Nisqually tribe members and history buffs celebrated Washington’s roots Sunday at the site of one of the first European trading posts in the Puget Sound area, in DuPont.

The Fort Nisqually Site Celebration, which has been held annually for three years, included the Nisqually tribe for the first time. The tribe, the historical occupants of the land, opened the celebration with a blessing and traditional songs, and held a salmon bake.

The Hudson’s Bay Co., a British trading company, moved Fort Nisqually to the site on what now is Center Street in 1843, after operating the fort on two other sites nearby in the previous 10 years. The trading post closed in 1870, but at its peak, hundreds of people had business there, either working for or trading with the post, historian Drew Crooks said.

“This was always a multicultural community,” he said. Employees from England, Scotland and Hawaii married Nisqually tribe members, and fur and other goods were headed to Britain, Russian Alaska and Mexican California, he said.

“This was a meeting place that all people of many cultures came to for economic and social reasons,” he said.

The site largely was untouched by development after Hudson’s Bay Co. left, and today it is owned by the National Archaeological Conservancy, a California-based nonprofit agency that restricts access to the site. Some of the original buildings were moved to a Fort Nisqually reconstruction at Point Defiance Park in Tacoma.

Nisqually tribal elder Joseph Kalama, who opened the celebration with a blessing, said that his great-grandfather, John Kalama, was a native Hawaiian employed by Hudson’s Bay Co. who had migrated to Washington Territory from what then was the Kingdom of Hawaii. John Kalama married Mary Martin, the daughter of a Nisqually chief, and established many trading posts used by Hudson’s Bay Co.

The celebration included people re-enacting many tasks that would have been necessary for the fort. Among them were woodworkers, metal workers and thread spinners.

Spinner Heather Kibbey of Tacoma said that although the commercial and employment history of Fort Nisqually were well-documented by Hudson’s Bay Co. for financial reasons, some of the re-enactors had to use their imagination with the private lives of the local women.

“They didn’t mention the women much,” she said.

Venice Buhain: 360-754-5445

vbuhain@theolympian.com