Tribe plans Fall City longhouse

Published 4:01 pm Thursday, October 2, 2008

The Snoqualmie Tribe’s vision for Fall City Park includes an authentic Native American longhouse.

Tribal administrator Matt Mattson said Monday, June 4, that the Tribe remains committed to ownership of the Fall City park, arena and playfields, once a village site for the Snoqualmies. Part of that commitment would be the construction of a Native American cedar longhouse on the site, if land use rules permit it.

“The Tribe wants to do it traditionally,” Mattson said. Snoqualmie Tribe’s “canoe family,” a group of about 20 tribal members who build traditional canoes, are becoming versed in the methods and hand tools – “not power tools,” Mattson said – of the trade.

“That’s something that tribal members are reconnecting to,” he said. “The next step is learning longhouse construction.”