Jan. 6 was a typical overcast day in Seattle’s South Lake Union neighborhood. Few of the tech workers from the nearby offices of Amazon, Google, and Microsoft were outside at lunchtime. Only a few could be seen walking their dogs in Lake Union Park. The whining of car tires zooming along Aurora Avenue to the west and Interstate 5 to the east drowned out all natural sounds.

But inside a wooden building within the park, Native voices sang and handmade drums kept time like a heartbeat as the descendants of the lake’s original inhabitants welcomed their ancestors with a blessing song. Willard Bill Jr. led a group of drummers and singers in a song passed down in his family for generations. The song reached out to his ancestors, in particular the Duwamish sub-Chief Cheshiahud (Chesh-ee-AH-hood), who once governed the tribe’s village on the southern shore of Lake Union.

The occasion was to kick off the creation of a Native Canoe Carving House that will bring the rich tradition of Coast Salish canoe culture back to XáXu7cHoo, or Little Lake, as the Duwamish call Lake Union.

“Willard and his children are the fifth great-grandchildren of Cheshiahud, who was the head of the Lake Band of Indians,” the family’s elder, Jackie Swanson, the great-great-granddaughter of Cheshiahud, told the gathering. “His territory included Lake Union, Washington, and Sammamish. So I know he’s glad to see his relatives at home singing their songs and greeting their land.”