Contact St. Peter Catholic Mission for additional information:

Office phone: (360) 779-4291

Funerals: (360) 779-4291

Valerie Lint (Pastoral Assistant for Administration): [email protected]

For additional information about Chief Seattle and the Suquamish Tribe:

Mailing address: P.O. Box 498, Suquamish, Washington 98392

Phone: (360) 598-3311

Website: www.suquamish.nsn.us

Ashley Riley (cemetery volunteer): [email protected]

It is estimated that the Suquamish had inhabited Bainbridge Island for at least 5,000 years before white settlers ever came to the Puget Sound. While their first major camp was at Pleasant Beach, they had additional camps throughout the island, including those at Port Madison, Port Blakely, Eagle Harbor, Agate Passage, Restoration Point, and more. Suquamish traditionally wrapped their dead and put them up into a tree with a few of their earthly possessions. If the tribe member was of particular importance, they would be laid in the forest in an above-ground canoe, over which would be some type of cover or lean-to for weather protection. The first Catholic missionaries to the area converted them from this above-ground ritual to the in-ground burials more customary of white Europeans and settlers. After the signing of the Treaty of Point Elliot in 1855, which gave Bainbridge Island to the white settlers, this relegated members of the tribe to the Port Madison reservation (now called Suquamish) on the Kitsap Peninsula. With their traditional lands now no longer in their possession, a new burial ground was needed. The land where the Suquamish Memorial Cemetery now sits was originally land owned by George "Old George" Clafwha (1806-1914), a Suquamish tribesman, and nephew of Chief Seattle, who was well known throughout the Pacific Northwest. The oldest identifiable headstone belongs to 14 year-old Annie Utesed, who died in 1844. There are countless unknown and unmarked burials throughout the cemetery, some of which may be even older than this. Chief Seattle, who negotiated the terms of the Treaty of Point Elliott for the Suquamish, was buried here after his death in 1866. (Cemetery history provided by Ashley Riley).