Should we commemorate Seattle Founder’s Day?

The rain was falling and the wind was blowing on November 13, 2024, very much like it had done on this day 173 years ago. As many people learned as school children in Western Washington decades ago, it was way back on the morning of November 13, 1851, when the group considered to be the founders of Seattle landed at what’s now Alki Beach in West Seattle.

KIRO Newsradio interviewed Ken Workman early Wednesday beside the founder’s monument at Alki. Workman’s great-great-great-great grandfather is Chief Seattle, the city’s namesake.

More on Chief Seattle: The origins of the only photo ever taken of Chief Seattle

A quick internet check reveals that November 13, 1851 was a Thursday, meaning the Denny Party arrived at the beach just in time for the weekend.

The occasion of Founders’ Day used to be celebrated more regularly by the City of Seattle and by local institutions such as the Museum of History & Industry (MOHAI). Special events and big newspaper stories about the early years were especially common in the 1950s, after a festive marking of the city’s centennial in 1951 and the debut of the original MOHAI in Montlake in early 1952. The city was coming of age, and looking back a hundred years was meaningful to a lot of people.

But the celebrations in those years, in keeping with those times, were simplistic or focused mostly on the heroic settlers or pioneers, with little about anyone else. Over the past few decades, with the exception of the sesquicentennial year of 2001, the celebrations (or, really, any observance of the day) have fallen from favor as interpretation of history has evolved and changed. History nowadays is often presented in more complex and thoughtful ways and is rarely about trumpeting the arrival of white people in what had been native land for thousands of years.

Still, it would be nice to think the community could mark this day and remember what happened here 173 years ago, and also do it in a way that takes all the history into account, including the people who were already here.

More on that in a moment.

First, the Denny Party was a group of settlers from Illinois led by 29-year-old Arthur Denny. The family members came west not looking for farmland, but with the specific intention of founding a metropolis. These men, women, children and even and infant or two were city-builders, through and through.

The group left Cherry Grove, Illinois in April 1851 and came west by covered wagon on The Oregon Trail as far as The Dalles, which was then an obstruction to vessel traffic on the Columbia River. They then went by boat down the Columbia – starting downriver from The Dalles, of course – and eventually went up the Willamette River to Portland, arriving in late August.

Arthur Denny originally set his sights on settling in the Willamette Valley. On the way, he was told by a mystery man named Brock that all the good land there was already taken, but that there was still plenty of opportunity to find suitable locations on Puget Sound.

In Portland, many members of the Denny Party came down with an illness called the ague – which is described as a “malarial fever” — and so they rested in the Rose City for several weeks.

Meanwhile, Arthur’s younger brother, David Denny, was feeling fine. He was sent north to scout out a good location. David Denny chose a spot along what’s now Alki in late September and tried to build a cabin, but only got as far as erecting the walls. Thus, when Arthur and a few dozen other people arrived by boat on a rainy Nov. 13 morning, it has always been said that all of the women cried when they saw there was no roof to seek cover under to get out of the Puget Sound rain.

Of course, what’s now Seattle was not some desolate and deserted place in 1851. Duwamish and other Indigenous peoples had lived here for thousands of years.

So, when Arthur Denny and the others came ashore, one of the people who was there 173 years ago was Chief Seattle.

More on Seattle-based Native Americans: Native Americans greeted pioneers to Seattle 173 years ago

Chief Seattle descendant Ken Workman spoke with KIRO Newsradio at the rainy and windy spot where it all happened to help us more properly, thoughtfully and contextually mark the occasion.

The following are lightly edited excerpts from the conversation

Feliks Banel: “What does Seattle Founders’ Day mean to you, and is it right to observe or commemorate this day?”

Ken Workman: “It’s sort of a sorrowful day in that our world has changed. For thousands and thousands of years, we’ve lived alongside nature, and then these newcomers came at the invitation of my grandfather, Seattle. And so, as far as Founders’ Day in Seattle, this place is so new, it’s a wonderful thing, but it’s also kind of a sad thing.

