The Snoqualmie people are a Coast Salish group who have lived in the Snoqualmie River Valley since time immemorial. They made dugout canoes which they used to navigate the river and reach Puget Sound. Traditionally the Snoqualmie burned off the bottom lands of the Snoqualmie Valley to create open areas that ensured an abundance of edible plants for foraging as well as supplied space for game animals to feed. In the early 19th century, the Snoqualmie were among the most powerful tribes around Puget Sound. They exerted economic influence over neighboring groups from Whidbey Island to Snoqualmie Pass. The Snoqualmie signed the Treaty of Point Elliott in 1855, ceding their land to the United States. They were temporarily assigned to live on the Tulalip reservation and were promised a reservation of their own. However, the US government reneged on its promise and no land was allocated for the Snoqualmie, most of whom moved back to their historic lands or stayed on the Tulalip reservation. The Snoqualmie finally received a reservation on their historic land in 1999.
This image is a portrait of Patkanim (or Pat Kanim), the chief of the Snoqualmie and Snohomish in the mid 19th century. In the 1840s, he wanted to force out the early white settlers. However, after visiting San Francisco in 1850, Patkanim decided that any fight against the settlers would be hopeless. He signed the Treaty of Point Elliott in 1855 and aided the settlers against other Indigenous groups in the war of 1855-1856. Patkanim died in 1858 on the Tulalip Reservation.
Photographer George N. Moore copied this portrait in the 1880s from an earlier photograph of Patkanim.
Caption information source: “Historic Overview: Carnation, Washington,” by Christine Palmer, King County Cultural Resources Division, retrieved from: https://web.archive.org/web/20050519084000/http://www.ci.carnation.wa.us/library/carnation-historical-context.pdf Caption information source: “Chief Patkanim,” by Edmond Meany, Washington Historical Quarterly, Vol XV, No. 2, July 1924, retrieved from: https://journals.lib.washington.edu/index.php/WHQ/issue/view/493.
