Suquamish Tribe
Suquamish Tribe
PO Box 498
15838 Sandy Hook Road NE
Suquamish, WA 98392
Phone: 360-598-3311
Fax: 360-598-6740
Website: http://www.suquamish.nsn.us
About the Clinic
Facilities/Services Planning
MISSION
To promote and facilitate engineering planning and construction support for the IHS national facilities program by developing and enhancing relationships among Tribes, area offices, and Service Unit engineers and related professionals dealing in building health care systems.
Attainment of the IHS and DHHS missions
The DFPC mission is achieved by:
* Maintaining a priority list based on relative need.
* Supporting tribes when they choose to assume facilities-related responsibilities.
* Planning health care and associated facilities to minimize facility life-cycle costs.
* Planning, promoting, & constructing improvements to exist. Facilities where they are not optimally functional.
* Planning & constructing new facilities when existing facilities do not exist or cannot be effectively improved.
* Developing state-of-the-art facilities with efficient and effective facilities planning.
* Targeting the unmet need with limited resources for maximum effectiveness.
DFPC Vision
To be a Global Health Care Facilities Engineering Division leading cutting edge professionalism in support of Public Health advances and development of solutions to the Indian Health Service challenges.
Location
The Suquamish Tribe administration office is located at 15838 Sandy Hook Road NE in Suquamish, Washington.
Services/Programs
The Suquamish Tribe does not provide on-site primary care. The Suquamish Tribe’s Contract Health Services (CHS) alternative delivery demonstration project began in May 1985 under provisions of Public Law 96-638. Under the terms of the agreement, Suquamish Tribal members residing in Kitsap County, Washington receive a predetermined benefits package of comprehensive health care services. Two full-time benefits coordinators administer the plan by engaging the services of a third party administrator who defines and coordinates benefits, adjudicates claims and pays vendors for services provided. The coordinators determine eligibility and report monthly eligible to the medical carrier and the pharmacy benefits manager. The benefit coordinators review each processed claim 
and authorize payments weekly. They also work with the nearby Port Gamble S’Klallam Indian Health Dental Clinic to coordinate direct care dental services for Tribal members.
Major services include outpatient visits, diagnostic care, hospital care, and mental health inpatient care and pharmacy services. The Tribe also operates a Wellness center, which provides alcohol and substance abuse programs along with behavioral health services out of a 1,545 square foot tribally owned facility. The Tribe’s Contract Health Service Delivery Area (CHSDA) is Kitsap County. The Tribe also provides Community Health Nursing, Women, Infant, Children (WIC) program, and medical transport services to Tribal members.
The Tribe holds at least two health fairs each year with representation from local, state and tribal health departments. The daily Elder lunch program provides appropriate nutritional meals for the elder population.
Patients
The enrolled Tribal population is 890 and the Indian population living on or near the Reservation is 953. The active benefits package user population is 844. The leading causes of death are diabetes, heart disease, cirrhosis of the liver, malignant neoplasm, accidents other than motor vehicle and cerebrovascular disease. There were 403 Active users in 2002.
About the Tribe
History
The Suquamish are descendents of peoples who lived in the Puget Sound area for thousands of years. They were expert basket makers, fishers, and canoe builders. There was a transition period from the 1880’s to the 1920’s during which the Suquamish went from a traditional way of life to that of modern America. During this period all of the children between the ages of 4 and 18 were taken away from the tribe and placed in boarding schools. Gone from the tribe during the winter months when all the storytelling, basket making, and songs were taught, these children lost an important link to tribal life. While at school they were not allowed to speak their native language (Lushootseed) nor could they practice any of their traditions. The children were punished corporeally for any transgression with respect to these policies.
The cost of eradicating the Suquamish way of life was borne by the children. There were no child labor laws then, and the schools operated utilizing student labor. The purpose of the schools was to make “good citizens” of the children as quickly as possible. These institutions also served as infirmaries during disease outbreaks, and many children lost their lives to measles and whooping cough, for which they had no natural immunity. Until this dark period the Suquamish thrived. What follows is a description of the activities they engaged in to sustain themselves.
When the Port Madison Reservation was reserved by Treaty in 1855, all land was held by, and was for the exclusive use of the tribe and its members. The treaty was broken by a series of procedures designed to accommodate Anglo-European expansion and land acquisition. Although the federal government holds some reservation land in trust, all land within the exterior Reservation Boundaries established by treaty is Reservation Land.
Tribal Culture
Cedar roots and limbs were split into narrow strips to make the baskets. Some of the split limbs were used as the foundation for the wide horizontal coils. Using a sharp bone awl they would sew the coil together with more of the split limbs. Small strips of wild cherry bark, horsetail roots and dyed cedar bark was then folded under each stitch to make the patterns of the baskets (this is known as imbrications). Open twined “clam baskets” were used to gather clams, small fish, seaweed, and oysters. The seafood could be rinsed while still inside the basket and the sand and rocks would fall through the holes. The “purse basket” was developed after the settlers came to the Puget Sound. Used as carrying device, it was the first item made solely for use in trade. The “hard coil baskets” were the most useful. They were used for picking berries, carrying liquids, storing dried foods, and cooking.
