Lushootseed is a member of the Salish language family, whose approximately twenty surviving languages are spoken from northern Oregon to central British Columbia, and from the Pacific coast eastward into Montana and along the British Columbia-Alberta border.The Lushootseed-speaking region extends along the shores of Puget Sound from modern-day Olympia to the Skagit watershed and from Hood Canal to the Cascades. Our language is Lushootseed - Coastal Salish. They made these temporary house out of cattail or tulle mats. In the old days the Indian people lived in longhouses, but during warm weather the Coastal Salish tribes of Puget Sound followed the game and fish runs erecting temporary encampments that could be moved quickly. They were assisted by Marvin Turk who donated his bulldozer and time to lift the poles into place, and PUD who dug the holes for the poles. The current longhouse was built by: Lawrence Williams, Tom Reeves, Herman Williams, Sr., Francis Sheldon, Bernard Gobin, Ralph Jones, Clyde Williams, Sr., Myron Fryberg, Sr., Leroy Fryberg, Sr. We still have a longhouse at Tulalip Bay that we use for our ceremonies. We now only use the longhouse for our ceremonies - we do not live there. It was for the wealthy and the shed roof was for the common people. The gable roof house is more like our longhouse here at Tulalip. Nowadays we live in modern houses, but in the old days we had both gable roof and shed roof houses.It was created to provide a permanent home for the Snohomish, Snoqualmie, Skagit, Suiattle, Samish and Stillaguamish Tribes and allied bands living in the region. Its boundaries were established by the 1855 Treaty and by Executive Order of President U.S. The Tulalip Reservation was reserved for the use and benefit of Indian tribes and bands signatory to the Treaty of Point Elliott of January 22, 1855. The Reservation is rich with natural resources: marine waters, tidelands, fresh water creeks and lakes, wetlands, forests and developable land.

The Tulalip Reservation exterior boundaries enclose a land-base of 22,000 acres, more than 50 percent of which is in federal trust status. The Tulalip Tribes is a federally-recognized Indian tribe located on the Tulalip Reservation in the mid-Puget Sound area bordered on the east by Interstate 5 and the city of Marysville, Washington on the south by the Snohomish River on the north by the Fire Trail Road (140th) and on the west by the waters of Puget Sound.

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