The Sahewamish are a Northwest Native American tribe of Lushootseed-speaking Coast Salish people. They were fisherman and hunter-gatherers, sedentary, and lived in the southwestern inlets of Puget Sound from Shelton, Washington, to the Nisqually River. There were about six villages.^[1]

While some descendants of the tribe live on the Nisqually Reservation near Olympia, others live on the Squaxin Island Tribe reservation near Shelton.

History

• 1787 Strait of Juan de Fuca
• 1788 Area visited by John Meares
• 1790 Both shores of strait explored by Manuel Quimper
• 1792 Area charted by Captain George Vancouver
• 1827 Hudson's Bay Company founded Fort Langley
• 1841 Influx of Oregon Trail settlers begin and conflicts develop
• 1854 Treaty of Medicine Creek

Language

In 1990, there were about 60 older adult speakers of the Sahewamish dialect, of the Salishan Lushootseed language.