The Steilacoom were a

Native American tribe In the United States, an American Indian tribe, Native American tribe, Alaska Native village, tribal nation, or similar concept is any extant or historical clan, tribe, band, nation, or other group or community of Native Americans in the Unit ...

who lived in the

Puget Sound Puget Sound ( ) is a sound of the Pacific Northwest, an inlet of the Pacific Ocean, and part of the Salish Sea. It is located along the northwestern coast of the U.S. state of Washington. It is a complex estuarine system of interconnected ma ...

area of

Washington state Washington (), officially the State of Washington, is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. Named for George Washington—the first U.S. president—the state was formed from the western part of the Washington ...

in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

. They were a

Coast Salish The Coast Salish is 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 one of the Coas ...

people. Other tribes in the Puget Sound region include the Nisqually and

Puyallup people The Puyallup, Spuyalpabš or S’Puyalupubsh (pronounced: Spoy-all-up-obsh) ('generous and welcoming behavior to all people, who enter our lands') are a federally recognized Coast Salish Native American tribe from western Washington state, Uni ...

Name

Other names for the Steilacoom include Steilacoomamish and Stelakubalish.

Territory

Their territory was along the Chambers Creek, also known as Steilacoom Creek, and in what is now

Steilacoom, Washington Steilacoom () is a town in Pierce County, Washington, United States. The population was 6,727 at the 2020 census. Steilacoom incorporated in 1854 and became the first incorporated town in what is now the state of Washington. It has also become a ...

.Indian Claims Commission (1978), page 332. Archaeologist Carrol L. Riley wrote that

Anderson Anderson or Andersson may refer to: Companies * Anderson (Carriage), a company that manufactured automobiles from 1907 to 1910 * Anderson Electric, an early 20th-century electric car * Anderson Greenwood, an industrial manufacturer * Anderson ...

McNeil Island McNeil Island is an island in the northwest United States in south Puget Sound, located southwest of Tacoma, Washington. With a land area of , it lies just north of Anderson Island; Fox Island is to the north, across Carr Inlet, and to the ...

, and Fox Islands near

and the lands along Chambers and

Sequalitchew Creek Sequalitchew Creek, located in DuPont, Washington emanates from Sequalitchew Lake, Fort Lewis, Washington, was the location of the original Fort Nisqually trading post established in 1833 by the Hudson's Bay Company. The historic, natural flow of ...

s were Steilacoom Territory. An archaeological site on the north shore of Chambers Creek in

Pierce County, Washington Pierce County is a county in the U.S. state of Washington. As of the 2020 census, the population was 921,130, up from 795,225 in 2010, making it the second-most populous county in Washington, behind King County, and the 60th-most populous ...

, was confirmed by

Western Washington University Western Washington University (WWU or Western) is a public university in Bellingham, Washington. The northernmost university in the contiguous United States, WWU was founded in 1893 as the state-funded New Whatcom Normal School, succeeding a pri ...

archaeologist Herbert C. Taylor Jr. as being a Steilacoom summer encampment.

History and subsistence

The Steilacoom spoke a sub-dialect of the

Salish language The Salish or Séliš language , also known as Kalispel–Pend d'oreille, Kalispel–Spokane–Flathead, or Montana Salish to distinguish it from other Salishan languages, is a Salishan language spoken (as of 2005) by about 64 elders of the Flat ...

. They depended largely on the ocean for subsistence but traveled inland to hunt. The tribe was thought to have numbered about 500 members prior to European contact, though by 1853 a

smallpox Smallpox was an infectious disease caused by variola virus (often called smallpox virus) which belongs to the genus Orthopoxvirus. The last naturally occurring case was diagnosed in October 1977, and the World Health Organization (WHO) c ...

epidemic had decreased that number to about 25 individuals. In 1854 the remnants of the tribe entered into the Medicine Creek Treaty but did not receive a permanent reservation.

Contemporary heritage group

The Steilacoom Tribe of Indians, an unrecognized organization based in Steilacoom, Washington, claims descent from the historic Steilacoom people. They also claim to be composed of five bands: Steilacoom, Sastuck, Spanaway, Tlithlow, and Segwallitchu. They are neither a

federally recognized tribe This is a list of federally recognized tribes in the contiguous United States of America. There are also federally recognized Alaska Native tribes. , 574 Indian tribes were legally recognized by the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) of the United ...

nor a

state-recognized tribe State-recognized tribes in the United States are organizations that identify as Native American tribes or heritage groups that do not meet the criteria for federally recognized Indian tribes but have been recognized by a process established under ...

. Beginning in 1929, members embarked on an unsuccessful process of official recognition by the

United States government The federal government of the United States (U.S. federal government or U.S. government) is the national government of the United States, a federal republic located primarily in North America, composed of 50 states, a city within a fede ...

. As of the early 21st century, the group claimed about 600 members, however, a 2008 investigation by the

Bureau of Indian Affairs The Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA), also known as Indian Affairs (IA), is a United States federal agency within the Department of the Interior. It is responsible for implementing federal laws and policies related to American Indians and A ...

(BIA) found that "only three of them are documented descendants of persons described in 19th and early 20th century documents as Steilacoom Indians" with the remainder having Native ancestry from other sources. The heritage group formed the Steilacoom Tribal Museum Association,

501(c)(3) nonprofit organization A 501(c)(3) organization is a United States corporation, trust, unincorporated association or other type of organization exempt from federal income tax under section 501(c)(3) of Title 26 of the United States Code. It is one of the 29 types of 50 ...

in 2019.

Notes

References