TULALIP – Non-Indians will have to wait until this weekend for their annual peek inside the Tulalip Tribes’ sacred longhouse, but for tribal members, festivities for the First Salmon Ceremony began last week.
The longhouse was recently rescued from collapse by emergency renovations. On June 5, music and dancing stretched late into the night as tribal members celebrated the building’s revival.
“It was a blessing ceremony for all the new materials that were used,” tribal member Ray Fryberg said.
The existing longhouse was built in 1958. The dirt floor and exposed posts were designed in tribal tradition. But the posts were left open to the elements and the base of each had nearly rotted through. They threatened to crumble beneath the weight of the building.
The posts were reinforced with concrete pilings in a $150,000 renovation early this year. Tribal members threw open the longhouse doors just in time to dedicate it before the salmon ceremony, when hundreds of visitors are expected to flock to the reservation.
But first, tribal members entered the longhouse and closed the doors so they could celebrate privately.
The longhouse had previously held 800 people. After the renovation, it can now hold about 1,000 people. Tribal leaders fear there still won’t be enough space.
“Our own membership has been getting squeezed out,” tribal board member Glen Gobin said. “Even at our winter ceremonies, when it’s only tribal members, it’s getting really crowded.”
Tribal leaders plan to build a new longhouse soon. A committee will be formed later this year to consider the project.
The salmon ceremony has ancient roots.
For centuries, springtime butterflies have hinted that salmon runs will soon return to Tulalip Bay. The ceremony was lost in the years following the federal government’s resettlement of American Indians onto reservations.
The Tulalip Tribes revived the ceremony in the 1970s, at the height of the tribes’ economic reliance on fish.
Now, the ceremony is scheduled for the Saturday in June with the highest tide.
While tribal members dance inside the longhouse, canoes head out into Tulalip Bay and snatch Big Chief King Salmon, or Haik Saib Yo Bouch in the tribal Lushootseed language, from the water. A messenger is sent into the longhouse to announce the ceremonial “first salmon” of the year.
The salmon is cooked and portioned into tiny bites. Each tribal member partakes, and the bones of the salmon are returned to the water.
“He’s a messenger,” Gobin said. “If he’s treated well, he goes back to tell the rest of the salmon people that live under the sea and he’ll send them back to take care of us in the coming months.”
The day will also feature a parade and traditional bone games. The game is an ancient form of gambling played with bones marked with traditional designs.
Reporter Krista J. Kapralos: 425-339-3422 or kkapralos@heraldnet.com.
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