Earthquakes are part of Washington’s past, present, and future, and we have local Native American tribes to thank for documenting some of our earliest ones.
Local tribes have helped inform today’s scientists about earthquakes that occurred more than a thousand years ago.
“It’s explained in myths,” said Duwamish Tribal Councilman Ken Workman. “Things happen. Then, stories are made about the things that happen.”
One of the most significant was an earthquake on the Seattle Fault that took place around AD 900–950.
According to the Washington State Department of Natural Resources, the earthquake caused parts of Bainbridge Island to lift 35 feet and even triggered a tsunami in Puget Sound.
Earthquake - Emergency Management | seattle.gov
The Duwamish Tribe’s Cultural Preservation Officer Nancy Sackman’s ancestors lived on the land when the earthquake occurred.
“We were more in sync with landform changes,” she said. “Today, we think of our house as a permanent place. We think of our resources as permanent, as being always there in the same spot. Our ancestors knew that that was not the case.”
Take Duwamish longhouses for example, made of cedar and designed to move if necessary.
“We knew that change was part of life,” Sackman said. “That is our strength.”
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