The area surrounding present-day Kenmore is the traditional homelands and hunting grounds for people from multiple Coast Salish indigenous groups and sub-groups, including the Duwamish, Tulalip, Sammamish, Snoqualmie, and Suquamish.
A village called ƛ’ a x̌w a d i s, (also written Tl’ awh-ah-dees or Tlah-WAH-dees), consisting of multiple cedar longhouses, once stood where the Sammamish River empties into lake Washington. This is thought to have been the largest village in the valley. The indigenous people that inhabited the Puget Sound region spoke Lushootseed, a Salish language, which is still spoken today.
