SUQUAMISH — The memorial marker of Suquamish chief and Seattle namesake Chief Sealth is getting a makeover.
The gravesite popular with visitors sits near the center of Suquamish Tribal Cemetery behind St. Peters Catholic Mission. A pathway leads visitors to the final resting place, often adorned with sea shells and other mementos. Sealth, also known as Seattle, was buried in 1866 and the site shows the wear of age.
Using a $100,000 grant from the city of Seattle, and money from the Suquamish Foundation, the tribe plans to pave a new footpath adorned with stones from Agate Passage and erect two guardian trees with carved cedar planks. The first phase of the project is expected to finish in September. The second phase of the project, the cedar planks, will be finished by the summer 2010, according to the project description posted near the site.
Two ceremonial canoes once posted around the headstone were disposed of in the spring. Currently a wooden fence encircles the gravesite, but the pathway is open and visitors are a common sight.
Tribal Chairman Leonard Forsman said the tribe doesn’t track visits, but estimated the site receives about 100 a week. The project was included in the tribe’s list of construction to-do projects, called the capital campaign, demonstrating the importance of preserving the site.
First, the goal was to honor the chief, Forsman said, whose protection and friendship of white settlers obliged the new inhabitants to name their city after him.
“Second, we have a responsibility to maintain appropriate access for visitors to the reservation in a respectful way,” he said.
Although Seattle and Sealth at times are used interchangeably, among other pronunciations, Forsman said a tribal elder had told him the pronunciation of the late chief’s name was closer to Seattle than Sealth in the original Lushootseed, the traditional Salish language of the Suquamish people.
There is a common assumption that early white settlers made mistakes when writing native words and names, Forsman said.
“They may have got this one right.”
