Although Smith Cove fell within the traditional geographic range of the Duwamish, early ethnographers did not record contact-era or earlier Native American villages in the immediate area of Smith Cove. Nonetheless, University of Washington ethnologist T. T. Waterman lists several native place names at or near Smith Cove. The mouth of one creek draining into the cove was called "Silaqwotsid" ("talking"). A creek just south of the bay (between Queen Anne Hill and the now-demolished Denny Hill was called "T³E’kEp", after a type of aerial net used for snaring the ducks that flew from Lake Union toward Elliott Bay through the gap between the hills.