When Settlers Burned Herring's House, an Ancient Duwamish Settlement

When the month of March began in 1893, Duwamish tribal members owned eight houses near the mouth of the Duwamish River in West Seattle. The site was known as Herring’s House, a name inspired by the invasion of hordes of herring that spawned there each year.

Less than a week into March, in the space of a few hours, Herring’s House lost its eight dwellings and all their residents. They found a new home on an island of rocks in Elliott Bay.

Duwamish had lived for centuries in Herring’s House. Archaeologists believe it to have been the longest continually inhabited native village in North America — since the Sixth Century, A.D. Though the style of its structures had changed since the Denny Party arrived in 1851, the native village had even survived four decades of white settlement. Then, in a few minutes during March of 1893, Herring’s House fell to an arsonist’s torch, and 1,300 years of history went up in smoke.

The Duwamish tribe’s hold on the site had been tenuous since the coming of the whites in the 1850s, more so since land developers from San Francisco now owned the land under the Duwamish houses. Their company, the West Seattle Land and Improvement Company, had been in Seattle for a mere five years. However, they held legal title to Herring’s House, ignoring the fact that Duwamish had occupied the site since Muhammad walked the Arabian Peninsula.

https://www.postalley.org/2024/06/02/when-settlers-burned-herrings-house-an-ancient-duwamish-settlement/