Duwamish Tribe

Get Involved

The Duwamish Longhouse and Cultural Center is always engaging in new projects to improve our facilities and better educate our community on the first people of Seattle. If you are interested in partnering on a new project please contact us at dtsnonprofit@duwamishtribe.org or call 206-431-1582. To donate to our current project, please visit our donations page HERE.

Duwamish Upland Reforestation Project

In partnership with the Seattle Parks Department
Funded by the King Conservation District

The Duwamish Upland Reforestation Project is the ongoing effort to protect, restore and reforest 5800 square feet on the Duwamish Longhouse and Cultural Center property. The goal of this project is to restore the property’s ecosystem by providing a place to sustain native food and medicine, resource producing vegetation, and wildlife habitat in relation to Duwamish culture.

This project serves to demonstrate how the Duwamish traditionally convert raw materials and plants into sustainable resources for food and medicinal health and materials. It was created to encourage the public and raise educational awareness of the Duwamish Native culture and its relationship to the restored ecosystem. This reforestation is part of a broader movement to reintroduce native vegetation to the West Seattle community and to reinforce the importance of protecting native fish and wildlife that are vital to the past, present and future of the Duwamish people.

Special thanks to Linda Dombrowski, Nancy Sackman, and Steven Richmond of Garden Cycles for their efforts in developing this project with the Duwamish Longhouse and Cultural Center.

Duwamish Ridge to River Trail

The Duwamish Upland Reforestation Project also involves the installation of a trail on the hillside behind the longhouse. This trail loops around the newly restored space on our property and leads to the top of the hill, giving hikers a view of the longhouse and a small peak at the Duwamish river from above. The bottom level of the trail is dotted with signs pointing out native plants and providing information on plant identification. Once completed, this short trail will help link our indoor exhibits to the natural resources around us and will help us further educate our visitors on the flora and fauna of our native land.

This project will help the Duwamish Tribe and partners identify and analyze an environmentally safe loop trail that will link the Duwamish Longhouse with the existing network of trails within the West Duwamish Greenbelt, a culturally important landscape for the Tribe and Seattle’s largest remaining section of contiguous forest. Funding will support the identification, survey, and analysis of a trail route through a contaminated section of the Greenbelt and unimproved right of way and provide training to Tribal and community partners in protocols to monitor the weather quality of Puget Creek.

We have demonstrated strong community support for this project, through activities at the Duwamish Longhouse, strong public participation in educational events such as guided walks (a recent National Trails Day hike to provide understanding of the proposed connections included nearly 100 participants), and the coalition of partners supporting this application.

If you would like an electronic copy of the geotechnical feasibility study to formalize the current trail system, please send an email to nancys@duwamishtribe.org.

*This trail is not yet fully completed. Hikers may climb the trail at their own risk, but please be aware that portions of ground may be unstable while work is being done on our new trail. Thank you for your understanding.