This ethnohistoric case study examines the comparative philosophies of technology and the concomitant consequences for nature of two contrasting societies inhabiting the southern Puget Sound basin in Washington State: the Southern Coast Salish and the contemporary urban-industrial society. Figure 1 maps a few contemporary cities, Southern Coast Salish traditional tribal locations and language boundaries, and contemporary reservations. This case study should also be interpreted in the context of the discussion focused on ecological issues in American Indian and Alaska Native history. We argue that a striking contrast exists between the metaphysical and ethical systems (with respect to technology and the environment) of the aboriginal peoples of the southern Puget Sound basin and those who immigrated to the region following European contact in 1792. Concomitantly, the aboriginal inhabitants constructed a cultural form that maintained a relatively stable ecosystem for thousands of years prior to contact with Western influences. Outsiders, representing for the most part the outward push of several colonial powers, managed to deteriorate significantly the same ecosystem and harm the aboriginal inhabitants in less than two hundred years. Indeed, the most destructive phase of this rapid ecological and cultural transition occurred over the last 130 years following American settlement in the mid 1800s, the creation of Washington Territory in 1853, and the importation of the industrial revolution in the late 1800s.

INTRODUCTION This article will first describe the Puyallup Reservation in Tacoma-Pierce County, Washington, focusing on its urban context and the demographics of the multitribal community it serves. The authors will then consider the Chief Leschi Schools system (pre-K through 12) in historic perspective and in its contemporary form. The community and family risk factors associated with the escalating problem of alcohol/drug abuse and violence/youth violence in the surrounding urban community and within the Puyallup Reservation will be discussed. The impact of the broader urban alcohol/drug abuse and violence on Chief Leschi Schools and its children and families will then be analyzed. The tribal programmatic response to this situation and particularly the development and the evolution of the prevention programs, Positive Reinforcement in Drug Education (PRIDE) and Puyallups Against Violence (PAV) will be discussed. These programs were designed to provide positive alternative activities to American Indian and Alaska Native students and the general multitribal community. The current design of the alcohol-drug-violence-gang prevention program (Safe Futures) and the future goals and plans for this program will then be reviewed. Special attention will be placed on reviewing the risk factors and protective factors targeted for intervention through the Safe Futures Program. Finally, the relevance of this project to a selected sample of the research literature will be discussed. This article is based on an analysis of historic data and a set of interviews with school staff, prevention staff, and general Puyallup tribal employees.

The purpose of this paper is to develop more fully for the Southern Coast Salish the recently published chronology that describes and analyzes the effects of European-introduced diseases and illnesses on the aboriginal populations of the Northwest Coast. A brief description of aboriginal population estimates and social structure is followed by a discussion of the nature of indigenous diseases and illnesses; last we present an analysis of the impact of introduced sicknesses on population, social structure, ceremonialism, and other aspects of traditional Southern Coast Salish culture. The impetus for this research stems from two sources. First, after the completion of an ethnographic study of the contemporary health care system and the lay health care-seeking strategies of the Puyallup tribal community in Tacoma, Washington, we were interested in assessing the impact of introduced diseases, illnesses, and Western medicine on the tribal societies of the area. We were searching for answers to the following questions: Under what set of situations did the contemporary health care beliefs and practices of the Indian people arise from the aboriginal context? Why did these changes occur?