Language plays a key role in Indigenous identity and well-being, and when acknowledging Indigenous peoples and their lands, their languages are frequently left out of the picture. Given the colonialist legacies of our field of study and that linguistic imperialism shapes the forced cultural assimilation Indigenous peoples face worldwide, it would be negligent not to acknowledge the ancestral languages of the guardians of the land on which we live and operate and how they continue to shape the physical and cultural landscape.
The Department of Linguistics acknowledges that the University of Washington stands on the lands and shared waters of txʷəlšucid (Lushootseed)-speaking Coast Salish Peoples; dxʷdəwʔabš (Duwamish), spuyaləpabš (Puyallup), suq̓ʷabš (Suquamish), dxʷlilap (Tulalip) and bəqəlšuɬ (Muckleshoot) nations. txʷəlšucid is a Salishan language that once had as many as 12,000 speakers. taqʷšəblu (Vi Hilbert), the last native speaker of txʷəlšucid, died in 2008, but thanks to revival efforts that taqʷšəblu was a key advocate for, hundreds of people have learned to speak txʷəlšucid as a second language. taqʷšəblu taught txʷəlšucid at UW from 1971 to 1988, and members of the Department of Linguistics were among her students. She also amassed an impressive cultural archive that is housed at the University.
The Department of Linguistics is located on the main campus of the University of Washington in dᶻidᶻəlal̕ič ('little crossing-over place' in txʷəlšucid), known in English as Seattle. The English toponym has a different etymology, coming from the txʷəlšucid name siʔaɬ (Chief Seattle), who was a leader of the dxʷdəwʔabš and suq̓ʷabš nations and spoke txʷəlšucid dialects of both. He secured commercial contacts with early American settlers during the first half of the 19th century and later was the first signature on the Treaty of Point Elliot in 1855, which ceded about 2.5 million acres of land around the Puget Sound to the United States and established reservations for some but not all tribes living there (for instance, for the dxʷlilap but not the dxʷdəwʔabš). Many tribes did not sign, and even among those that did, community members were not in agreement, with many opposing the treaty. Armed conflict followed, in which siʔaɬ aligned himself with the United States; as a result, siʔaɬ is a controversial figure among the Indigenous communities of Washington for his actions during this period (read more about siʔaɬ here).
We also acknowledge that the namesake of our institution and state, George Washington, pushed for the assimilation of Indigenous Americans during the founding of the United States in the 18th century, setting an early precedent for inequitable relations between Indigenous Americans and the federal government.
Lastly, with the knowledge that Indigenous communities may find land acknowledgments performative and insufficient, we recognize the Department's past and present ties to Indigenous communities of Washington State and the outcomes of these collaborations.
Tux̲ámshish (Virginia Beavert) was a native speaker of Ichishkíin (Sahaptin) and a linguist who collaborated with Professor Emeritus Sharon Hargus over several decades to document her language. Tux̲ámshish received a Doctorate of Humane Letters from UW in 2009 (read more about her work here). A number of Linguistics graduate students have also worked on Ichishkíin. Ichishkíin is a Sahaptian language native to parts of southern Washington and northern Oregon that continues to be spoken as a native language.
Although Ichishkíin is spoken by members of the Yakama Nation of southern Washington, today, the majority of members are dominant in English. Since 2013, English sociolects of the Yakama have also been studied by Professor Alicia Beckford Wassink and her advisees as part of a larger project that aims to investigate dialect formation in the Pacific Northwest. This partnership recognizes the values held by the Tribal and General council of the Yakama Nation, colleagues, and teachers. They describe their work and acknowledge those who made the work possible and effective here.
Text by Ryan Chon, with input from Sharon Hargus and Alicia Beckford Wassink