Muckleshoot Tribe
History
On December 5, 1856 Governor Stevens recommended the establishment
of the Muckleshoot Reservation and on April 9, 1874 the reservation
was given definite borders consisting of 3,532.72 acres. The reservation
came from the Medicine Creek Treaty (Dec. 26, 1854) which was made
up with bands of Nisquallis, Puyallups and other natives of lower
Puget Sound, Muckleshoot wasn't mentioned. Later on thirty-nine members
were allotted 3,191.97 acres of reservation. Under chiefs Kitsap and
Nelson the Muckleshoots joined the warring coalition against Americans
during the Indian War of 1855-56. After the war a Roman Catholic Church
was built on the reservation. Many of the Muckleshoots complained
of the whites that were on their reservation due to the fact of the
fragmented and irregular configuration of the reservation.
Government
On May 13, 1936 their constitution was approved under the Indian Reorganization
Act. The governing body is the Muckleshoot Indian Tribal council where
three new members are elected annually. The reservation is one of
several under jurisdiction of the Western Washington Indian agency
which is staffed to provide professional and technical services in
connection with reservation tribes and their economic development.
The tribe is member of the intertribal court system formed in 1978.
The tribe levies taxes on liquor which goes into general funds for
members and into a fund for land acquisition. They also have a business
licensing, zoning, a land-use ordinance, and water code and run a
bingo operation. The tribe was denied a land claim in the Court of
Claims in a suit Duwamish Indians vs. U.S. It was denied on grounds
that the U.S. had no basis on which to award judgement because they
had no treaty with them. However the Indian Claims Commission found
that the tribe had 101,620 acres of aboriginal land valued at $86,377.
On March 8, 1959 the commission ordered they be awarded that amount.
As of 1975 there were 1,201.26 acres of trust land on the reservation.