Diving into the History of the River
River History in Photographs
Here is a brief compilation of the history of the Duwamish River told through a collection of photographs.
Tour the historic and contemporary Duwamish River watershed and Superfund site with BJ Cummings (author, The River That Made Seattle) and James Rasmussen (Duwamish River Cleanup Coalition). Co-produced by the UW Superfund Research Program and ECO Resource Group, with support from Puget Soundkeeper Alliance. 20 min
The River that made Seattle by BJ Cummings
With bountiful salmon and fertile plains, the Duwamish River has drawn people to its shores over the centuries for trading, transport, and sustenance. Chief Se’alth and his allies fished and lived in villages here and white settlers established their first settlements nearby. Industrialists later straightened the river’s natural turns and built factories on its banks, floating in raw materials and shipping out airplane parts, cement, and steel. Unfortunately, the very utility of the river has been its undoing, as decades of dumping led to the river being declared a Superfund cleanup site.
Using previously unpublished accounts by Indigenous people and settlers, BJ Cummings’s compelling narrative restores the Duwamish River to its central place in Seattle and Pacific Northwest history. Writing from the perspective of environmental justice—and herself a key figure in river restoration efforts—Cummings vividly portrays the people and conflicts that shaped the region’s culture and natural environment. She conducted research with members of the Duwamish Tribe, with whom she has long worked as an advocate. Cummings shares the river’s story as a call for action in aligning decisions about the river and its future with values of collaboration, respect, and justice.
Watch presentations videos HERE about the The River that made Seattle
Watch to learn about what Superfund is, and what EPA is doing to clean up the Duwamish Superfund site in Seattle- EPA video in other languages too
Duwamish River Blog - First settler "claims" filed to native lands on Duwamish
ON THIS DATE IN HISTORY... On September 16, 1851, American settlers Luther Collins and Jacob Maple, along with Dutch settler Charles van Asselt, selected adjacent plots of land along the Duwamish River in Seattle's present-day Georgetown neighborhood, claiming them as their own. The lands were home to indigenous people now known as the Duwamish Tribe, and included at least one village comprised of two large communal longhouses. The settlers filed legal "claims" to the land under the laws of the nascent American colony then known as the "Oregon Territory.