Relations Between the Settlers and the Indigenous People

The native people living in the Puget Sound area were familiar with non-Indians by the time that Euro-Americans began to settle in the region in the mid 1800s. They had been trading with fur traders for decades, and knew that these strangers brought useful items with them from far places. The Salish peoples, the collection of clans that occupied the Puget Sound as well as much of what is now British Columbia, Canada, were exceptional artisans and skilled traders.
In the early days of American settlement, the relations between the Indians and the pioneers were quite good. As can be expected, there were always going to be some settlers who feared all Indians regardless, and some Indians who feared all settlers regardless, but it appears that for the most part, intercultural relations were amiable.

Indians shared food and gave the settlers hints on successful planting since sometimes seeds whites brought from home did not thrive in this new environment.
The Indians traveled primarily by canoe, having salt-water canoes for plying the Sound and the ocean, and smaller “shovel-nosed” canoes for the rivers. This was something that the land-bound settlers would come to depend upon. Indians and their canoes were frequently hired for transportation, including moving cargo. They knew the routes and the conditions better than any of the settlers, and while the ocean-going canoes took some getting used to, they carried a large amount of freight and people.

Around the households, Indian women were eager to learn how to cook in the fashion of the whites (yeast bread was a novelty), and frequently adopted the whites’ clothing styles. Many single men took on a “klootchman,” or Indian wife and eventually had children.

They were more than willing to create items to trade for some of the whites’ technology. Personally, I once heard a practical elder Skokomish woman say “Why would I use a [waterproof cedar] basket if I had a bucket?”

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