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Lummi Nation and Nooksack Indian Tribe

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Our name Nooksack, comes from a place name Noxws’ áʔɁaq in our language and translates to “always bracken fern roots,” which illustrates our close ties to our land and the resources that continue to give strength to our people.

The Nooksack people occupied the watershed of the Nooksack River from the high mountain area surrounding Mt. Baker to the salt water at Bellingham Bay, and extended into Canada north of Lynden and in the Sumas area. Today, our tribe is located in Deming, Washington, nestled amongst majestic mountains, lush forest, and the meandering and dynamic Nooksack River. Our Council and Government work to create a better future for every Nooksack and ensure our tribe’s sovereignty.

Salmon are our heritage and our culture and today we work to ensure that our children, grandchildren, and future generations have salmon.

Nooksack is a tribe of approximately 2,000 members, located in our ancestral homeland. Nooksack Indian history goes back thousands of years. Studies in linguistics and archaeology indicate a stable population of speakers of Salish languages for the past several thousand years. According to Native tradition, the people have been here from time immemorial—basically since the beginning of human existence on this land. There is nothing in Nooksack tradition of ever living anywhere else.

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The Lummi People are the Lhaq’te’mish, the original inhabitants of Washington’s northernmost and British Columbia’s southern coast. For thousands of years, they worked, struggled and celebrated life on the shores and waters of Puget Sound.

The Lummi people are fishers, hunters, gatherers, and harvesters of nature’s abundance. Their homeland is a place where they enjoy an abundant, safe, and healthy life in mind, body, society, environment, space, time and spirituality; where all are encouraged to succeed and none are left behind.

Today the Lummi Nation is a nationally recognized leader in tribal self-governance, education, and natural resources management. They understand the challenge of respecting their traditions while making progress in a modern world – listening to the wisdom of their ancestors, caring for their lands and waterways, educating their children, providing family services and strengthening their ties with the outside community. They are a Self-Governing Nation within the United States, the third largest tribe in Washington State, serving over 5,000 members. The Lummi Indian Reservation is located at the mouth of the Nooksack River and includes approximately 12,500 acres of uplands and 7,000 acres of tidelands.

Treaty of Point Elliott, 1855

One of the most important founding documents in the Pacific Northwest is the Treaty of Point Elliott, signed by U.S. government representatives and Native American leaders, at Mukilteo on January 22, 1855. 

The Treaty recognized the sovereignty that the Tribes always held. Under the US Constitution, treaties are the supreme law of the land. In the Treaty, the tribes reserved their right to fish and hunt and gather. In return, they gave up the land of most of upper Puget Sound – millions of acres – reserving only 53,000 acres for four reservations.

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