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After 1855, the Duwamish people were forced to leave their ancestral villages around Seattle and move to designated reservations to preserve their heritage and culture.
Today, the vast majority of Duwamish descendants are members of the Muckleshoot, Puyallup, Tulalip, Suquamish, and Lummi Tribes.
But a small group calling itself the Duwamish Tribal Organization is deceptively using the name of our ancestors in an effort to appropriate our history and our culture.
They persist despite numerous federal court and Interior Department rulings that the Duwamish Organization is not an Indian Tribe, but rather a small group descending from a handful of early marriages with non-Indian settlers who chose to assimilate rather than move to the reservations established for the Duwamish people.
The Muckleshoot, Tulalip, and Puyallup Indian Tribes stand together in opposition to granting the Duwamish Organization federal recognition. They are not an Indian Tribe, and support for their effort is an affront to our sovereignty and the culture we have fought so long to preserve.
*For details about the U.S. Interior Department's most recent determination about the Duwamish Tribal Organization's request for recognition visit: bia.gov/as-ia/ofa/025-duwami-wa
For more than 164 years, the Muckleshoot Indian Tribe has fought to uphold our sovereignty and heritage. Our identity, our legacy, and our treaty rights are unique to our name and Tribe.