At The Hibulb Cultural Center

     Yesterday we spent the afternoon at the Hibulb Cultural Center and Natural History Preserve near Marysville.  It just opened two or three weeks ago and is on land owned by the Tulalip Tribes – including the Snohomish, Snoqualmie, Skagit, Sauk-Suiattle, Samish, Stillaguamish, Duwamish, Sammamish, and Skykomish.
     The Center is big, beautiful and impressive.  It is so new that the Natural History Preserve is yet to come; a large greenhouse behind the parking lot suggests that the indigenous plants are ‘in progress.’  Eventually, the woods behind the Cultural Center will be as close as possible to the way the surrounding countryside was before the introduction of non-native plants.
     The mission statement of the Center is “to revive, restore, protect, interpret, collect and enhance the history, traditional cultural values and spiritual beliefs of the Tulalip Tribes…”   Of all the museums I’ve visited – Native American or not – this one gives the most attention to the misunderstandings and misinterpretations of Indian culture since White contact and government attempts at assimilation.  It was done tastefully, yet in places I had the distinct feeling that a finger was wagging accusingly at me.
     Yet, there was much to learn, especially about the successes of the Tulalip Tribes in recent years.  They are about far more than their casino (which is mostly what we hear of), especially with regard to the purchase and reacquisition of their traditional homelands.  I was very much interested in learning that Quil Ceda Village, a municipality within the reservation, is federally recognized.  The only other such city within the United States is Washington D.C.
     Like most Washingtonians we are used to explaining to Easterners that we are from “the other” Washington.  But those who live in Quil Ceda Village really live in the other Washington.  Doubly so.