Samish Island was an

unincorporated community An unincorporated area is a parcel of land that is not governed by a local general-purpose municipal corporation. (At p. 178.) They may be governed or serviced by an encompassing unit (such as a county) or another branch of the state (such as th ...

Skagit County Skagit County is a county in the U.S. state of Washington. As of the 2020 census, the population was 129,523. The county seat and largest city is Mount Vernon. The county was formed in 1883 from Whatcom County and is named for the Upper and ...

Washington Washington most commonly refers to: * George Washington (1732–1799), the first president of the United States * Washington (state), a state in the Pacific Northwest of the United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A ...

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

. It was on an island with the same name, which is located off the northwest coast of the Washington mainland. It is connected to the mainland by land reclaimed through a system of dikes created in the early 20th century. Samish Island is named after the

Samish people The Samish ( Samish: ''Xws7ámesh'') are a Native American people who live in the U.S. state of Washington. They are a Central Coast Salish people. Through the years, they were assigned to reservations dominated by other Tribes, for instance, t ...

, a

Coast Salish The Coast Salish peoples are a group of ethnically and linguistically related Indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest Coast, living in the Canadian province of British Columbia and the U.S. states of Washington and Oregon. They speak on ...

people of the

Pacific Northwest The Pacific Northwest (PNW; ) is a geographic region in Western North America bounded by its coastal waters of the Pacific Ocean to the west and, loosely, by the Rocky Mountains to the east. Though no official boundary exists, the most common ...

. Both the Samish and the

Nuwhaha The Nuwhaha (; ) were a historical Lushootseed-speaking people in the Skagit River valley of Washington. The Nuwhaha primarily lived along the Samish River, as well as the coastal areas between Bay View and Bellingham. The Nuwhaha were a pow ...

peoples used the island as part of their traditional territory. The western end of the island is named Xwtl’échqs in the Samish language and sƛ̕əpqs in the

Lushootseed language Lushootseed ( ), historically known as Puget Salish, Puget Sound Salish, or Skagit-Nisqually, is a Central Coast Salish language of the Salishan language family. Lushootseed is the general name for the dialect continuum composed of two main di ...

, both meaning "deepwater point" in the respective languages. The eastern end is named A7ts’íqen in Samish and qʷəqʷaliqs in Lushootseed. The narrow isthmus connecting the two areas is named bəsbəsič, meaning "thin cords." In the late 19th century, the

US Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the naval warfare, maritime military branch, service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is the world's most powerful navy with the largest Displacement (ship), displacement, at 4.5 millio ...

began to construct a series of dykes and drainage ditches to create a connection to the mainland. In the 1930s, the connection was finished.

References

External links

Samish Island Home Page
Unincorporated communities in Skagit County, Washington Unincorporated communities in Washington (state) Islands of Washington (state) Islands of Skagit County, Washington Islands of Puget Sound Washington (state) placenames of Native American origin {{SkagitCountyWA-geo-stub