Lummi Nation
We are the Lhaq’temish, the Lummi people of the sea. We are the original inhabitants of the San Juan Islands in the Pacific Northwest of Washington Coast and Southern British Columbia. Since time immemorial for many years our villages were located on the San Juan Islands and on the mainland the sea and river were our highways; canoes our means of travel. Long ago our people lived off the land and water, elders realized early on that Earth provides for all our needs, food, clothing, shelter- all of those came from nature. We worked, struggled and celebrated life on the shores and water of the Puget sounds. We are fishers, hunters, gatherers, and harvesters. We gather and harvest foods like salmon, clams, deer, and many kinds of berries. The cedar tree provides shelter, clothing, and materials for weaving baskets for gathering and transportation. We envision our homelands as a place where we enjoy abundant, safe, and healthy life in mind, body, society, environment, space, time and spirituality: we’re all encouraged to succeed and no one is left behind.Things have changed over time for Lummi, but we have held onto the language, our beliefs and our Schelangen ways of life. We continue to be People of the Sea. We have fished for many centuries with salmon being a staple of our diet and filling our spirit inside its identity. Good medicine is part of our life- salmon is medicine. Salmon have been at the center of Lummi People's lives to sustain ourselves, our culture and survival have depended on it.
We are Salmon People.
Today Lummi live on a Reservation of about 12,500 acres created in the Point Elliot Treaty of 1855 its only a small portion of their original territory, the treaty also guarantees them access to traditional fishing and hunting grounds even to those outside today's reservation boundary. Before colonization there was no border. We crossed the border weekly and we fished in the Fraser river. There was no border for us. We fished through all Puget Sound into Canada. We always followed the fish.