Historical museum recounts the history of the Suquamish on Bainbridge at annual meeting

The Bainbridge Island Historical Museum will have its annual meeting next week and will honor the 100-plus volunteers who are vital to the success of museum. The lunchtime meeting will also recount the history of the Suquamish Tribe on the island.

February 6, 2016 2:10 pm
Petroglyph Haleets at Agate Point.
Petroglyph Haleets at Agate Point.

The Bainbridge Island Historical Museum will have its annual meeting next week and will honor the 100-plus volunteers who are vital to the success of museum. The lunchtime meeting will also recount the history of the Suquamish Tribe on the island.

The potluck is 1 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 13 at Island Center Hall.

Dennis Lewarch, historic preservation officer for the Suquamish Tribe, will be the featured speaker.

Lewarch will present “Bainbridge Island: Ancestral Heartland of the Suquamish People,” and he will share how archeological data demonstrates the use of the island by Suquamish ancestors during the past 5,000 years. The first historic document to reference the Suquamish on Bainbridge was by Captain George Vancouver in 1792. Lewarch will share the early descriptions of Suquamish villages and campsites collected by the Hudson’s Bay Company traders, the Catholic Church and the U.S. Navy in the early 1800s and how the Suquamish later contributed to the economic development of the island, working as loggers and fisherman in mills and shipyards.

Lewarch has narrated the history of the Suquamish on several recent Virginia V cruises around the island sponsored by the museum. This summer he also led a fascinating excursion to the Agate Point petroglyphs.