What does “Snohomish” mean?

 

Our school is located in Snohomish County, which was formed in 1861.

According to the Snohomish County Tribune in 1927, the mayor of the town of Snohomish stated that an Indian medicine man who lived on the riverbanks nearly 50 years before said snohomish” meant in his language, “gathering of the people.” Others have translated it as “union” or “coming together.”

 

Snohomish is the name of the Salish Indian tribe whose land this was. Many say that the Snohomish were known as the people of the lowland, or river, or sleeping waters.

 

In the Treaty of Point Elliot in 1855, the Snohomish tribe was promised land set aside for them at Tulalip, along with other tribes. Many left the reservation because the land could not sustain that many people. Some of their descendants still live on the Tulalip reservation. We honor the Snohomish who lived here before us, and those who still live among us no matter which path their ancestors chose to make the best of their unjust situations.

 

The land of the Snohomish is beautiful. It was and is sacred to American Indians. Nature is also sacred to Baha’is:

 

"NATURE IN ITS essence is the embodiment of My Name, the Maker, the Creator. Its manifestations are diversified by varying causes, and in this diversity there are signs for men of discernment. Nature is God's Will and is its expression in and through the contingent world. It is a dispensation of Providence ordained by the Ordainer, the All-Wise." Baha’u’llah, Tablets of Baha’u’llah

 

Humanity must now come together to take care of this land, the whole earth, and take care of each other. At Snohomish Baha’i School we learn how to help people unite to find solutions to our problems together.