Seattle waterfront streets could get honorary name elevating tribal history

SEATTLE — A section of Seattle’s waterfront streets may soon get an honorary name that acknowledges the lands and history of the Puget Sound Coast Salish people.

Under the proposal, Alaskan Way and Elliott Way, between South Dearborn and Bell streets, would be given the honorary street name Dzidzilalich, pronounced dzee-dzuh-lah-leech, recognizing the tribal village that once stood there.

“It is an amazing and wonderful idea to give our waterfront its Lushootseed name again,” said Seattle City Council President Debora Juarez, an enrolled member of the Blackfeet Nation, in a statement. “This has been a long time coming and will be healing for the tribes.”

Alaskan Way and Elliott Way will remain the legal street names, and addresses will not change, city officials said. But if the plan goes through, each green intersection street sign will include a brown street sign with “Dzidzilalich” posted underneath. New interpretive signage will also be placed along the waterfront, detailing information about local tribal history and culture.

Meaning “little crossing-over place” in the Salishan language of Lushootseed, Dzidzilalich is likely a reference to a narrow sandspit between the beach and a nearby lagoon, with homes located on either end, according to Warren King George, a historian at the Muckleshoot Tribe.

Pre-contact, the village was a bustling community of foragers, fishermen and hunters along the marshy shore of Elliott Bay, King George said. Low tide would expose acres and acres of coastal wetlands, revealing an abundance of mussels, clams and crabs. Vast beds of eelgrass, now gone along Seattle’s modern waterfront shoreline, grew in the muddy, shallow waters, providing vital spawning grounds for Pacific herring.

Long before the ferry terminal and the Great Wheel, before the skyscrapers and concrete roads, generations of tribal families who lived along the waterfront called the place Dzidzilalich, King George said. Today, the tidal flat is in the vicinity of King Street Station.

“It’s powerful to use the traditional language because that language is ancient, our landscape is ancient, our way of life is ancient,” said Leonard Forsman, chair of the Suquamish Tribe.

“To bring that spirit back to Seattle, which is named after our chief as well, of course, only seemed appropriate and authentic,” he said.

Discussion about a potential honorary street designation began about a year ago as part of the ongoing redevelopment and overhaul of Seattle’s downtown waterfront, said Marshall Foster, director of the city’s Office of the Waterfront and Civic Projects.

“A lot of Seattleites, you can use the waterfront, and have a life here, and not realize the tribal history and culture,” Foster said.

The City Council is expected to vote on creating the honorary street designation in early 2023. If approved, the honorary street signs would be posted when the newly constructed Elliott Way, an elevated roadway connecting Alaskan Way to Belltown, is finished.

“I think it’s important to acknowledge that we didn’t forget about Dzidzilalich, it’s our neighbors who forgot about Dzidzilalich,” King George said. “I think it’s a step in the right direction, but we can always make more of an effort to honor that history.”