The Suquamish tribe lived on Bainbridge Island and fished in the waters of Puget Sound long before Seattle was founded. The Suquamish carved dugout canoes and used them to travel to fishing and hunting grounds across Puget Sound. Fishing, especially for salmon, was of central importance to the Suquamish for both subsistence and culture. Suquamish fishers used subtle environmental clues including tides, numbers of birds and seals, and water levels in streams to establish the best places and times to fish. The 1855 Treaty of Point Elliott reduced Suquamish land to some 7,800 acres at Port Madison, just north of the island on the Kitsap Peninsula. Members of the tribe frequently traveled by steamer from the Port Madison Reservation to Seattle to trade for supplies or transact other business. Today, most Suquamish people live on or around the Port Madison reservation and continue to practice their cultural traditions.

In this photo, a group of Suquamish people waits at Seattle's Colman Dock for the steamer to Bainbridge Island after trying to collect land payments owed by the government. Tribal members have identified the six visible members of the group as, left to right: Doctor Peter, Charlie Youkton, Mrs. Chief Jacob, Chief Jacob Wahelchu, [unknown], and Mary Adams.

Caption information source: "History & Culture," Suquamish Tribe, retrieved from https://suquamish.nsn.us/home/about-us/history-culture/

Webster & Stevens number: 6132; original copy negative