Last updated
Flag of the Lummi Nation.png
Lummi reservation map-svgver.svg
Total population
6,590 (2000)
Regions with significant populations
Whatcom County
English, Lummi
American Indian pantheism, Christianity, other
Related ethnic groups
other Coast Salish peoples

The Lummi ( /ˈlʌmi/ LUM-ee;Lummi: Xwlemi [χʷləˈmi] ; also known as Lhaq'temish (LOCK-tə‐mish), or People of the Sea [1] ), governed by the Lummi Nation, are a Native American tribe of the Coast Salish ethnolinguistic group in the Pacific Northwest region of Washington state in the United States. The federally recognized tribe primarily resides on and around the Lummi Indian Reservation ( 48°45′N122°39′W﻿ / ﻿48.750°N 122.650°W﻿ / 48.750; -122.650 ) to the west of Bellingham in western Whatcom County, 20 miles (32 km) south of the border with Canada.



The original Lummi spoke the Songish dialect of the Salish language, a cultural feature that persists to the present. Their ancient villages bore the evocative names Hutatchl, Lemaltcha, Statshum and Tomwhiksen. For 12,000 years, the Lummi subsisted near the sea and in mountain areas. They returned seasonally to their longhouses situated at scattered locales on the present reservation in today's western Whatcom County and the San Juan Islands of Washington State. Their protein-rich diet consisted principally of salmon, followed by trout, shellfish, elk, deer, other wildlife , starchy camas bulbs and sun-dried berries. [2]

The Lummi, and most of the other northwest coastal tribes included in the Point Elliott Treaty of 1855, were paid a total of $150,000 for their lands and paid an additional $15,000 in relocation costs and expenses. That would equate to over $4.2 million or approximately $840 per person in economic power in 2013 . The reservation has a land area of 54.378 km² (20.996 sq mi), which includes the Lummi Peninsula, and uninhabited Portage Island. The Lummi nation are the original inhabitants of the Puget Sound lowlands.

In pre-colonial times, the tribe migrated seasonally among many sites including Point Roberts, Washington, Lummi Peninsula, Portage Island, as well as sites in the San Juan Islands, including Sucia Island.

Many tribal members were Christianized in the late nineteenth century by the Catholic Oblate order. [3]

The traditional lifestyle of the Lummi, like many Northwest Coast tribes, consisted of collecting shellfish, gathering plants, such as camas and different species of berries and, most importantly, salmon fishing. The Lummi developed a fishing technique known as "reef netting." Reef netting was used for taking large quantities of fish in salt water. It's a practice that the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife acknowledges as the original and best technique for selective fishing [4] Lummi had reef net sets on Orcas Island, San Juan Island, Lummi Island and Fidalgo Island, Portage Island and near Point Roberts and Sandy Point. [5] Following steady increases in the number of individuals and firms fishing in areas traditionally fished by the Lummi nation, the nation fought for and gained limited protection under the law for the right to fish in their traditional manner. [6]

From July 30 to August 4, 2007, the Lummi hosted their first potlatch since the 1930s, the Tribal Canoe Journeys Paddle to Lummi event. In a revival of traditional practice, 68 families paddled hand-made canoes to the Lummi Reservation from parts of Washington and British Columbia to celebrate the potlatch with other members. [7]

In 2017, the Lummi Nation declared a state of emergency in the aftermath of the 2017 Cypress Island Atlantic salmon pen break and were responsible for recapturing the bulk of the recovered escaped non-native farmed Atlantic salmon. [8]

Gateway Pacific Terminal

The Gateway Pacific Terminal was a proposed coal export terminal at Xwe’chi’eXen (Cherry Point) in Whatcom County, Washington, along the Salish Sea shoreline. The project was objected to by Lummi people due to its potential impact on their treaty fishing rights and their sacred sites, and did not win approval.


The Lummi language (Xwlemi Chosen,IPA:  [xʷləmi tʃɔsən] ) is a dialect of the North Straits Salish language.

Reservation population

Lummi woman, ca. 1907-1930, photograph by Edward S. Curtis Edward S. Curtis Collection People 078.jpg
Lummi woman, ca. 1907–1930, photograph by Edward S. Curtis

An estimated 6,590 people live on the Lummi Reservation. Roughly 2,564 are enrolled tribal members, and 665 are either related to or live with an enrolled tribal member. Some 3,361 are neither tribal members nor affiliated with any member of the Lummi Nation.

There are approximately 1,864 homes located on the reservation. Approximately 697 of these have an enrolled Lummi living in the home; thus, roughly 1,167 homes on the reservation do not house a tribal member. The 2000 census official record was 4,193 persons residing on the reservation, of whom 1,828 (43.6 percent) identified as whites, and 2,114 (50.4 percent) identified as of solely Native American ancestry.