Choice game, fish, and plants are plentiful in the Puget Sound. Over thousands of years of living in the area the Suquamish developed an elaborate system for harvesting this abundance. There were many different types of berries, cattail tubers, and wild potatoes, the onion-like bulbs of water lilies, fern roots, wild sunflowers, dandelions, and nuts. Clams, oysters, shrimp, crabs and mussels were all gathered and stored in the spring before the salmon runs began. Smoked and dried supplies were returned to the village for storage. Villages were often near sources of food that could be gathered in the winter, such as steel head, trout, and deer. Marshlands were hunting areas for waterfowl and other birds. Fishing continued through the fall and early winter. Before white settlement, fishing was the most important source of food. The Suquamish fished throughout Puget Sound; Chinook, Chum, and Coho Salmon were caught in local waters by the use of nets, hooks, and line. Lines and nets were made from nettle stems and roots. Smaller fish, herring, and smelt were taken with “rakes”: long thin poles that were lined on one edge with hard wooden spikes. The rake would be dragged through the water, and the fish would be shaken off in the canoe.
The canoe was the most important tool of the Suquamish people. There were no horses, and canoes were a primary source of travel as well as vessels for fishing. Most canoes were made from a single cedar tree. Once the right tree was located it would be cut down and taken to the carving area. The log would be put in place and the bottom of the canoe would be carved first. When the bottom was finished 2” wooden dowels, painted red on one end, would be pounded into the canoe, red end first. Then it was turned over and a fire was started on the inside. The carvers would watch it burn down to four inches from the exterior. They would then scrape out the burned coals and use an adz tool to chip away the wood until they could see the red dots. When all the red dots were visible they knew that their canoe was the same width all the way across. At this point the canoe was filled with water and hot rocks and covered with cedar and cattail mats for several days. This made the wood pliable, allowing the canoe builders to shape the canoe. Once it was fitted with cross beams it was a finished product.
The Suquamish Museum is located at 15838 Sandy Hook Road NE, just off State Highway 305. The phone number is (360) 598-3311, or directly at (360) 394-8496. Museum hours are as follows:
Winter Hours (October 1 – April 30)
Friday, Saturday, Sunday 11-4
Summer Hours (May 1 –– Sept 30)
Open seven days a week from 10 – 5. Please note the Museum is closed in observance of some holidays. Please call for schedule.
Admission is: Adults $4.00
Seniors (55+) $3.00
Children (0-12) $2.00
Friends of the Museum and Suquamish Tribal members are admitted with no charge.
Military and AAA members are eligible for a 10% discount on admission and gift shop purchases.
The Eyes of Chief Seattle, the premiere exhibit which received international acclaim when it traveled to Nantes, France as part of Seattle’s Sister City exchange. The exhibit reveals the history of the original inhabitants of the Puget Sound as though Chief Seattle himself were your guide.
Old-Man-House, the People, and Their Way of Life at D’Suq’Wub exhibit gives the visitor a look into the traditional ways of living for the first people of this area and their village at D’Suq’Wub, meaning place of the clear salt water. The exhibit premiered in 1989, during Washington State’s centennial celebration.
Come Forth Laughing, Voices of the Suquamish People is beautifully documented visual interview of tribal elders and their entertaining accounts of growing up. The stories of the traditional games and the trying times of white settlement are tastefully told through humor. Approximately 15 minutes, and copies are available for purchase in the Museum gift shop.
Waterborne, the Gift of the Indian Canoe Historical and contemporary photographs, moving music and first-hand accounts of tribal elders revealing the transitions of life over the past hundred years. The exhibit shows the importance the Puget Sound Indians place on the water and its bounty for its peoples.
Cultural educational programs available through the Suquamish Museum are:
Suquamish Basketry, Suquamish History, We Are Suquamish
Traveling exhibits available through the Suquamish Museum include;
Suquamish People: Legacy and Transition and 100 Years of Photographic History: Selections from the Suquamish Tribal Archives.
Chief Seattle Days is our annual pow-wow and is held annually the third weekend in August, downtown Suquamish.
Geography
Gently rolling hills covered with second- and third-growth timber provide many locations with unsurpassed views of the Olympic Mountains to the west, the Cascades to the east, and Puget Sound, its bays and inlets. The deep green of Douglas Fir and Western Red Cedar provide a grand backdrop for the seasonally changing Red Alder, Broadleaf Maple, and Vine Maple as well as the colorful rhododendrons, and Dogwood. Salmonberries, huckleberries and blackberries are abundant. Bear, deer, and many smaller wildlife may be found at the reservation.
County: Kitsap
Population: 168,600
Native American: 2,125 (11% non-white and 1% of total population)
Assessed land value: $21,939/acre (average)
Rainfall (annual) 49 inches
Temperatures: 43-60
Principal Industries: agriculture, fishing, forestry, federal military installations
The reservation is situated on a large peninsula and connected to Bainbridge Island by the Agate Pass Bridge, a short ferry ride from Seattle. The northeastern part of the reservation is anchored by the rural waterfront village of Indianola; the heart of the southwestern area is Suquamish, a historic waterfront village.
The original inhabitants of the reservation were primarily of the Suquamish Tribe and a few from other tribes represented in the Point Elliot Treaty of 1855 (enlarged by Executive Order in 1864).
The Suquamish people have lived, gathered food, ceremonial and spiritual materials, and hunted and fished for thousands of years in Western Washington. Historically, the Tribe has used lands and waters into what is now Canada, Whidbey, Blake and Bainbridge islands.
The breathtaking rural scenery and attractions such as the Suquamish Museum, historic Suquamish Village, the Clearwater Casino, Chief Seattle’s gravesite, Old Man House, and the Grover’s Creek Fish Hatchery, combined with easy ferry access from Seattle and Edmonds, make Suquamish a natural tourist destination.
The nearby City of Poulsbo is a popular tourist area, filled with specialty shops and restaurants.
Other Information
Members
665
Other Offices and Programs
5 buildings: Administration, Fishery, Hatchery, Liquor store, Police station. There is an economic development plan.
Employees
No information on tribal employment available.
Housing
No information on tribal housing available.
