Duwamish Tribe

[1] In 2022, the Duwamish Tribe filed a lawsuit against the Bureau of Indian Affairs as part of their effort to gain federal recognition.

In return, among other things, the Duwamish were promised the creation of a reservation for their people, as well as fishing and hunting rights.

[16] In March 2013, Judge John Coughenour ordered the Department of Interior to reconsider or explain the denial of the Tribe's petition.

[18] In May 2022, the Duwamish Tribe once again sued for federal recognition as they filed a lawsuit against the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

[1] In March 2013, Federal Judge John C. Coughenour granted summary judgement in Hansen et al v. Salazar ordering the Department of Interior to reconsider or explain the denial of the Tribe's petition;[17] however, they were denied two years later in July, stating that they do not meet the criteria for federal recognition.

The petitioner's ancestors, primarily Duwamish Indian women who married non-Indian settlers, did not go to the reservations with the treaty tribes.

Rather, before and after the treaty, they left the tribes as individuals and families and, by the 1880s, lived dispersed throughout western Washington.

"[2]The final determination also stated: "The DTO petitioner first came into existence in 1925 when eight men announced their 'intention of forming' an organization.

No evidence indicates this new organization was a continuation of the historical “D'Wamish and other allied tribes” on the reservations or that it evolved as a group from them.

[4] In 2017, non-Native fundraisers created a charity campaign, Rent Real Duwamish, to generate support and income for the organization.