What does it mean to be part of the culture of Puget Sound’s Salish peoples? To Swinomish representative Larry Campbell, the way in which one thinks about this question reveals something about the answer.
Asked by a non-Indian what it took to be "a good tribal person," he asked his audience to put down their pens, stop taking notes and just listen thoughtfully.
His advice, said Patricia Green, an Earthwatcher Teacher Fellow in the audience, was to: "Listen with an open heart. When the time comes, it will come to you."
Campbell is historical preservation officer for the LaConner-based Swinomish Indian Tribal Community, one of many tribes comprising the greater Puget Sound Salish community. He has devoted 30 years to tribal work and is involved in the regulatory aspects of cultural and archaeological resources in the Swinomish Tribe’s usual-and-accustomed areas. Over his long career, Campbell has served on many tribal committees concerned with the interrelationships of tribal, local, regional, national and international governmental programs. He speaks often on inter-governmental relations, cultural, spiritual and historical issues.
Patricia Green, of Earthwatch, said Campbell calls himself fortunate because he is not only Swinomish but is related to several other tribes in the region. This is often the case among Salish peoples through intermarriage, Campbell explained. His background includes Swinomish, Upper Skagit, S’Klallam, Samish and Colville. Tribal culture assures that members take care of one another in good times and bad.
The Swinomish have always been a fishing people, Campbell said. In times of abundance, people share. In times of scarcity, they help one another.
Salish culture places an especially high value on learning from tribal elders, he said. "They never tell us what to do, but they suggest ways that it has been done in the past and how to think about it," Green quoted him as saying.
The Swinomish people have lived in Puget Sound for thousands of years. Family groups occupied permanent villages and also had “usual and accustomed areas” from which they harvested seafood and shellfish, berries, roots, cedar, minerals and other necessities of life. They also had areas for spiritual activities.
