Martha George
title: "Martha George" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["1892-births", "1987-deaths", "native-american-women-leaders", "people-from-king-county,-washington", "native-american-women-in-politics", "20th-century-american-women", "20th-century-native-american-women", "20th-century-native-american-politicians"] topic_path: "politics" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martha_George" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0
::data[format=table title="Infobox Native American leader"]
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| name | Martha George |
| tribe | Chairperson of the Suquamish tribe from the late 1920s to the early 1940s |
| birth_date | April 28, 1892 |
| birth_place | Sheridan, Washington |
| death_date | |
| nicknames | Martha Purser |
| spouse | Bennie George, of the Klallam |
| children | 10 |
| relations | Chief Seattle |
| :: |
| name = Martha George | image = | image_size = | caption = | tribe = Chairperson of the Suquamish tribe from the late 1920s to the early 1940s | lead = | birth_date = April 28, 1892 | birth_place = Sheridan, Washington | death_date = | death_place = | predecessor = | successor = | native_name = | nicknames = Martha Purser | known_for = | death_cause = | resting_place = | rp_coordinates = | religion = | party = | education = | spouse = Bennie George, of the Klallam | children = 10 | parents = | relations = Chief Seattle}}
Martha George (April 28, 1892 – January 7, 1987) was a native American tribal leader, repeatedly elected chairperson of the Suquamish tribe, serving from the late 1920s to the early 1940s. She was a descendant of Chief Seattle in present-day Washington state. She founded the Small Tribes Organization of Western Washington.{{Cite web | title = Notable Native American Women | accessdate = 2013-04-20 | url = http://harisingh.com/newsNative3.htm
George was a famous basketweaver, who taught master weaver Peg Deam. ::quote
Deam recounted a story of when she was a little girl and asked George to take her to gather bark for a cedar dress. George laughed - winter is not the time for gathering - and took her in the spring.{{Cite news | title = Northwest tribes trade weaving skills at Suquamish | work = North Kitsap Herald | accessdate = 2013-04-20 | date = 2011-10-03 | url = http://www.northkitsapherald.com/news/131020198.html }} ::
Her collection of Coast Salish baskets is displayed in the Suquamish Museum.{{Cite web | last = Melinda West | title = New Suquamish Museum | work = West Gardens Basketry | accessdate = 2013-04-20 | url = http://www.melindawest.com/visiting-the-new-suquamish-museum/
Quote
::quote
"They took what they needed and that's all. There's nothing wasted. That's quite important among the Indians: that you should respect the earth."{{Cite web |title = Ethnobotanical Garden - Sustainability |work = Seattle University, College of Arts and Sciences |accessdate = 2013-04-20 |url = http://athletics.seattleu.edu/artsci/ethnobotanical/Default.aspx?id=15862 |url-status = dead |archiveurl = https://archive.today/20130626180525/http://athletics.seattleu.edu/artsci/ethnobotanical/Default.aspx?id=15862 |archivedate = 2013-06-26 }} —Martha George, in the video documentary Come Forth Laughing ::
References
::callout[type=info title="Wikipedia Source"] This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page. ::