A NOTE ABOUT SOURCES
A great deal of the material contained in The River That Made Seattle comes from published histories of Washington State, Puget Sound, King County, and Seattle, reframed here with a specific focus on the Duwamish watershed and viewed from the perspective of its Native and immigrant communities.
Until now, only two books about the Duwamish River have been published—The Price of Taming a River, by Mike Sato (1997) and The Once and Future River, a collection of photographs by Tom Reese and essays by Eric Wagner (2016). In addition, The Duwamish Diary was written in 1949 by a group of Cleveland High School students and their teacher, casting the river itself in the role of narrator. These have been foundational texts for my research into the history of the Duwamish River and the people who shaped its course, along with three contemporary environmental and Native histories of the Seattle area—Emerald City, by Matthew Klingle; Native Seattle, by Coll Thrush; and Chief Seattle, by David Buerge—along with accounts by Seattle’s early pioneers and their early-twentieth-century biographers and chroniclers, including David and Eliza Denny, Clarence Bagley, Thomas Prosch, and Robert Nesbit.
I have also relied heavily on the excellent historical essays on the HistoryLink website and on newspaper accounts preserved at the University of Washington Libraries, museums, government archives throughout King County, and the Duwamish Tribe’s historical archives at their Longhouse and Cultural Center in Seattle. I consulted lesser-known books produced by historical associations and academic institutions; journal articles; organizational and topical websites; government documents, particularly those of the Bureau of Indian Affairs the Environmental Protection Agency, the Washington State Department of Ecology, King County, the Port of Seattle, and the City of Seattle; and federal and state census, birth, death, and probate records obtained through Ancestry.com and other sources. I am especially indebted to my research assistant, Jennifer Smith, a PhD candidate in history at the University of Washington, for her help in locating and organizing much of the archival material used in my research.
This book would not have been possible without the generosity of many people with personal and professional connections to the Duwamish River, who have provided me with family documents that were not available in the historical record. At the top of this list is James Rasmussen, Duwamish Tribe member, third-generation Duwamish Tribal Council representative, and founding director of the Duwamish Tribe’s Longhouse and Cultural Center. James and his sister, Virginia Nelson, have provided me with access to extensive family photographs and correspondence, as well as to genealogical and property records that date to the mid-1800s. These records trace the family’s tradition of tribal leadership predating European settlement of the Puget Sound region and often contradict other historical accounts, written by white settlers, about Indigenous life and families during the early years of colonization.
Duwamish tribal and family records were also provided by Ken Workman, a former Duwamish Tribal Council representative and past president of Duwamish Tribal Services, and by Duwamish Tribe chairwoman Cecile Hansen and her family. Each of these individuals provided written transcripts of their families’ oral histories and were kind enough to allow me to interview them. I conducted additional interviews with numerous Duwamish Valley immigrant residents and their descendants, government officials, industry representatives, artists, and others with a connection to the story of the Duwamish River.
Finally, I have worked as an environmental consultant and advocate on the Duwamish River for twenty-five years, and I explored much of the current and historic watershed myself while writing this manuscript. Much of the material in the book comes from my own experience and accumulated knowledge of events along the river from 1994 to 2019. The manuscript includes parts of my own story where it illuminates or provides necessary context for events.