Community Blogs
Wellspring Family Services’ play area
Duwamish health impact assessment
Life on the Duwamish
Duwamish Longhouse
UW Libraries, Special Collection, Owen Gump Collection
Noel Chrisman
Assunta Ng
The Greater Duwamish area takes its name from the Duwamish tribe, “The People of the Inside,” who lived along what is now called the Duwamish River. It includes the neighborhoods of Sodo (from its location SOuth of the former Kingdome, and in later use South of Downtown), Georgetown, South Park and North and South Beacon Hill. South Park is Seattle’s only river community and was settled in the 1850’s.
Some Neighborhood Notables
A new health impact assessment led by environmental health researchers in the UW School of Public Health will assess key health issues affecting people who use the Duwamish River or live nearby.
The Burke Museum has contributed to planning, design, exhibitions and program development for Northwest tribal museums and cultural centers, including the Duwamish Longhouse and Cultural Center. Activities include long-term loan of objects for display, consultation on exhibition design, fundraising and financial development, conservation, preservation, collections management and training for center staff.
The photo to the right is one of 20 black-and-white images by UW architectural photography student and Fulbright Scholar Owen Gump, documenting industrial structures and landscapes in the north Duwamish area of Seattle as they appeared in 2000-2002. The North Duwamish neighborhood is the largest industrial and commercial area in the Pacific Northwest, providing 25 percent of the city’s tax base and more than 70,000 jobs. (Photo courtesy of University of Washington Libraries, Special Collection, Owen Gump Collection.)
Life on the Duwamish, a series produced by Puget Sound Public Radio KUOW 94.9, explores the 150-year history of the Duwamish waterway, home to a tranquil Native American community, Seattle’s first white settlers, one of the country’s busiest ports and the focal point of communities in South Park and Georgetown.
Since 1995, UW School of Nursing Professor Noel Chrisman has worked in partnership with the South Park community to pioneer a multicultural, cultural competence approach to health promotion and disease prevention. In 2011, undergraduate nursing students used new and existing community partnerships to develop five new projects focused on improving community welfare and quality of life.
UW alumna Assunta Ng received a B.A. in East Asian Studies in 1974, a teaching certificate in 1976, and an M.A. in Speech Communication in 1979. After teaching social studies to immigrant children at Mercer Junior High School on Beacon Hill she decided she wanted to have more of an impact and founded the Seattle Chinese Post, published in Chinese, and later the Northwest Asian Weekly, published in English.
Boosting Local Economies
The UW Industrial Assessment Center believes that managing industrial energy is a responsibility shared by the entire industrial community. In order to achieve a greater level of energy efficiency, a team composed mainly of engineering faculty and graduate-level students in the University of Washington’s Department of Electrical Engineering provides small- and medium-sized manufacturers with free energy assessments.
The Business Assistance Program from the Foster School of Business serves small business owners in Duwamish, South Park, Beacon Hill and other emerging communities in Seattle, offering pro bono legal advising, accounting and financial services, pro bono consulting services and access to additional counsel and business advice. Programs are provided through a competitive application process.