This area lies within the traditional territory of the Snohomish and of the Snoqualmie, Skykomish, and other allied Salish-speaking Indigenous peoples who lived along the shoreline of Puget Sound and throughout the Snohomish and Stillaguamish watersheds. Their territory extended from the Cascade crest to the mouths of the Snohomish and Stillaguamish Rivers and included Possession Sound, Port Gardner, southern Whidbey Island, much of Camano Island, Saratoga Passage, Port Susan, and Tulalip Bay, called dxwlilap in Salish or Lushootseed, meaning "far to the end." Today these tribes make up the Tulalip Tribes, who reserved the Tulalip Reservation north of Everett as a permanent homeland, and their usual and accustomed fishing grounds extend across large areas of the Salish Sea from Seattle to the Canadian border. The Coast Salish people have thrived on the lands around Puget Sound since time immemorial, supported by a mild year-round climate and abundant fish, shellfish, game, berries, roots, and cedar. In summer, families left permanent villages to fish, hunt, and gather, living in temporary mat houses, while in winter families and extended families lived together in cedar longhouses one hundred to two hundred feet long that served as places of learning, gathering, storytelling, ceremonies such as the winter potlatch, and the making of basketry and weaving. Decades after their encounter with Captain George Vancouver in the summer of 1792, these cyclical lifeways began to change. Archaeological evidence records encampments around Puget Sound dating back 10,000 to 12,000 years to the end of the Pleistocene glaciation period, and Native encampments at Mukilteo date back at least 1,000 years. An expansive shell midden shows intensive use of this culturally important site for many centuries, and the Lushootseed name Mukilteo, Bək'wəttiwʔ, is said to mean either "Goose neck," referring to the spit formation, or "Good Camping Ground," reflecting its prominence, relatively flat shoreline, and access to two freshwater streams.