Duwamish Tribal Services Executive Director Jolene Haas holds up her hands, a traditional gesture of gratitude, on the banks of the Duwamish River in Seattle on Sept. 21, 2019.
Workman traces his lineage all the way back to Chief Seattle, the Native leader known for welcoming the first white people to these shores more than 150 years agoWorkman sometimes questions what his grandpa of many generations ago was thinking. Chief Seattle signed a treaty with these colonizers in 1855 called theWorkman is an elder in the Duwamish tribe, which he says comprises about 600 people.
"I could have gone to school to be a teacher," says Desiree Fagan, a Duwamish tribal member. Fagan attended a technical school after high school; as a young, single mother, she says didn't have resources for a four-year degree. But she's always wondered how things might have gone differently if she had more access to college financial aid through tribal enrollment.
Reid says the longer tribes go unrecognized, the more elusive recognition becomes. That's because in order to earn recognition today, the U.S. wants tribes to show long-standing records of things like land or internal government."That can be really challenging when you are burned out of your homeland or your lands are just simply taken," Reid says.
The Tribe says the fight for federal recognition is about far more than money. Fundamentally, it's about preserving their identity and laying a claim to the land of their ancestors. Ken Workman says he has a deep connection to this land."This is what it means to be Duwamish," says Workman of the bay where he grew up with his brother."That you're attached to this place. Imprinted on this beach.