As of April 2010 there are 4,483 enrolled tribal members. 49.6% are female and 50.4% are male.

Age distribution

The median age of tribal members is 29. Nearly one-third of the members, some 31.8%, are 18 years or younger. 11.6% are 55 or older.


According to studies conducted by the Lummi Nation either on or near the reservation boundaries, enrolled Lummi tribal members have an average household size of approximately 4.5 people.[ citation needed ]


A recent collaborative study conducted by the Lummi Nation and Northern Economics Inc. found the following information pertaining to the Lummi Nation workforce.

28% of the adult population (ages 18–64) is employed. The labor workforce participation rate is 25%. The Lummi unemployment rate of about 75% is estimated to be three times the local average. The median monthly income for employed Lummi tribal members is approximately $1,200.[ citation needed ]


The tribe has its own school, Lummi Nation School.

Among enrolled Lummis aged 25–64: 15.1% do not have a high school diploma or a GED; 33.8% have either a high school or GED degree; 27.1% have some college experience; 14.9% have a two-year (AA or AS) degree; 7.5% have a bachelor's degree; and 1.6% have a graduate or professional degree.

See also

Related Research Articles

Nez Perce Indigenous peoples of North America

The Nez Percé are an Indigenous people of the Plateau who are presumed to have lived on the Columbia River Plateau in the Pacific Northwest a region for at least 11,500 years.


The Muckleshoot are a Lushootseed-speaking Indian tribe, part of the Coast Salish peoples of the Pacific Northwest. They are descendants of the Duwamish and Puyallup peoples whose traditional territory was located along the Green and White rivers, including up to the headwaters in the foothills of the Cascade Mountains, in present-day Washington State. Since the mid-19th century, their reservation is located in the area of Auburn, Washington, about 15 miles (24 km) northeast of the port of Tacoma and 35 miles (55 km) southeast of Seattle, another major port.

Whatcom County, Washington U.S. county in Washington

Whatcom County is a county located in the northwestern corner of the U.S. state of Washington, bordered by the Canadian Lower Mainland to the north, the Okanogan County to the east, the Skagit County and San Juan County to the south and southwest, and the Salish Sea to the west. Its county seat and largest population center is the coastal city of Bellingham, comprising the Bellingham, WA Metropolitan Statistical Area, and as of the 2010 census, the county's population was 201,140.


The Makah are an indigenous people of the Pacific Northwest Coast living in Washington, in the northwestern part of the continental United States. They are enrolled in the federally recognized Makah Indian Tribe of the Makah Indian Reservation.

Nisqually people

The Nisqually is a Lushootseed-speaking Native American tribe in western Washington state in the United States. They are a Southern Coast Salish people. They are federally recognized as the Nisqually Indian Tribe, formerly known as the Nisqually Indian Tribe of the Nisqually Reservation and the Confederated Tribes of the Chehalis Reservation.


The Suquamish are a Lushootseed-speaking Native American people, located in present-day Washington in the United States. They are a southern Coast Salish people. Today, most Suquamish people are enrolled in the federally recognized Suquamish Tribe, a signatory to the 1855 Treaty of Point Elliott. Chief Seattle, the famous leader of the Suquamish and Duwamish Tribes for which the City of Seattle is named, signed the Point Elliot Treaty on behalf of both Tribes. The Suquamish Tribe owns the Port Madison Indian Reservation.

Duwamish people

The Duwamish are a Lushootseed-speaking Native American tribe in western Washington, and the indigenous people of metropolitan Seattle, where they have been living since the end of the last glacial period. The Duwamish tribe descends from at least two distinct groups from before intense contact with people of European ancestry—the People of the Inside and the People of the Large Lake —and continues to evolve both culturally and ethnically. By historic language, the Duwamish are (Skagit-Nisqually) Lushootseed; Lushootseed is a Salishan language. Adjacent tribes throughout the Puget Sound-Strait of Georgia basin were, and are, interconnected and interrelated, yet distinct. Today, some Duwamish people are enrolled in the federally recognized Tulalip Tribes of Washington.


The SwinomishSWIN-ə-mish are an historically Lushootseed-speaking Native American people in western Washington state in the United States. The Tribe lives in the southeastern part of Fidalgo Island in northern Puget Sound, near the San Juan Islands, in Skagit County, Washington. Skagit County is located about 70 miles (110 km) north of Seattle.

Northwest Indian College is a public tribal land-grant community college in Bellingham, Washington. It was established by the Lummi Nation and is the only accredited tribal college or university serving reservation communities of Washington, Oregon, and Idaho.

