"[1][3] The Samish fished in the islands and channels off the coast of Skagit County, Washington.

Epidemics of measles, smallpox, and ague, and attacks from Haida and Tsimshian from the north[4] diminished the population to approximately 150 members in one village[5] by 1855, at the time of the signing of the Point Elliott Treaty.

They were often confused with the Skagit, and when they went to the Swinomish Reservation, they received only six household land allotments for the entire Tribe.

They had been pushed off the island by white settlers, as the Samish had occupied the land with the only fresh water.

[5] In 1990, the Canadian Museum of Civilization published A Phonology, Morphology, and Classified Word List for the Samish Dialect of Straits Salish, by Brent D. Galloway (Canadian Ethnology Service, Mercury Series Paper #116).

This is the first grammatical sketch and extensive word list for the Samish dialect; it was based on linguistic field work by Galloway with the last-known remaining speakers.