through the channel of short Lummi River in the Lummi Bay, in the northwest of Bellingham Bay. In 1900 clogged driftwood ( probably the logging companies ), so that the river had to move his bed the channel to Lummi Bay. Here, the present delta, which trained a new coastline was born.
Around this time, the children of the tribe were forced to a boarding school to visit, where they had banned the use of their language.
The struggle for land rights
1973 acquired the master an area of just 1.23 Acre Area ( 4,977 m²). Gradually, he was able to increase the reserve to around 10 km ².
The Deputy Minister of the Interior approved the Nooksack Constitution on September 24, 1973. The original country property consisted of numerous individual land allotments. Most families live scattered throughout the country, although there is a small community on the outskirts of the city of Everson. The Nooksack Tribe has continuously resided in the current area, which was granted to them as public lands ( Public Domain ).
The tribal territory was proclaimed on 20 November 1984 as their reservation by the Secretary of Indian Affairs. This creates an additional acre was added to the reservation. Today, the tribe has a land base of 2,744 acres (approx. 11,1 km ² - leased or as a trust land ) and two city land in Deming. The actual reserve covers 284,53 acre.
How many Indian tribes in the United States, as well as the Nooksack operate a casino, the Nooksack River Casino. Additionally there is a supermarket. 2007 Northwood Casino was opened on East Badger Road in Lynden.
Current Situation
Brent Galloway developed since 1974 a dictionary of the language of the Nooksack, which is among the Salish languages. But it is extinct since about 1988. Galloway was co-founder of Halkomelem Language Program at Coqualeetza Education Training Centre in Sardis ( Chilliwack ), British Columbia.
Since 2004, a monthly newsletter, which also each contain a small number of words appears.
2007 operates the strain forces a Salmonid Recovery Plan for the restoration of fish habitats and their environment.
The Nooksack - Housing Authority ( Housing Authority ) manages 140 Cooperative and 7 apartments. There are also some tribesman who work as fishermen and woodcutters. The Northwest Indian College has set up a branch office. The Nooksack Health and dental clinic and a pharmacy to supply the tribal members.
In 2000 547 people lived in the Reserve of the Nooksack, of which 373 led back to Native American ancestors. 2007 were counted exactly 1,658 members.