"Come Forth Laughing" is a game played by children on the shores of Puget Sound with family and friends.  A clamshell is set atop a stick, and one-by-one children try to walk toward the clamshell and grab it before bursting out laughing. Adults and friends stand around the teetering clamshell and make jokes, cajoling the child – if the child starts laughing before they grab the clamshell, they must go back to the beginning and give another person a chance to win. The game is a tradition passed down in narrative that reflects the enduring personal bonds and strong attachment to the land that defines the Suquamish People.

An early oral tradition of the Suquamish was recorded by Chairman Lawrence “Webb” Webster on February 2, 1985. It is fully reflected in the Suquamish Tribal Museum’s elaborate display of artifacts and imagery, reprinted in the museum’s companion book Through the Eyes of Chief Seattle, and captured in Webb’s own words in the short film “Come Forth Laughing” produced by the Tribe. The oral tradition is bound up in the land of the Suquamish and surrounding tribes – subsistence, and preservation of the land and culture, are at the core of Webb’s and the Tribe’s oral history. 

Webb agreed to record the oral history passed down to him by his grandfather when he was close to one hundred years old. He experienced tribal gatherings on the shores near Agate Pass before white people became more common in Western Puget Sound.  At the same time, Webb was sent to boarding school where he was forced to learn English and removed from his home for months on end. His generation was caught up in the economic boom of the early 20th century, and he was a logger for most of his life, only breaking for World War II.  After logging he became Chairman of the Suquamish Tribe until his death in the ‘80’s. Webb’s oral history is a combination of memories that derive from his traditional upbringing as well as the swift drumbeat of change in the 20th century.

The traditional Suquamish lived on the shores of Puget Sound with lush forests and copious amounts of salt- and freshwater fish, berries, bears, and elk.  Seasonally, they erected longhouses for smoking and preparing fish, and year round occupied permanent longhouses and cedar dwellings. Baskets, mats, clothing, and various tools were critical implements in the subsistence living that supported the tribe.  Webb and the other tribal elders in “Come Forth Laughing” would be proud to know these traditional items are still made by hand, with reeds and cedar.

The incredible landscape and varied ecosystems on the Kitsap Peninsula, bordering Puget Sound, and sprawling into what is now Seattle and surrounding areas, provided enormous amounts of resources to the groups inhabiting this region. Three key memories bound up in the land are integral to the oral tradition of the Suquamish Nation. They include communal gatherings, subsistence living on and around the Puget Sound area, and cultural resiliency in the face of adversity both past and present. 

Communal gathering among coastal Salish peoples is an ancient custom.  These gatherings facilitated marriage and, especially, trade in the pre-contact period. For example, some coastal groups farmed ocean mammals for oils that inland groups required for crafting clothing, blankets, and tools such as berry baskets. The Suquamish Nation engaged in salmon fishing and gathering – collecting hundreds of types of food and resources to trade, to build longhouses, to make clothing, canoes, and mats. From time immemorial the Suquamish gathered with other regional tribes in large communal gatherings called potlatches, exchanging a wide variety of gifts, arranging marriages, and solidifying political agreements. The people would travel everywhere in cedar canoes, even gathering along the marshy banks of the eastern Puget Sound in what is now Seattle, to trade with inland groups, or as far north as Vancouver Island to engage with northern groups.

Today the oral tradition recounted by Webb is ingrained in every function and aspect of the Suquamish Tribe and surrounding community.  Today’s clam bakes, Geoduck exports, and houses full of smoked salmon mirror Webb’s childhood in the late 19th century when the Tribe lived year-round off the salmon harvest. Chief Seattle, just years before Webb was born, canoed across the Sound to the traditional marshy gathering places of his ancestors to sign the Treaty of Port Elliot with the U.S. Government.  For 150 years since, in modern times tribal members have been making the same journey to work as foresters or other professionals off reservation lands. And annually, the Tribe holds Chief Seattle Days in downtown Suquamish, when a giant, celebratory festival opens to the public.  Stories and ceremonies, as well as excellent fry bread, are presented to continue the ages-old practice of sharing and socializing in the spirit of the culture and heritage of the Suquamish and surrounding tribes.

  “Every part of this soil is sacred, in the estimation of my people.  Every hillside, every valley, every plain and grove, has been hallowed by some sad or happy event in days long vanished.  Even the rocks, which seem to be dumb and dead as they swelter in the sun along the silent shore, thrill with memories of stirring events connected with the lives of my people.” -Chief Seattle, 1854 Speech at the Presentation of the Treaties                                                                   

Conclusion

Webb is one of a long line of elders that worked tirelessly throughout the 20th century to keep the heritage of the Suquamish people alive by recounting stories and traditions, contributing artifacts, and capturing memories on film.  Today, basket making and the Lushootseed language have been completely revitalized based solely on the memories that survive from Webb and other tribal elders.  A learning center has been erected and groups of experienced, traditional teachers work with classes of students, young and old, passing on these traditions to a new generation.  From Geoduck harvests to the annual canoe journeys with other Puget Sound-area tribes, the traditions that honor the land and deep social bonds so integral to the Suquamish tribe, are alive and well today.  Webb would be proud to see his nation flourishing now as it has since time immemorial.

Chairman Webb, "An Oral History in His Own Words."