Driving South on the Aurora Bridge, Lake Union on the right,
Puget Sound on the Left.
Chesheeahud was a renowned Duwamish chief and travel guide to Lake Union, Lake Washington, and Lake Sammamish in the days before roads were built in the City of Seattle and its suburbs of the “Eastside”. Chesheeahud was the leader of a Duwamish village on Lake Union. Chesheeahud had a cabin and a potato patch on land given to him by pioneer David Denny at the foot of Shelby Street as late as 1900.
Landscapers have been busy at the “Canlis” Shrubs have been trimmed, lower branches from Maples removed.
There is a ladder that is leaning against a Juniper, left behind as the workers moved on.
Crossing the bridge,
A Black Lives Matter sign hangs from its right side and drapes over the sidewalk the breeze picks up, it swells like a sail similar to one of the boats below.
Chesheeahud’s to become also known as “lake John” (canoe was a full-sized Salish style canoe, with gently up-curving bow and tapering, angled stern. Carved from a single huge log of western red cedar, large canoes of this shape had almost disappeared by the end of the 1800s. This was by the Nuu-chah’nulth from the coast and western.
A young man, 20 something, dressed in white shirt, vest, tie, nice jeans leather shoes leaves the bus at 39th and Freemont, I pull forward he slaps the bus and waves, he has left his computer behind.
At 46th and Phinney, then drop him at 65th and Greenwood, I pick up a regular, older man, 70? Wears a grey flat cap, light blue jacket, jeans, white tennis shoes, his line before Covid was to pay a $1, say to me “its only fair” we both will shake our heads with appreciation for the corny greeting,
He awkwardly enters the back of the bus now and seems to feel he is missing something before he sits down.
“John was a Lake Indian. His illahee [land], which was given to him by his cloish tillicum [good friend], “Dave Denny,” was on Portage Bay, Lake Union, at the foot of what is known now as Shelby Street. There he had his cabin and a small potato patch. He buried his chickamin [money] at the base of stumps. Back among the stumps he built his “sit down” house,. of which he was very proud and which we would not allow any one else to use.”
One person is left on my bus, an older Japanese woman, English her second language sits in front with her cane and mask, I had picked her up at 4th and Jackson by the International District, she leaves my bus at 100th where I pick her up in the mornings, Her husband is with her , his White Fedora, White Jacket that matches his white hair, he pays her fare, walks her to her seat while he does, he makes sure to let me know he is leaving and where her stop is.
Her Husband is now at 100th, there to greet her, helps her off the bus and both bow and wave goodbye to me.
Chesheeahud and his wife, known by her Pastid name “Madeline”, were often referred to as “the last of the Lake Union Indians,” since they were in fact the last Duwamish family to maintain residence on the lake as the city grew up around “Debadidi” (David Denny) and moved with many of his people to the Suquamish Reservation across Puget Sound.
I have continued the route, left my layover at Shoreline Community College, a dozen or so people on my bus, I cross the Aurora Bridge Southbound, the Olympics are still white with shades of blue as they meet the sound.
On my left is the “Canlis”, with a ladder that has been left behind as workers moved on.
Sources:
Dailey, Tom. Coast Salish Villages of Puget Sound, http://www.coastsalishmap.org/
Gould, Jim, Professor Emeritus of History and International Relations, Scripps College, Claremont CA. The Montlake Neighborhood, http://montlake.net/mcc/mcc_history_Jim_Gould.htm
King County Landmarks & Heritage Commission, Change of Worlds, http://www.changeofworlds.org/object.cfm?object=
Thomas Speer
Transit Transients and Other Stories 