Banel: “Are there things that people like me – (call us) well-intentioned historians, contextual fanatics – do (that means) we still get it wrong about Founders’ Day, and what it means to the city, as far as modern history is concerned?”

Workman: “No, you’ve got all of that stuff right. But what about the people that were here before? And what about all the change? What about these new people coming in and just taking this place that was ours? We don’t have ownership of property like they do today.”

Banel: “Part of the story is that Chief Seattle was very welcoming because the Denny party, who arrived from Illinois, they weren’t prepared for this weather. They weren’t prepared for the deprivation of being far away from the stuff they’d grown up with. Is it true that Chief Seattle was welcoming and made it possible for them to survive that first winter?”

Workman: “He was. As a matter of fact, he was the one who invited people to come up here to the Seattle area. He recognized the power of these new people. And so when the Denny family was struggling, the Duwamish people provided them with clam nectar and things to make it through the winter. Of course, you realize we’ve been living in the environment forever and ever, and so this rain is just like sunshine to us.”

Banel: “I think it’s really hard to imagine. I’m the son of immigrants. My parents came (to Seattle) from Europe 65 years ago. It’s hard to imagine being somewhere for so long and having a bunch of strangers just show up and start taking measurements and building buildings and things like that. It must have been like the arrival of people landing from outer space, I’ll bet.”

Workman: “Well, yes, we certainly recognized that these strangers had many powers, and so it’s always a good thing to be friends with more powerful people. And so that’s what my grandfather did.”

Banel: “Let’s talk a bit about that more challenging part of the story: The treatment of Indigenous people by incoming white settlers. I know there were good relationships, particularly between David Denny and some of the Indigenous people, like your great-grandfather. But how do we talk about the land that was once Duwamish homeland, but then had this European style of property ownership overlay (imposed), and a written culture over the oral culture? Can we reconcile that? Do we reconcile that? What do we do here in 2024 about what happened all those years ago?”

Workman: “We can reconcile it. And I would say that the first step is to make an apology. There are all kinds of things that people talk about, but an apology is always a good way to start. The land is very important to us because we recognize that through nature, our people are actually in the trees. They’re in the roots of the system, so they’re in the berries that we eat, in our food. And so we say ‘Thank you, grandma and grandpa, that we see you in the food, that we see you in the trees, and that we’re part of the place.’ And so our message is, ‘Native people, to even the people of today, take better care of the planet. Your grandma is in that tree.'”

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Banel: “I know the Duwamish tribe is still not recognized by the federal government. Is there any progress on that, or is that going to happen anytime soon?”

Workman: “We are still in the courts. Our attorneys are fighting on our behalf. We filed suits. So yes, as far as Indian Wars, I guess in modern times, this is what it looks like. The Duwamish Tribe is not federally recognized, and we’re using all the tools at our disposal to make that happen.”

KIRO Newsradio host Dave Ross: “I’d like to ask Ken a question. I’ve been to countries, specifically in Niger, where there are Indigenous people who are living much the same as they lived 2,000 years ago. They’re surrounded, of course, by a more developed culture. But they get by. They raise kids, they educate kids. They are happy, they are sad. They have and they live sustainable lives. Is it your sense that if the white settlers had never come, this would still be essentially a thriving tribal culture?”

Workman: “Yes, it would have, and that’s because we’ve been living the same way since the Ice Age retreated. And so it’s only 173 years, as Feliks pointed out. And for us, that’s barely a minute. So the time scale is wrong.”

You can hear Feliks Banel every Wednesday and Friday morning on Seattle’s Morning News with Dave Ross and Colleen O’Brien. Read more from Feliks here and subscribe to The Resident Historian Podcast here. If you have a story idea or a question about Northwest history, please email Feliks. You can also follow Feliks on X.

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