Muckleshoot Tribe Of California

The Muckleshoot tribe are located in California all the way up to the Canadian boarder between the Olympic and Cascade moutains of Puget Sound. They are believed to have been there for thousands of years , wth the decendents of the origional settlers still remaining living there within the community today. They are somtimes called 'People of the Salmon' as they regarded the Salmon as a sacred creature and still do today performing an anual ritual in it honor. The river that ran through their tribes residence was filled with Salmon from season to season and with the tribe having knowledge on how to smoke them it meant that they were always comfortable for food.

The first salmon of every year to return to salt water is captured, eaten and then returned as to tell its brother and sister salmon how well it was treated by the Muckleshoot tribe. This tradition still remains today within the tribe and is an im portant part of their heratige and identity. This identity being that the Muckleshoot tribe are known for their hunting abilities and their cooking skills such as smoking salmon.

However when the white man invaded their area of the tribe they riddled them with diseases which they couldnt fight off. This therefore killed off a number of the tribes people leading them to have to vastly re populate. This repopulation is what led to the remaining tribe members of today.

Today the Muckleshoot tribe have a 9 member council serving a roatry of 3 years thanks to the Indian Reorganization act. The tribe also has a 'General Council' made up of tribe members, the Muckleshoot Tribal Council provides a full range of governance services to the reservation. The tribe is one of the biggest in the far west with an estimated number of members of 3,300. The tribe have come together with certain north-Western tribes and have noth worked together to find opportunities to improve the social well being and economic state of the tribe.