When Suzanne Selfors and her daughter Isabelle Ranson disembark from the schooner “Sea Scout” at Alki Point next Tuesday, they will be retracing the steps of ancestors.

Selfors and Ranson with other descendants of Seattle’s first white settlers – the Bells, Borens, Dennys, Lows and Terrys – will be recreating the Nov. 13, 1851 debarkation from the schooner “Exact” to kick off a year-long celebration of Seattle’s 150th anniversary.

“I am participating because, while my children have inherited pioneer ancestry from me, they have Native American ancestry from their father,” Selfors said. “I thought this would be an interesting way for them to learn about history, and how many different people were affected by events.”

Selfors’ great-great-great-grandmother, Laura Keziah Bell, sailed as a 9-year-old with her sisters Olive and Mary Virginia, each of whom would name a Seattle thoroughfare; a mother – Sarah Ann Peter Bell – who would die of tuberculosis after a brief sojourn in the northern damp; and her father, William Nathaniel Bell.

After months on the Oregon Trail, the family reached Portland to find that there was no more land for the taking in the Willamette Valley. They embarked on the “Exact,” which was slated to sail north.

“I don’t know exactly why they had left Illinois,” Selfors’ mother Marilyn McLauchlan said. “I know it was close to the time of the Civil War, and the family were strong abolitionists.

“But most people came looking for land.”

Two worlds

After the recreation of the settlers’ 1851 landing, Duamish tribal elders join Seattle dignitaries for the dedication of a mural on the Alki market featuring images of the “Exact” and an Indian canoe; and the unveiling of two new plaques affixed to the obelisk monument to the pioneers at Alki Point.

One plaque names the pioneer women, rectifying an old slight; in settlers’ documents Mary Ann Boren Denny, Lydia Culborn Low, Mary Kays Boren, Louisa Boren and Sarah Ann Peter Bell are referenced as “wife of,” diminishing their important role in the founding Seattle, descendants say.

The second plaque acknowledges native contributions to early Seattle.

A bulletin from the Southwest Historical Society, event co-sponsor with the Alki Community Council, states:

“The Duamish and other Native peoples helped the Alki landing party survive the early years here. They shared their space, their food and their knowledge.”

The sesquicentennial events were structured to include Native Americans and to acknowledge Chief Sealth, the Indian leader who had first contact with the settlers.

Friday, Sealth was honored in a Suquamish ceremony attended by tribal council chair Bennie Armstrong; Gov. Gary Locke; Seattle Archbishop Alex Brunett; Seattle Mayor Paul Schell and Bainbridge Mayor Dwight Sutton; and other tribal and county dignitaries.

Several hundred onlookers followed the traditional Suquamish dance group; the tribal police color guard and the Seattle police color guard pipe and drum from downtown Suquamish to Sealth’s grave site.

Officials laid three wreaths on the grave site of Chief Sealth, representing city, state and county. A joint statement by Schell and Suquamish tribal council chairperson Bennie Armstrong read:

“This year we celebrate the 150th Anniversary of the founding of the City of Seattle, part of a vision of prosperity and partnership between United States immigrants and the Suquamish and Duamish people.

“The City of Seattle and the Suquamish Tribe are paying homage to this vision by launching a year of commemorative events. We begin by paying proper respect to the region’s first leader – a leader with the vision and strength to bring together such seemingly disparate sets of people.”

Observance of the white settlement did bring out some dissenting opinions in the native community.

While many North Kitsap natives were among those celebrating the opening event for Seattle’s founding, some chose not to participate, stating that they view the settling of Seattle as an invasion.

The history of Seattle will be in focus during the year-long series of events planned by the Mayor’s Sesquicentennial Task Force.

But for many of the descendants of the first settlers who landed on Alki Point and the descendants of the Native Americans who lived there, the history is a living presence every year.

“When I go across on the boat, I always think about it,” McLauchlan said. “I look at the modern skyline, but old Seattle always pops into my mind.”