After the treaty

The United States government did not fulfill its commitments to the Duwamish under the Point Elliott Treaty. The Duwamish did not receive a reservation and, indeed, a proposed reservation was specifically blocked in 1866.^[37] Some Duwamish joined other tribes and moved onto reservations.^[11] Many moved to the Port Madison Reservation, some to the Tulalip or Muckleshoot reservations.^[38] Others refused to move. Some Coastal Salish were passionately unwilling to leave their "usual and accustomed places" (a common 19th century phrase that became treaty terms). The People of the Inside and the People of the Large Lake (the Duwamish) in what is now Seattle were (and are) no exception.^[39]

Seattle waterfront with moored Indian canoes, c. 1892

In the mid-1860s the U.S. Superintendent of Indian Affairs proposed a Duwamish Indian Reservation along the White and Green River Valleys. In 1866, some 152–170 King County settlers petitioned Arthur Denny, the Territorial Delegate to Congress, against a reservation for the Duwamish tribe on the then-Black River, near what is now Renton and Tukwila. The first signature was Chas. C. Terry (Charles Terry), followed by Arthur himself and David Denny, H. L. Yesler (Henry Yesler), David "Doc" Maynard and virtually all of the Seattle establishment of the time. The petition was forwarded to the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA). The BIA withdrew the proposal.^[40]
Visible Native presence in the City of Seattle had disappeared by 1910, effected primarily by city proscription (c. 1865) and in part by repeated arson.^[11][41]