Colville Indian Reservation Human governmental division in Washington state, USA

The Colville Indian Reservation is an Indian reservation in the northwest United States, in north central Washington, inhabited and managed by the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation, which is federally recognized.

The Samish are a Native American people who live in the U.S. state of Washington. They are a Central Coast Salish people. Through the years, they were assigned to reservations dominated by other Tribes, for instance, the Swinomish Indians of the Swinomish Reservation of Washington and the Tulalip Tribes of the Tulalip Reservation. They are also enrolled in the Samish Indian Nation, formerly known as the Samish Indian Tribe, which regained federal recognition in 1996.

Hupacasath First Nation Place in British Columbia, Canada

The Hupacasath First Nation is a First Nations government based in the Alberni Valley on the west coast of Vancouver Island in British Columbia, Canada. It is a member of the Nuu-chah-nulth Tribal Council. An alternate spelling of Hupacasath is Opetchesaht or Opitchesaht. Hupacasath First Nation consists of approximately 300 members across five reserves.

Coast Salish Indigenous people of the Pacific Northwest Coast of North America

The Coast Salish is a group of ethnically and linguistically related Indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest Coast, living in British Columbia, Canada and the U.S. states of Washington and Oregon. They speak one of the Coast Salish languages. The Nuxalk nation are usually included in the group, although their language is more closely related to Interior Salish languages.

Indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest Coast

The Indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest Coast are composed of many nations and tribal affiliations, each with distinctive cultural and political identities. They share certain beliefs, traditions and practices, such as the centrality of salmon as a resource and spiritual symbol, and many cultivation and subsistence practices. The term Northwest Coast or North West Coast is used in anthropology to refer to the groups of Indigenous people residing along the coast of what is now called British Columbia, Washington state, parts of Alaska, Oregon, and Northern California. The term Pacific Northwest is largely used in the American context.

Songhees First Nation living in Victoria area, British Columbia

The Lekwungen or Lekungen nation are an Indigenous North American Coast Salish people who reside on southeastern Vancouver Island, British Columbia in the Greater Victoria area. Their government is the Songhees First Nation, a member of the Te'mexw Treaty Association and the Naut'sa Mawt Tribal Council. Their traditional language is Lekwungen, a dialect of the North Straits Salish language.

The Lower Skagit are a tribe of the Lushootseed Native American people living in the U.S. state of Washington. Today they are enrolled in the federally recognized tribe, the Swinomish Indians of the Swinomish Reservation.

Chow-its-hoot is a Lummi name. Several Lummi individuals carried this name. The name means "Strong Man".

Samish Indian Nation

The Samish Indian Nation is a Coast Salish nation and a signatory to the Treaty of Point Elliott of 1855. Samish has a government-to-government relationship with the United States of America. The Samish are a Northern Straits branch of Central Coast Salish peoples. The Samish Nation is headquartered in Anacortes, Fidalgo Island, in Washington, north of Puget Sound.

Swinomish Indians of the Swinomish Reservation of Washington federally recognized Tribe

The Swinomish Indian Tribal Community, also known as the Swinomish Tribe, is a federally recognized Tribe located on Puget Sound in Washington. They are an Indigenous people of the Pacific Northwest that includes the Central and Coast Salish peoples who lived in the Samish and Skagit River valleys, nearby coasts, and islands. The Tribe's population includes Swinomish, Lower Skagit, Upper Skagit, Kikiallus, and Samish peoples.

The Gateway Pacific Terminal was a proposed export terminal at Xwe’chi’eXen in Whatcom County, Washington, along the Salish Sea shoreline. "Xwe’chi’eXen was an important village site for Lummi ancestors, and is considered culturally and historically significant to the Lummi people."


  1. "A Sovereign Nation Stands Tall". Intercontinental Cry. Retrieved 2015-12-13.
  2. "Lummi Diet". us-history. Retrieved 30 September 2021.
  3. Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). "Lummi Indians"  . Catholic Encyclopedia . New York: Robert Appleton Company.
  4. "Fishing & Shellfishing". Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife. January 22, 2017.
  5. Microsoft Word - Boldt Decision8.5x11 layout for web.doc Archived 2006-09-23 at the Wayback Machine
  6. Ceely, Seth (2015). "Lummi Fishing Rights and the Law". The Apollonian Revolt. Archived from the original on 19 July 2015. Retrieved 31 July 2015.
  7. Lummi hosts largest potlatch in 70 years : ICT [2007/08/13]
  8. Rosenbaum, Cary (22 January 2018). "When Atlantic salmon escape in the Pacific, who cleans up? (Salmon on the lam)". High Country News . Retrieved 2018-05-05.

Further reading