Nooksack people facts for kids
Clockwise from top: Koma Kulshan, bald eagle, Chinook salmon, Georgia Strait; supporters: sword ferns
|
|
 |
|
| Total population | |
|---|---|
| 1,800 | |
| Regions with significant populations | |
| Whatcom County | |
| Languages | |
| English, Nooksack | |
| Religion | |
| American Indian pantheism, Christianity, other | |
| Related ethnic groups | |
| other Coast Salish peoples |
The Nooksack (/ˈnʊksæk/; Nooksack: Noxwsʼáʔaq) are a federally recognized Native American tribe near the Pacific Northwest Coast. They are a sovereign nation, located in the mainland northwest corner of Washington state in the United States along the Nooksack River near the small town of Deming (in western Whatcom County), and 12 miles south of the Canadian border. As of 2008, they had more than 1,800 enrolled members. Their terms for citizenship include descent from persons listed in a 1942 tribal census.
They are part of the Coast Salish people and have traditionally spoken Nooksack, one of the Salishan family of languages. It is closely related to the Halkomelem language of coastal British Columbia, and at one time was considered a dialect of the latter. At the time of European encounter, the Nooksack people occupied territory extending into present-day British Columbia. But the setting of the border between Canada and the United States split the people into two territories. Halkomelem was still dominant in the Nooksack watershed in the US.
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History
Like most Northwest Coast indigenous peoples, the Nooksack long occupied a watershed area where they relied on fishing, hunting, and clamming, as well as gathering root vegetables and berries, and processing these for sustenance. Their territory extended from the mountains to the coast of present-day northwest Washington state in the watershed of the Nooksack River, and into British Columbia, Canada. They set up seasonal camps for hunting or fishing, such as timing when they could harvest salmon runs. European exploration and colonization of the Pacific Northwest resulted in social disruption, high death rates from infectious disease, and their losing access to much of their historic territory. The surviving Nooksack continued to live near the river by which they are known.
In 1934 Congress and President Franklin D. Roosevelt passed the Wheeler-Howard Act, also known as the Indian Reorganization Act. It was intended to help improve the condition of indigenous peoples by enabling them to revive and restore Indian self-government, which had been largely reduced, especially on Indian reservations. Because the Nooksack had not been granted reservation land by the U.S. government in the 19th century, they were not recognized as a tribe at the time by the Bureau of Indian Affairs.
In the 1930s the Nooksack tribe voted to accept the Wheeler-Howard Act and began working on a tribal constitution to establish an elected government under its model. They took a census in 1942 of persons considered members of the tribal community. Their constitution also provided for other forms of documentation and identity recognition. During the later decades of the 20th century, the people worked to organize their community and gain federal recognition as a tribe. In this period many Nooksack and other Coastal Salish worked and lived away from Whatcom County, further south in the Puget Sound area where there were more jobs.
The Nooksack acquired a one-acre (4,000m2) parcel of land in 1970, as their reservation, and gained full federal recognition in 1973. That land was taken into trust by the US Department of Interior, as has been much of the other lands they have acquired. Their land base has subsequently increased to 3,133.61 acres, which includes fee land, trust land, and individual trust land. Trust land is land held by the federal government in trust for a native tribe or nation. It is the area where the tribe exercises its sovereign authority.
Federal court decisions in the 1970s, including what is known as the Boldt decision, have affirmed Native American rights in Washington state to fish and gather food in their traditional ways from their historic territories.
Government
The tribe created a constitution conforming to the model of elected government as proposed under the Indian Reorganization Act. Under its constitution, tribal members elect representatives to an 8-person council. Half the positions are elected in alternating years. The tribal chairman is elected as one of the eight, as are the vice-chairman, treasurer, and secretary. All terms are for two years. The tribal council approves policy and passes laws affecting members.
The tribe also has a judicial branch, a tribal court.
Membership
The tribe set its rules for membership as: "recipients of early land allotments, recipients of a 1965 government settlement, or people who appeared on a 1942 tribal census", and their direct descendants. Section H of the Nooksack constitution also allowed the enrollment of “persons who possess at least ¼ Indian blood and who can prove Nooksack ancestry to any degree.”
In 2014 Chairman Bob Kelly initiated a referendum removing Section H from the constitution; it passed with 61% of the vote.
Demographics
As of the 2000 census, the Nooksack Indian Reservation, at 48°53′03″N 122°20′54″W / 48.88417°N 122.34833°W in Whatcom County, had a resident population of 547 persons living on 2,720 acres (11 km2)) of land. Of these residents, 373 persons, or 68.2 percent, identified as being solely of Native American ancestry.
Language
The Nooksack language (Lhéchalosem) belongs to the Salishan family of Native American languages, and is most similar to the Halkomelem language of British Columbia, of which it was once considered a dialect. Until the mid-20th century, Halkomelem had become the dominant indigenous language of the Nooksack in the United States. This demonstrated how closely the people were related on each side of the border. As of 2016, the last fluent speaker of Nooksack and its dialects was George Adams, a 70-year-old elder of the tribe.
In the late 20th century, observers thought the language had become extinct around 1988. In the 1970s American linguist Brent Galloway had worked closely with another fluent native speaker. He was trying to create a dictionary of the Nooksack language but it is unclear if that work was published before his death. Galloway's book Dictionary of Upriver Halkomelem (2009) covers a language that was in the same region but distinct from that earlier spoken by the Nooksack people.
