Museum exhibits Whidbey’s indigenous roots

New exhibits will revitalize the Langley museum by illuminating the culturally rich history of South Whidbey’s lesser known inhabitants.

As a fresh coat of green paint dried on the walls in the front room of the South Whidbey Historical Museum, Kyle Walker excitedly rifled through a box of indigenous artifacts, unearthing a birch box and a burden basket that were recently donated.

For the past few years, Walker has dedicated herself to revealing more about the history of the Coast Salish Snohomish people who lived on South Whidbey, including her own family. Their lands stretched from Greenbank to Clinton and included the surrounding tidelands, harbors and waterways.

Walker’s research project, aptly titled “A Tangled Web of History,” explores the Sandy Point area of Langley, which was once the site of a Snohomish village, TSEHT-sk-luhks (meaning ragged nose, head of the island). It’s also where her great-great-grandparents, Portuguese immigrant Joseph Brown and Mary Shelton, or Ge-Gah-Ha, a high-born member of the Coast Salish Snohomish Tribe, settled.

Last weekend, visitors got the chance to glimpse some of the new exhibits, which are a legacy project for museum board members and volunteers who have served as caretakers of South Whidbey’s history. The museum open house included the unveiling of an indigenous window exhibit and a blessing by descendants of the Coast Salish Snohomish Tribe. The rest of the exhibits in the front room are slated to open in time for Langley Mystery Weekend 2025.

People may remember the previous arrangement of the museum’s front room, which could best be described as busy with its hodgepodge of mammoth bones, colorful bottles and myriad signs, among other things.

“We’ve had a lot of folks say, ‘I don’t go to the museum anymore, I saw it when I was little and I took my kids there,’” Walker said. “This is completely different.”

In April, the museum’s board unanimously voted to refresh the front room with new exhibits focused on Coast Salish Snohomish history and culture, including experiences of those living on Whidbey. The new layout includes a land acknowledgement and a children’s corner, as well as information about the impacts of colonial contact, biracial family experiences and stereotyping Native Americans.

Earlier this year, descendants of the Snohomish Tribe helped pack up the room’s former contents.

“It was kind of a magical day,” Walker said. “It was almost like dismantling racism. It was wiping the slate clean so there’s now more diversity represented here.”

Members of the tribe and staff with the Tulalip Hibulb Cultural Center have been assisting with gallery planning.

Pamela SeaMonster, a cultural educator and a member of the Snohomish Tribe, donated and loaned traditional clothing she made for the exhibit that is being previewed this weekend.

SeaMonster twined and braided a women’s winter outfit in a traditional style but with contemporary materials, adding copper to symbolize a good relationship and as a thank you for the historical society’s inclusion.

“As an indigenous person, it really made my heart happy to hear that the South Whidbey Historical Society in Langley was going to become more inclusive about where history started,” she said, “and history didn’t start with Mr. Whidbey. It didn’t start with Ebey. It didn’t start with settlers. It started with the first people.”

Other items she created include Ul?al — the Lushootseed word for a skirt used for berry-picking made of cattail grass that was meant to be a disposable garment – and dance aprons made from her father’s boarding school blankets. As of many people of his generation with Native American heritage, her father was forced to go to boarding schools in the region to assimilate with the mainstream culture of the time. He escaped with his blankets, which SeaMonster wove into regalia that he wore during powwows. She also made a wool sash and cedar leggings to complete the outfit.

Walker said she has noticed that the visiting public is hungry for more indigenous history, which had previously been missing from the museum.

“A lot of that was hidden or invisible,” she said. “I have a (tribe) member who keeps reminding me, ‘We’ve always been here. We’re not invisible.’ I said, ‘You’re not, but your history is. Your story is. We need to bring that forward now.’”

Since starting her research project, Walker has moved to Whidbey Island and the museum ended up hiring her intern, Diane Durham, as its very first employee earlier this year. Durham works as the advancement manager and has made progress in cataloging inventory and updating the museum’s website, which will soon go live. She is also striving to revive the museum’s educational outreach, with the goal of inviting classes for field trips and creating a teen docent program.

Over the past few years there have been many exciting discoveries on South Whidbey, including the preternaturally preserved log cabin on Langley Road, where several indigenous artifacts have since been found. Many of the Snohomish stayed behind, Walker said, and that cabin could have been a place where they lived instead of going to the reservation that the 1855 Treaty of Point Elliott mandated.

“Washington state history on South Whidbey’s been fairly quiet,” Walker said. “Logging, maritime, right? Now there’s a whole new chapter here.”

This past spring, Walker was given a box that contained human skeletal remains believed to have belonged to an indigenous woman from more than 150 years ago. The story went that a road crew in the ‘80s removed them from their sacred resting place along Edgecliff Drive, which is near where the Snohomish village used to be located.

The remains, which had been desecrated, were passed on anonymously until reaching Walker, who followed local, state and federal protocol by handing them over to the Island County coroner who, finding no foul play, sent them to the state anthropologist with the Department of Archaeology and Historic Preservation for identification. Once that process is complete, the intent is to reinter the remains.

Walker also received a collection of artifacts made by William Shelton, the last hereditary chief of the Snohomish Tribe who was born at TSEHT-sk-luhks, the Sandy Point village. He was known for his story pole carvings. His work will be displayed, including a deer hide that will be mounted in the museum.

The museum hopes to raise more funds to purchase display cases that control humidity and light.

“We don’t want to put anything out in the open that’s going to gather dust and wither away,” Walker said.

For more information, visit southwhidbeyhistory.org.

(Photo by Kira Erickson/South Whidbey Record) Kyle Walker unearths a birch box, right, and a burden basket from a collection of indigenous artifacts.

(Photo by Kira Erickson/South Whidbey Record) Diane Durham and Kyle Walker outside of the South Whidbey Historical Museum, which is undergoing some updates.

(Photo by Kira Erickson/South Whidbey Record) Diane Durham serves as the South Whidbey Historical Museum’s first ever employee, the advancement manager.