Sitting Bull Falls in springs further down the canyon or joins the Pecos Valley underground water supply. The area around Sitting Bull Falls is the remnant of a reef system known as the Capitan Great Barrier Reef dating from the Permian period. Approximately 250 million years ago, the region was located near the edge of an inland sea. The origin of the name Sitting Bull Falls remains uncertain. One version holds that the falls were named after a Sioux medicine man. The Apache name for the area was gostahanagunti which means "hidden gulch". A number of hiking trails allow visitors access to the
Snoqualmie Indian Tribe their ancestral lands along the Tolt River (a tributary of the Snoqualmie River). Instead, they purchased land for and were granted a reservation near Snoqualmie, Washington, on which the tribe opened the Snoqualmie Casino in 2008. In 2008, the Snoqualmie Tribe Police Services was established to enforce tribal laws at the new Snoqualmie Casino near Snoqualmie, Washington. In the summer of 2008, the department hired a Chief who was supposed to hire a force of up to six officers to patrol the Casino and the Reservation property. However, in the spring of 2009 the tribe did not receive the funding